I agree that the rules seem completely made up, but I think the most interesting thing in the article is that it makes it clear that there's a lot of Amish geek

I agree that the rules seem completely made up, but I think the most interesting thing in the article is that it makes it clear that there's a lot of Amish geeks, and these people are very curious, like all human beings. The geeks are really drawn to technology, and they find ways to implement more and more technology, despite the byzantine rules. If they end up switching more to solar (which the article hints at), it will probably help them be more self-sufficient. Even though they have their own convoluted process for approving technologies or not, they will probably converge towards the more efficient and cost effective solution, just much slower.