Community Wind & Wind Energy and the Environment

Coop & Community Wind

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Coop & Community Wind

Leominster Community Solar Co-Operative (LCSC) Cancels Second Project--A rural Herefordshire solar cooperative is one of just a handful across the UK that managed to successfully install a 49kwp solar PV system before the Government's snap Feed In Tariff review came into force. . .
Guardian: The communities taking renewable energy into their own hands--Despite the economy, people are investing in solar, wind and hydro power for their local communities . . .
Co-operative renewable energy in the UK: a guide to this growing sector--Co-operatively-owned energy generation is a vibrant and growing sector in the UK. The first co-operatively-owned wind turbines, Baywind in Cumbria, started turning in 1997. Since then, over 7,000 individual investors have ploughed over £16 million into community-owned renewable energy. . .
The End of One Danish Windmill Co-operative By: Jane Kruse, Former Chairman of the Hornstrup Mark Windmill Cooperative . . .
"Citizen Power" Conference to be held in Historic Chamber Where World's First Feed-in Law Was Enacted--Germany, a country where 51% of the renewable energy generation is owned by its own citizens, will be hosting an international conference on community power 3-5 July, 2012 in Bonn, the former capital. The conference will be held in the historic chamber where the world's first feed-in law was enacted, the former home of the Bundestag, Germany's parliament. . .
CAW leads renewable energy sector with Ontario’s first union-owned wind project--Ontario’s first 100% union-owned wind energy project breaks ground November 29, 2011, led by the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union. Located at their Family Education Centre in Port Elgin, the single 500 kW wind turbine will generate 1600 MWh of renewable energy annually for the Ontario grid, powering the equivalent of 130 homes. . .
Great Britain: The Benefits of Microgeneration and the Feed-in Tariff--The report reviews the evidence of the first 20 months of the government’s Feed-in Tariff scheme to support small scale renewable energy. It concludes that the scheme has shown a huge appetite to move from relying on centralised energy production to producing energy locally for our own use. There are over 900 active community energy groups and more than 2,000 jobs have been created in solar energy in the south west alone. . .
This is Money: How Community Energy Projects Pay Healthy Divdends in the UK--Profits from thin air: District nurse Kate MacCallum, left, and Ann Kirby of REL, the community-owned company that runs 'Tilley', Tiree's wind turbine. . .
Jerusalem Post: Cooperative Wind Plants in the Golan Heights to use Feed-in Tariffs--One of the main problem in the past was that there was no feed-in tariff,” Yavetz said. “Now the policy is there and we hope the regulations will be published.”. . “We gave the settlements the option to hold up to 39 percent of the equity of all the ventures eventually,” he said. . .
Australian Community-owned wind plant powers up--With profits to be made from the provision of renewable electricity, an increasing number of savvy community groups around the world are pooling their resources to get in on the action. . .
Local Acceptance of Wind Energy: a Case Study from Southern Germany by Fabian David Musall and Onno Kuik--The results of the survey clearly show that a significant difference in the local acceptance exists between the two cases. The residents of Zschadraß, where a community co-ownership model exists, are consistently more positive towards local renewable energy as well as renewable energy in general than the residents of Nossen where a private supplier model is used. The attitudes of the participants in Zschadraß are clearly more positive towards an increased use of local wind energy as well as an increasing utilization of wind energy in Germany. . .
Brewery to host UK’s first community-owned power station--If the installation is completed by August 1st this year, all the power generated will qualify for the top rate feed-in tariff 3 of 34p per kilowatt hour, ensuring returns to investors of 4% per annum over the 25 years of the scheme. . .
Powerful – Energy for Everyone--Green economy educator David Chernushenko isn’t quite ready to head for the hills, but he has taken the extra special step of installing solar panels to off-set some of the energy consumed by his family home. Now, if he could just be allowed to feed some of that energy back into the grid, perhaps others could do the same. But we’re not there yet and David wants to know what we can do about it. From the far side of the ocean to his own backyard, he’ll embark on a global journey to examine the alternatives to the conventional energy system and experience the critical resistance being met along the way. . .
Australian Community Wind Project Underway--Construction is well underway on Australia's first community-owned wind farm. The two turbines on Leonards Hill, 10 km south of Daylesford, Victoria, are expected to be operational in the first half of 2011. . .
