People often ask how this off-grid community makes its own power.
Each household has their own system for generating energy. There is no shared grid. Rather, residents rely on gas generators to power their homes and infrastructure. Most properties are also equipped with solar panels. The school, Govardhana Academy uses a micro-hydro system.
Vedic Eco Village also relies on hydro power in the winter months and solar throughout the year. The project is aspiring to be petrol free.
Srila Prabhupada spoke often about the ugra karma involved in making electricity:
"The Western civilization is a nasty civilization, artificially increasing the necessities of life. For example, take the electric light. The electric light requires a generator, and to run the generator you need petroleum. As soon as the petroleum supply is stopped, everything will stop. But to get petroleum you have to painstakingly search it out and bore deep into the earth, sometimes in the middle of the ocean. This is ugra-karma, horrible work. The same purpose can be served by growing some castor seeds, pressing out the oil, and putting the oil into a pot with a wick. We admit that you have improved the lighting system with electricity, but to improve from the castor-oil lamp to the electric lamp you have to work very hard. You have to go to the middle of the ocean and drill and then draw out the petroleum, and in this way the real goal of your life is missed. You are in a precarious position, constantly dying and taking birth in various species of life. How to get free of this cycle of birth and death — this is your problem. And this problem is meant to be solved in the human life. You have advanced intelligence for self-realization, but instead of using your advanced intelligence for self-realization, you are utilizing it to improve from the castor-oil lamp to the electric lamp. That’s all."
