Peak Oil Hits the Amish (Continued)

Amish Country, May 2012

Jacob had promised Josiah that he would do his best, but nobody realized either how difficult it would be to get power from the sun or --having set up a magnificent solar array-- what the consequences would be. They would be good and bad.

To understand part of the problem, you must understand the Amish approach to technology in general. They evaluate every technology choice based on its affect on the community – the Amish community. They deliberately pick and choose technologies to maintain the special nature of their community. And that approach is inward-looking.

They struggled with choices when it came to a public health requirement regarding milk storage – it had to be kept chilled (refrigerated), and had to be stirred automatically. Chilling (and automatic periodic stirring) requires electricity, and they had been averse to running electricity to their barns. Instead, they used diesel generators to create the electricity needed to chill and stir the milk.

Yet even that seemingly odd solution left open the possibility of allowing more technology into their communities. In fact, an Amish bishop –long before the energy emergency—said that “ To make a living, we need to have some things we didn’t have 50 years ago.” So what where the non-cultural barriers to the use of solar power?

For starters, the sheer cost of setting up the vast solar arrays surprised the community. They also had to decide whether to store the energy for a rainy day (or for night use), or to save money by not storing the power at all. Not storing the power meant using the English grid as a battery -- essentially sending excess electricity back to the utility grid. This “ran the meters backwards,” saving money on the electric bill, and was what the community decided to do

The cost itself, to generate power for woodworking and for use in the dairy, was far more than they'd expected, well over $50,000. This had required long hard lobbying --if that is the word-- in the Ordnung by Josiah. By working together --in typical Amish fashion-- the labor costs to set up the arrays were minimal. And before they started, they all realized that the whole community would have to share the cost but would share the power. Neighbors came to use the woodworking equipment, and milk storage tanks had to be tripled in size to accommodate neighboring dairy milk. Still, the system worked, and absent physical damage to the arrays, they should run quietly and as long as the community kept them clean and performed minimal maintenance.

Still, it was an odd looking construction -- black and shiny, definitely high-tech, and didn't exactly blend in with the typical Amish décor.

And then there was the heat. Nobody in the community remembered it ever being this hot, for generations, in the middle of May. Families could tolerate heat inside the barns and homes -- hand fans will always work-- but they were beginning to worry about possible damage to the solar panels themselves. And not only that, but the English were acting strange. The cost of gasoline had risen so high, up to $10/gallon at times, that the Amish didn't get very many gawking tourists anymore, and they didn't worry about vandalism from the English teenagers as much. But there was a certain tension when the English tankers came to pick up the Amish milk, always chilled as it should be, since power outages that the English farmers experienced hadn't ruined any of the Amish milk. Power outages usually occurred during the day when the sun was shining.

Yet the tension was clear. English farms were built on a scale that couldn’t apply solar refrigeration without massive changes to the buildings and land use, the cost would be way beyond English farmer means –especially in the newly depressed economic environment—and the demand for solar equipment in general was so high that just getting the supplies was nearly impossible.

There is generally a natural fellowship between farmers, in good times and in bad, but that friendship was strained as the “oddball Amish” –as some English referred to them—were clearly better positioned for the gathering energy storm. And most farmers have guns. What’s to prevent a stray bullet from hitting some solar panels by mistake? The Amish were no strangers to such outsider violence, and by nature would neither defend against it or repay in kind. But the threat of such violence seemed to be growing, and it was anybody’s guess where it would end up since the economic depression seemed to be worsening with no end in sight.

Peak Oil Hits the Amish

Amish Country, March 2010

I have always had a warm spot in my heart for the Amish. I am a Catholic with strong Franciscan leanings, and one of my favorite images of St. Francis is his rejection of his father's mills and embrace of the humble life. The Amish, without intending so, follow many of the ways of Francis. Here are some short stories about the Amish as they, like the rest of the world, begin to experience the effects of peak oil with ever-increasing world demand for fossil fuels.

I used an excellent article from the IEEE magazine, IEEE Technology and Society, Summer 2007 edition, to learn more about the Amish as background for this post. The article, Amish Technology:Reinforcing Values and Building Community, was written by Jameson Wetmore.

Josiah Glick wondered what the world was coming to. That was a typical question for an Amish farmer. Even though the world energy crisis was affecting Josiah and his Amish community less than it does the outsiders (whom they call the “English”). After all, the technology-skeptic Amish have always moved slowly and consulted their kin before adopting any new technology. Horse buggies insulated the Amish some from the soaring price of gasoline. They decided to accept battery power only with limited use, and bought diesel generators and engines to keep the farm milk cool (or they wouldn’t be able to pass the Pennsylvania state board of health standards). Their circumspect use of modern technologies buffered them somewhat from the vagaries of energy issues in 2010. But only somewhat.

The price of diesel is getting prohibitive for Amish and English alike, making it more costly to produce and deliver milk – especially since Amish farm milk volumes are smaller than those from the large “English” dairies. Sources of both diesel fuel and batteries are also becoming a bit unreliable. Josiah and other members of his extended family were planning to meet soon with the district’s Ordnung council to consider yet another piece of technology that might make them less dependent on diesel supplies: Solar panels or maybe even wind turbines. Adopting solar power would require some unsettling changes, and would be a huge investment, although in some ways the gentle quiet power of the sun is consistent with Amish ways. Wind turbines were similar, a bit more intrusive and definitely noisey, and when Josiah made discrete enquiries, he found that the English orders for wind turbines had been delayed for several years. The suppliers are having to back order their own supplies, partly because European vendors captured suppliers in long-term contracts, and the delays are in years even for large US purchasers.

The energy problem is also affecting his district in ways outside of Amish control. Fencing material deliveries, and other basics, were not arriving when promised. It is very hard to guarantee services to the English when you can’t get the basic materials you need.

Would that diesel and batteries and deliveries and high prices were all Josiah and his community had to cope with. It seems that some English are getting very angry with the scarcities and high prices, whether fuel or foods or virtually anything else. And the English, in Josiah’s view, were a little like a hornet’s nest – best leave it alone and try to work around it. Josiah worried that his district would start experiencing break-ins, shootings, vandalism by the English. After all, the senseless school house shootings several years ago were still fresh in everyone's minds, the Amish equivalent of 9/11.

Still, Josiah and some of his neighbors were convinced that if they were to preserve their peaceful way of life, living off the land and with the sweat of their labor, they would have to do something to preserve their sanctuary and customs.

At the Ordnung, Josiah was surprised how easy it was to get a majority of the elders to agree to a purchase of some sort of energy devices. Thrifty to a fault, they had sufficient funds to purchase whatever Josiah felt would begin to put them on the path of energy independence.

After the meeting, Josiah said to Jacob his son “I know ye aren't done with the rumm-shpringa, running around to taste the English world. But I need your help, and I need it before you choose to return to our Amish world. I have heard from the English that there is this new kind of electric newspaper where you can learn anything ye need to know, and then some. Have ye seen it Jacob?”

Jacob wasn't sure what his father meant, but he guessed: “Do ye mean the Internet, Father?” “I don't know what kind of net it is son, but have ye seen it?” “Yes, Jacob said.” “Well I need ye to find out however you can with this electric newspaper whatever we must do to set up a way to get power from the sun in our community. Can you find that out on the net?”

Jacob replied “I will do my best for ye Father.”

(to be continued)