As I lived most of my life in intentional communities, I always enjoy it when I have a good reason to visit one. This year I've had the pleasure of staying at two eco-villages, both of which have a substantial amount of renewable energy activity.

The first was Auroville in India, a planned community of about 2000 people (though they've always planned for many more) with a blend of Tamil's and westerners. I visited people working on building & distributing clean technologies to rural India, including solar; wind; stoves; earth-building and in saw new developments in LED street lighting and ruggedised electric scooters. I particularly appreciated at Auroville the importance of spirituality or connection to the divine without there being any one dogma. {More}

I also spent a few weeks with the Solar Village team at Tamera, a very different community of about 200 people in Portugal, it is much more intense and intellectual, and is researching all kinds of technology for food and energy, with a focus on autonomous communities and developing countries. They will be looking for interns in the spring to work on technologies for communities or developing countries. {More}

I look forward to returning to both of these communities.