Rich Simon

In 1976 Rich moved to Maine from New Jersey.  “That was the height of the back to the land movement.”  He bought sixty acres in Monroe, one mile off the grid, where he built a cabin for himself with trees from the property.  “I felt truly empowered to ‘live the good life.’  I was growing crops and installed my first off grid PV system.” Rich drove to Maryland to the Solarex factory to buy his panels. “They were used and had holes in them, I think they came from a military installation, but they worked and were cheap.  I also got these beautiful glass case batteries from a scrap yard in Bangor which came from a telephone power station.”

Like most of the other “back to the landers” Rich felt it was too difficult to be self sufficient and evolved  back into the mainstream.  He built a home in Washington Maine and started a hardwood lumber business that he has operated for the last twenty years.  In 1999 he installed a solar grid tie at his home in Washington.  “Back in the 80’s the Maine PUC made an agreement with power utilities for net energy billing.  I thought, what a great deal you can use the grid as a battery bank and sell the power that you overproduce.”