The world’s first off-grid village, capable of producing its own energy, water and food, is set to be erected in Almere, the Netherlands, as early as this summer. ReGen Villages, in partnership with Danish architecture firm Effekt, will help address a number of the world’s pressing issues; the rising population, climate change and limited resources.
By 2050, nearly 10 billion people will live on Earth. As a result, regenerative housing and community development that can provide clean water, healthy food sources, waste removal and scarce arable land will be needed, in order to sustain the human population.
“We’re really looking at a global scale,” says ReGen CEO, James Ehrlich, referring to it as the ‘Tesla of eco-villages’.
The off-grid villages will feature a number of greenhouses that would allow residents to grow food and recycle waste. Some of the greenhouses will feature high-tech vertical farms and indoor vegetable gardens. A number of outdoor seasonal gardens will also be integrated into the village.
Resident waste will be recycled and used to feed livestock and soldier flies – a sustainable source of food for the fish – while the fish waste will be used to fertilize an aquaculture system, which in turn feeds the indoor garden plants. Finally, livestock waste will fertilize the outdoor seasonal gardens. Ehrlich says:
We are redefining residential real-estate development by creating these regenerative neighbourhoods, looking at first these greenfield pieces of farmland where we can produce more organic food, more clean water, more clean energy, and mitigate more waste than if we just left that land to grow organic food or do permaculture there.
According to RenGen’s calculations, over the course of the year, these high-tech farming systems will be able to produce well over 10 times the amount of crops, using the same space but with 90% less water.
We anticipate literally tons of abundant organic food every year — from vegetables, fruit, nuts, legumes, fish, eggs, chicken, small animal dairy and protein — that can continually grow and yield in the vertical garden systems all year long.
Solar panels and other sustainable energy solutions will be utilized to provide residents with 24/7 energy and hot water. In order to maintain these systems, families within the community will need to maintain the village’s ecosystem. Operating a greenhouse, maintaining the solar panels and tending the livestock are but a few of the responsibilities families will need to assume.
A total of 100 pilot homes will be built in Almere, Netherlands, later this year. If the project proves to be successful, the ReGen hopes to launch a number of other pilot villages in countries like Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany, China, the UAE and potentially the African continent.
Founder of ReGen Villages and Tech entrepreneur, James Ehrlich, spent years designing video games and imagining worlds that make sense. Spurred by the alarming statistics on climate change and the uncertainty of his own son’s future, he went about marrying the worlds of technology with organic, sustainable living to develop the first community in Almere, about 25 minutes east of Amsterdam.
The village in Almere will prove that it can produce more clean water, food, and energy on this certified organic farmland, whilst also housing hundreds of people, than if it were simply kept for farming. But what really sets these eco-villages apart is the interwoven technology which will give the villages the capacity for information feedback, allowing each community to further learn and improve from each other.
Living tucked in ReGen village you are safe, you are resilient, you are regenerative. This is the way forward for neighbourhoods, so that in the future, we can look into my son’s eyes, and to your children and your grandchildren’s eyes and know that where we are right now in this critical time in history, they will live in the knowledge that we did this now; and that we did this together.