How Scotland is leading the way in living without mains power, water or sewerage

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Living "off-grid" - without mains electricity, water or sewerage - might sound like hell to a pampered city dweller, but it is a lifestyle that is attracting massive numbers of devotees, with many influenced by the example set by Scots.

Nick Rosen, a writer who travelled the UK in a camper van powered by vegetable oil to chronicle the lives of people living off the grid, has claimed that Scotland is a pioneer of the lifestyle.

Rosen released How To Live Off-grid: Journeys Outside The System, last week. It is the Domesday Book of a burgeoning subculture, documenting the bewildering mix of visionaries and eccentrics who have made the decision to become self-sufficient.
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What he found were people living in traditional yurts, sailing the canals in boats or living in eco-friendly palaces with every modern comfort but none of the pollution or carbon emissions.

Around 100,000 people in the UK are thought to be living off-grid, with a possible 5000 in Scotland, although accurate figures are extremely difficult to come by.

Rosen said: "In Scotland, I came across the most successful off-grid community, in Scoraig south of Ullapool in Ross and Cromarty and the most beautiful house, near Skye.

"There is a spirit of independence that's quite special and there are also the crofting laws, so that whereas the property laws elsewhere conspire against living off-grid, it's true to say they're less destructive of that kind of life in Scotland."

Advocates of the lifestyle do not have to shun electricity altogether, but use small hydroelectric power systems, solar panels or windmills to generate it, meaning that many off-grid communities can still be high-tech, with fast internet connections and sockets for iPods. Private needs are met by composting toilets, while low-emission wood burning heaters warm up the water. There are even solar-powered kitchen scales on sale for the ecologically-minded epicure.

First embraced by hippies, off-grid homes are now built by a vast range of people, encompassing eco-warriors, hermits and even those who have been priced out of the housing market.

When Alun Bush, the founder of the off-grid community in Scoraig, arrived in the area in the late 1960s, he shared the land with two vegetarians from Kent and a couple of farmers. Since he moved in and placed a newspaper advertisement calling for residents, the settlement has grown to around 80 people.

The isolated hamlet sits on land owned by Lady Jane Rice, the estranged spouse of Sir Tim Rice, the famed lyricist who has written for many West End musicals and Disney films. It can only be reached by foot or boat. All the houses generate their own power and collect their own water.

Bush said: "I was here as a crofter, and there were crofters here before me, then the hippies started turning up, and here we are. I was told I was a romantic. Thick is another way of putting it, I would suggest."

His intention was not to live ecologically, merely to follow the rural lifestyle that he had been accustomed to, after being brought up in a remote area of Wales.

Latter day off-gridders are mostly inspired by ecological concerns. Environmentalists are broadly in favour of the lifestyle, providing off-grid doesn't require the use of a polluting generators.

Stuart Hay, head of research at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: "We're supportive of non-centralised power, people generating their own electricity from renewable sources where the extreme is being independent from the grid.

"It's of limited application and not for everyone, but good on anyone that does it as long as they're using the right technology to use it and not just using diesel generators."

Deciding to build an off-grid house does attract certain perks - such as grants of up to 30% to pay for solar panels - but people who want to live the lifestyle still need to abide by planning regulations.

One off-gridder, Steve James, is being evicted by his landlord after his £4000 house fell foul of local planning laws. He moved into the off-grid world for one reason: "Independence."

But, of his impending eviction, he added: "It's proof that you can't live without someone noticing you."

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