After 18 months of planning and construction, EcoVillage at Ithaca completed a solar panel array in December that will provide a majority of the community’s electrical power.

They are not hippie communes. They are not even about “living off the grid.” Largely unknown and misinterpreted, ecovillages are communities striving to “integrate a supportive social environment with a low impact way of life” according to the Global Ecovillage Network.