Bio Town, USA = Reynolds, Indiana -- If you are looking for a place to put down roots and live a renewable lifestyle ... this might be your town. (current population 547 or so)

The purpose of BioTown is to create a model community that is energy self-sufficient. BioTown will create a cleaner environment, develop new markets and enhance value for Indiana waste products while producing its own energy.

"Our goal is to make Indiana a leader in the future of agriculture, and to do that, we must be progressive in advancing new uses for our products and finding more environmentally-friendly ways to dispose of our byproducts," said Indiana Agriculture Director Andy Miller. "In our efforts to grow our livestock industry, we will not ignore our responsibility to the environment. Therefore, it is our goal to recycle manure and other waste products into useful inputs, and energy production is a good example."

BioTown will:

• Showcase efficient methods to convert biomass into energy,
• Encourage the use of biodiesel and ethanol,
• Use bioenergy to fuel homes and businesses throughout the town,
• Promote alternative energies across the United States,
• Educate Hoosiers and people across the United States about alternative and renewable energy, and
• Prove that agricultural energy is safe, reliable, and consistent.

 

Nice idea. There are lots of Amish around here that seem to have the whole "ecologic symbiosis" thing figured out. Admittedly, they're technologically averse, but I still find their lifestyle admirable.

From doing a little digging, it appears the main problem is that they thought "alternative fuels" meant solely ethanol.  Worse, corn-based ethanol.

...and then the supply side of ethanol production got devastated by too little supply and too high a price for what supply there was (corn has gone from ~$2 US to ~$6 US in one year.  Soy has had similar scale price increases.)

The solution is for them to stop being so fixated on ethanol and corn based solutions.

They need to do a geographical analysis to figure out what niche alternative energy sources are best suited to their town.  They also need to objectively evaluate what role solar can play for them.  In particular, there is a house in NJ they should look very closely at.  ~$50K per house would allow them to have a community where every house is nigh unto 100% self suffcient energy wise.

Then they need to punt ethanol in favor of more effective and more efficient fuel solutions.  All that corn and all those bails of corn stover can be more effectively useful in just about any other capacity other than as fuel sources. 

Instead of growing corn for fuel they should grow a more efficient oil crop like rapeseed.

Oh, and someone has been feeding them a line of BS about them not being able to take themselves off the grid if they want.  AFAIK, there is no law that requires any municipality to get their E from a big commercial producer.  Nor is there a law that they must sell excess E they produce back to said big E company.

If a town wants to produce their own E for strictly their own use, they have every right to do so.  Ditto storing excess E produced.  In NE, there are a number of towns that have their own muni EPG that do exactly these things.