Who Knew: The Amish Love that Fancy Solar Technology
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 06. 2.07
You gotta hand it to the Amish: though they have yet to adopt modern conveniences like cars and electricity, they are way ahead of the curve when it comes to that new-fangled solar technology. Holmes County, Ohio, which is known for having the world's largest Amish population, is already a hot bed of solar power: an estimated 80% of Amish families have embraced the use of photovoltaic panels.
Solar power has become the de facto replacement for electricity in appliances that run the gamut from sewing machines to light batteries on their horse-drawn buggies. The Amish primarily decided to adopt solar technology for both safety concerns (gas lamps = fire hazard) and out of legal requirements (the law requires the presence of electric lights on horse-drawn buggies). It also allows them to continue living in isolation from the rest of American society by staying unplugged.
Until now, the Amish had relied on a mix of diesel generators and windmills to power their conventional utilities and appliances. The advent of photovoltaic panels provided a cheaper and more efficient alternative. In an interesting twist, modernist, environmentally-conscious advocacy groups like Green Energy Ohio have even begun turning to the Amish solar model for innovative alternative energy solutions.
"The Amish appear to have skipped the 20th century in a sense," said Bill Spratley, the executive director of Green Energy Ohio. "They are using technology most of us consider advanced -- and they're considered the plain people! I think we can always learn something from people who may not have all the high technology we're inundated with. It certainly shows energy independence can be done, and done in this climate."
While some more traditionalist Amish families refuse to use it, many have become avid solar energy adherents, arguing that it fits into their self-sufficiency model of life: it's cheap, convenient, safe and doesn't spew fumes. "There's so much free sun and free air, and if we could harness it, we wouldn't need any more power plants," said Andrew Hertzler, an Amish farmer selling flowers and plants and solar user.
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The Amish in our area (eastern Iowa) are beginning to use the big, three-paddle wind chargers, a more modern version of windmills. Also use many gas powered items such as for cooking stoves, frigs, freezers, to run ceiling fans, etc., etc. Also use older gasoline/diesel tractors for faraming that have steel wheels--no rubber tires. If they want to travel somewhere by car, they rent a van and driver. Also take trips out west by Amtrack. They aren't so different from us. They just want to stay off the power grid and be independent. We had a four-five day electric outage last winter because of storms. The Amish were having great fun living their lives as usual and joking about how the "English" were without. Good people.
They also love LED lights on their wagons and buggies. The key to understanding their philosophy on this is connectedness. They my not be directly connected to non-Amish. Hence, by some readings of the rules, lland line phones are forbidden, but wireless are OK.
The more I see the mainstream population of this country fall deeper in deeper into ignorance and our media doing the best job they can in copying Hitler's propaganda machine --and who are also responsible for the misinformation on the rest of this society in regards to this sad addiction to oil-- these quiet people said to themselves a long time ago:" We're gonna stay out of this!"
Bravo and again bravo for being smart at the same time in adopting green technology - after all, they show us the way!
I have to be grateful though that they can live freely in this country, without being forced to adapt, because if this were no the U.S. but, say, China, they would either be assimilated, exiled or dead.
You go, Amish people!
We were able to take a tour of a small Amish school in Ohio and they had a little old fax/copier/scanner powered from an inverter and deep cycle battery charged by a solar panel on the roof. The teacher would make copies of papers for the students to use with it and the buggies all had LED lights with a small battery and solar panel on the roof to charge it.
Most amish communities now allow tractors for work so I think the next step they need to take is start learning how to product bio diesel so help keep their independance.
While the popular imagination thinks of the Amish as old-fashioned and isolated, they are a very practical people. This practicality can result in decisions that appear to be in opposition to their image.
A case-in-point is the possible use of gene therapy to treat Crigler-Najjar syndrome, a genetic liver disorder.
http://it.geocities.com/criglernajjar/FromNYT.htm
You would be amazed at some of the environmentally advanced tech products they sell at Lehman's, an Amish mail-order company.