Most post-industrial economies are dependent on services. If you live off the grid, you remove yourself from the system and the basics of modern life. It might be feasible as an experiment if smaller clusters with a mix of professions gather and function in isolation under an informal economy but that's unlikely to work for long.

For one family or person with some weird beliefs and money to blow, sure. They can build some picturesque hut somewhere, drive or fly there each weekend and feel good about being better than the other poor plebeians; or in a brighter picture, buy land and live off a farm that generates money from outside capitalistic ventures. But once people amass, it'll resemble a typical suburban town since they'll demand infrastructure and basic services like gas, water, waste disposal, and likely more power requirements. Rich people aren't going to live and not have all the convenience of modern life and moving poor people out has its own set of obvious problems. Forget the vocal voluntary minority.

Local grids make more sense. Communities and buildings that don't depend on the aging national grid and can enforce/monitor themselves make much more sense than spreading out from people in a bout of paranoia.

you bring up some good points regarding the necessity of modern day services.. let me tailor my question as 'off-the-grid' may be a bit too dramatic for what i was trying to get at.

zoom in to the scale of a single building.

self-sustaining, passive houses and buildings, that coexist with the grid, rather than being reliant on it. 

^^^ i view these concepts as business opportunities; to take advantage of a housing culture in which heating, cooling, and electrical bills are both financially burdensome, and environmentally damaging. 

with that being said, is there a demand for such services? i'm not saying people would be kicking down the door of a firm that specializes in self-sustaining buildings, but i can't help but think of all the potential opportunity that lies in such services. All I hear about in the culture of this field is pessimistic talk how there's no jobs and money in architecture.. I mean, I'm not really in it for the money, but this seems like a good niche in the profession to become a part of, where there might be an emerging demand for this type of service (this is where you come in, so kindly correct me if i'm wrong)

-Matt

It's nothing new if you were hoping for some emerging market breakthrough. Why do more people install solar panels and change out their old windows? It's basically what LEED and green design and all that has been selling at the point when energy concerns became household topics and very real.

The previous generation already grabbed hold of the easy green design work. Think of what is to come next, after these buildings are self-sustaining and independent.

Good posts Bug’s – there is a lot of interest out there from the general public on these things, but people don’t pull the trigger or really want these things. Went to our community “Showcase of Homes” this past summer and they are still building houses the way they did 50 years ago – all still have 2X4 exterior walls – got friendly with one of the builders and asked him why – he said he’d love to do it right but said it would be suicide, “people don’t want different and if it’s different they won’t buy it, no matter how good it is”.

Domestic solar power generation is usually capped to protect utility companies. Varies by locality, but here you can only generate 10kw. Any excess - power generated but not used - flows back into the grid and is discounted from your bill, but you don't get paid anything for power input beyond that. Water and sewer grids are often mandated and inescapable. 

You don't need a grid for any of these things and not having one reduces the level of consumption dramatically. This of course is anathema to just about every political and corporate power system. 

There was a law here that prevented people from hanging laundry in their front yards. In FL a woman was prohibited from having a vegetable garden. 

I think demand for these has grown as of late

I know it's a necro thread but it's an interesting topic to me. I have an off-grid project coming up and have been thinking about making it more of a focus; it dovetails with my interest in high performance homes and sustainable living, though the client who would pay my fees would likely be wealthy people looking for a self-sufficient compound. I'm not sure how big that market is though.