Becoming 100% energy independent is hard enough for one householder let alone an entire village. But when it comes to tackling tough engineering challenges, you’d never bet against the Germans. It comes as no great surprise then that a Germany village, Jühnde, this month plans to take itself entirely off the national grid. After investing in a biogas facility, a heating system and a hot water pipe, the villagers will be able to use a combination of manure, silage and wood chips to create all the heat and electricity they need. Any surplus they plan to sell off to the local electricity company.

Reynolds, Indiana is located 15 miles from 150 000 pigs. That’s one heck of a lot of muck and one heck of a lot of methane.

Germans are tops

Germany is a world leader in renewable energy, producing 200 times as much solar energy as Britain. It also generates 12% of its electricity from various renewable sources, compared with 4.6% in Britain and 2% in the United States. But the Germans aren’t the only ones unlocking themselves from the grid, and they aren’t the first either. Here are three other places worth visiting if you want to see how communities can go it alone.

The windy island

In 1997, the Danish Island of Samsø was entirely dependent on oil and coal, both of which it imported from the mainland. Then it won a government competition to become a model renewable energy community. Now, every single islander owns a wind turbine, they burn straw in a central heating system and power their cars on biofuel they grow themselves. As a result of their efforts the nearly 4300 odd villagers are now part of the world’s largest carbon-neutral settlement.

Poo power

You wouldn’t expect to find an off grid town in a country that guzzles more energy than any other, but in 2005, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels declared that Reynolds, Indiana (pop.547) would henceforth be known as BioTown. His lofty goals were to showcase efficient methods of converting biomass into energy and use bioenergy to fuel the town. Fortunately, Reynolds is ideally situated 15 miles from 150 000 pigs. That’s one heck of a lot of muck and one heck of a lot of methane. Four years later, the project is still a work in progress, but nearly 100 of the community’s residents have begun driving cars that can run on ethanol-based fuel.

Water works

Tsuru, a small town of about 35 000, has taken yet another route to energy independence. What the town lacks in wind and pigs, it makes up for in ingenuity. In 2001 the town council decided it wanted to reduce CO2 emissions and began green purchasing to reduce local energy consumption. They also decided to make use of the resources at hand and started to promote micro-hydro, small-scale waterpower by building a small wooden hydroelectric power plant outside the town hall.

Although these four towns have four very different approaches to saving energy, one thing they all have in common is making the most of the world around them. Maybe that’s a lesson we can all learn.

Destinations: Denmark, Germany, Japan, USA