The archetypical modern western residential community requires the installation of a complex and extensive infrastructure, prior to actual habitation. Roads, electricity, heat, water, and communication are generally supplied by independent utilities. This system is firmly intertwined with the histories and economies of most of the heavily developed western communities, and cannot easily be replaced in a gainful way.

In highly rural areas, especially those which are greatly removed from establishments of western industrial culture, this kind of inertia is less significant. Here developing communities may find appealing a model which reduces the initial outlay of infrastructure, and does not depend as much on the involvement of powerful foreign industries.

Ethanol, as an energy transport medium, has some very appealing properties. It burns cleanly, compared to many other petroleum products. It is easier and safer to transport than methane, and unlike methane, ethanol vapor has a strong, distinctive odor, requiring no additives. It is less toxic than methanol. It can be utilized in many ways as a fuel, providing heat in open combustion, mechanical energy in an ICA, or electricity in a fuel cell. It can also be applied in various other ways, such as in evaporative cooling, or as a solvent. Most importantly, it can be produced using methods which are already known and practiced in most rural areas.

There is another property of ethanol that makes it interesting in this application; in the early stages of the production of ethanol from an agricultural base, it is naturally dissolved in water. Distillation is required to separate the ethanol and water.

Rather than the elaborate conversion and regression of material and energy which is accepted in modern western societies, this crude mix of water and ethyl alcohol can be piped from centers of agricultural production to local distillation plants.

Where paved roads are being laid, pipes can also be run. More remote locations can have material piped or trucked to them.

Dense residential areas might employ a large, centralized facility to separate alcohol and water. This facility would then, in a more traditional manner, run separate lines for water, ethanol, and electricity to the homes near it.

Isolated or widely dispersed homes would have independent processing facilities, which they would be able to set up to meet their needs in the most efficient manner (i.e. producing the appropriate ratios of water, electricity, and alcohol stores)

Each processing unit would have separate stores for water and alcohol; when the capacity of one of these is exceeded, the overflow is injected back into the line. The line end, which may be the originating plant, will measure the dilution and pre-distribution processing can be adjusted accordingly.

In this manner a single system can provide water, electricity, heat, cooling, and automotive fuel. Most, if not all, of the system can be established and maintained using a developing nation’s existing resources.