Madrid solar community (Santa Fe, Taos, Glorieta: co-op, houses, purchase)

[geos]

Someone mentioned a solar/alt energy community near Madrid, NM (south of Santa Fe). I can't find any additional info. Anyone heard of it?

[BrianH]

Id suggest contacting these guys http://www.madridnewmexico.com/ to find out more.

[ken winston caine]

Quite a few people (a few hundred?) live off the grid on solar power (and some with wind power, also, and many with water catchment instead of wells) in the hills around Cerrillos and Madrid. I'm one.

I'm not aware of any particular "community," per se, but in some ways, we are all part of the same community here.

Many of the unpaved roads running off of Highway 14 are not served by grid electric. Properties along a few of the longer roads, Rogersville, Wild Dog, Cerro Chato (aka Mailbox Road), in particular, are exclusively solar and other alternative energy powered. None of those roads is county maintained. Which makes life interesting.

There IS a local health-food co-op that gets monthly deliveries from Tucson, and a "Breakfast Club" of people who have alternative homes (not necessarily solar powered) that meets monthly on the first Saturday. Perhaps you are thinking of the Breakfast Club?

Hope that helps,
kwc

P.S. I used to own a home six miles up Ojo de la Vaca Road (also near Santa Fe, but on Glorietta Mesa, not in the Madrid area). There were about a dozen homes in a few miles along a private road behind a gate there at the time I sold 12 years ago. The private road is now known as Arroyo Salado and there are quite a few more homes along it. I would think you COULD call that "a solar community." It was intentionally created as such and is bound together by a well-formed road association. The organic Beneficial Farms was one of the first to locate there. Beautiful area. My house there was at 8,000 feet. Colder winters, cooler summers than Madrid area, 15 miles away by air. And much taller trees up there. And Ojo de la Vaca IS county-maintained and the county has made vast improvements to it since I left. It's almost passable by 4x4 nearly every day of the year now.

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[Joey Saint]

Hi Geos, My own search took me there last Oct. Unsure as to if I'm allowed to use a name of agent or agency,but I was able to find such a place just south of Madrid and west off SR14 mostly flat or rolling hills it was very nice. Prices look to be going up. The draw back became two-fold purchase price and second and more important to me was the cost of drilling to hit water. I was told to expect to go down 800-1000 ft. at about 25.00 p/ft. it was more than I could handle. Maybe your search will turn up a different view. I can say that the agent was certainly very informative,and struck me as a very trustworthy individual. Therefore I thanked him and turned my search elsewhere, grateful for his honesty. Best of luck!

[ken winston caine]

That would be the Cerro Chato (Mailbox Road) area.

Closer to Cerrillos, in the Galisteo basin, (2 miles north of Madrd), water is at 300 feet or so. But it's sulfurish from the coal seams.

You really don't need a well here, so long as you have about 1,200 to 2,000 sq. feet of roof area and you practice sensible conservation. Catchment works well.

My first solar home's catchment system was sized for two adults using 6 gallons per day each (including cooking, showering, drinking, dishwashing, etc.). Was not at all hard to get the hang of and worked fine with the 11 inches precipitation per year we get here. We only had 3,500 gallons of storage with that system and that was not enough, since most of the rainfall happens in about a six-week period in the summer and you want to catch every drop of it then. (Plus you get a nice infusion from snow melt in the winter.)

If you run low, there is always water haul in a pinch. Several local haulers will bring you 1,200 to 1,800 gallons of municipal water for $130 or so.

Hope that helps,
kwc
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[nm_photojournalist]

I know there is a "community" similar to what you are looking for up around Taos, but can't think of the name. You might query in the Taos Forum, for more details.

[kimbob]

Some things to be aware of with these off the highway "solar communities". The dirt roads can be horrendus,especially when snow is slowly melting into the road during winter months. Don't expect to keep a new vehicle in new condition very long. You will go through tires and mufflers are like tombstones along side the road. Older subarus hold up well. Not only are wells usually deep, the energy to pump the water from 600 ft is considerable, especially when a generator [noise] is not desireable.There are super efficient pumps available, but quite expensive. Generator noise can be extremely annoying.Some people cannot afford a properly sized solar electric system or they were sold an improperly designed system or their batteries are on the way out, etc. I have a good friend who has lived several miles off of Goldmine rd,Cerrillos, for years. Recently some people bought land across from him, plopped down the doulblewide, had someone slap up an inadequate pv system, energy hog water pump,you name it.These people are suburbanites trying to live off grid, but expect the same wastefull energy use. They even use a standard fridge from best buy....Sooo,The generator runs for hours each day,kicking in on auto start at 4am and other rude times like just as youre going to bed! The generator is a crappy 3600rpm portable sitting in there yard. Everyone closeby is ready to kill them or sell out. What is really sick is they just don't care who they bother.There are no noise ordinances to speak of. So BEWARE, choose your place of solitude carefully.

[HowAmIinABQ]

If you want to check out an awesome community, go up to Taos to experience the Earthship community. We stayed at the Phoenix the other month. Very interesting experience learning about self-sustainable dwellings (wind/solar powered/collecting rain water/etc.)

[Swarshawer]

Another member mentioned the Glorieta Mesa area, Ojo de la Vaca, as a "solar community" and mentioned my farm. Thank you Winston for the mention! The folks on Arroyo Salado Road (off of Ojo de la VAca) do consider themsleves to be a community and in fact nowadays when they sell their houses they advertise themselves as an "off the grid gated community"

My farm, originally called Beneficial Farm, was designed to be a center of community as I have 15 legal homesites and 366 acres total. I have been working to create homesites on the perimeter of the property, with a large, open land, managed according to current best practices for rangeland health and wildlife habitat and available to the adjoining homeonwers for recreation.

Unfortunately I have several neighbors who just plain hate me and have decided to dedicate themsleves to hindering my progress. I am not so excitited about living with that hatred and intolerance any more. So I decided to sell the place and am negotiating with several green developers who can finish the project and also with possible farmers to take over and run the farm.

I am going to be sad to go but I have had 30 great years here, the land is very beautiful, and whoever takes over the project will be able to do make it even better.

As for resources, the farm property has springs on the surface and also 2 wells with 30 gallon p/minute flow at 400 feet. The place is really perfect for 100% of the grid living and community.

Anyway, let me know if you have some interest in visiting or more and I'll be happy to follow up with you. I can refer you to my realtor for details as well.

[GregW]

Check out Lister Diesels for low-tech slow speed bio Diesel back up power.