Community Power Report Calls for FITs in California--In a new 61-page report, San Francisco Bay area activists call for developing the distributed generation of renewable energy in California through a system of feed-in tariffs. . .
Growing a Green Economy for All--A Review by Al Weinrub--A recent report from the Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland, called Growing a Green Economy for All: From Green Jobs to Green Ownership, has a host of information about initiatives to build public,cooperative, and collective ownership of clean energy enterprise. . .
French Community Solar with Feed-in Tariffs--Énergie renouvelable citoyenne 2010 . . .
Presentation by Paul Gipe: OSEA Community Power 101, November 14, 2010
Reuters: Medieval Italian town blows hot on wind power--"Using renewable energy sources, we manage not only to preserve the environment but also to produce more energy than we need, therefore freeing up earnings and funds which become available for our administrative activities and services" said mayor Riziero Zaccagnini. . .
New Regulations Encourage Community-Based Renewable Projects in Nova Scotia--The new regulations enable the province to increase the amount of renewable electricity produced in communities across Nova Scotia, to help government achieve the goals it set in the province's new Renewable Electricity Plan. . .
New Brunswick Community Wind Projects Getting to the Tipping Point--August 10, 2010 report by New Brunswick Department of Energy on a proposed community wind project. . .
German Renewable Energy Experience Offers Lessons for U.S. Farmers--The report also calls on rural communities to develop strong stakeholder networks, noting that German farms have a network of actors, such as community members and cooperatives, that have helped make them successful “energy farmers.” . .
Energy Democracy: Community-Scale Green Energy Solutions--Calls for support of Feed-in Tariffs to democratize electricity supply. . .
NREL: Economic Development Impacts of Community Wind Projects: A April 2009 Review and Empirical Evaluation by E. Lantz and S. Tegen, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Status of Social Economy Provision of Wind Electric Energy in Alberta by Julie MacArthur
Presentation by Paul Gipe for Comité de Liaison Energie Renouvelables, Paris, May 7, 2010: Small Wind in North America, the Good, the Bad, the Ugly; Real Urban Wind & the Community Power Revolution
Lessons & Concepts for Advancing Community Wind by the Minnesota Project, December, 2009
Economic Development Impacts of Community Wind Projects: A April 2009 Review and Empirical Evaluation NREL/CP-500-45555
Wind of Change: Enabling Power to the People by Carolyn Jack, Geniocity
Tax Reform and Community Based Renewable Energy by John Farrell, ILSR--The federal tax credits for renewable energy have been a major barrier to widespread ownership of renewable energy. The production tax credit, for example, can only be taken against passive income, a type of income that very few of us actually earn. . .
Community Power Empowers by by Stefan Gsänger WWEA (2008)
In Germany, ruddy-cheeked farmers achieve (green) energy independence (Christian Science Monitor, August 21, 2008)
Gipe Receives 2008 World Wind Energy Award
The Island in the Wind: A Danish community’s victory over carbon emissions (Samsø) by Elizabeth Kolbert, the New Yorker (2008)
New Brunswick Community Wind Report and Comments by Paul Gipe
Comments on New Brunswick's Community Wind Initiative by Paul Gipe
Community Wind: Locally owned wind turbines in your community by Greg Pahl (Mothern Earth News June-July 2008)
Advantages of Community Energy Projects by Tam Hunt, Community Environmental Council (Santa Barbara, Calif.)
Co-operative Development in a Competitive World by Russ Christianson
Wind Energy Cooperative Development in Anglophone Canada (March 2007)
The Cost of the Iraq War and the Lost Opportunities for Development of Renewable Energy (1% to 38% of supply)
Reaching Community Wind's Potential by Windustry
Community Wind: A Review of Select State and Federal Policy Incentives by Farmers Legal Action Group
People Power, Danish-style: Why European and American winds blow in opposite directions by NRDC
German Solar PV for free Says Walter Fischer
Freiburg's Solar Siedlung and Plus Energy Houses
Dardesheim: Germany's Renewable Energy City
Paderborn and the Sintfeld Community Wind Project
Renewable Energy Bonds for Energy Independence by Mike Kendall
American Energy Independence through Cooperative Investment in Wind Energy by Mike Kendall
New Association of Wind Cooperatives Forms in Quebec
Brief Summary of World Solar PV Market Stats 2006
Toronto's WindShare Coop
Le Haut des Ailes: France's First Large-Scale Cooperative Wind Plant
Vingesus--Whisper of Wings a Review
Powering Ontario's Communities: OSEA's Report on Advanced Renewable Tariffs for Ontario
Danish Wind Co-ops Can Show Us the Way by Russ Christianson (pdf)
Bürgerbeteiligung (Coop) Windenergiepark Udenhausen-Mariendorf
Farmer Noud de Schutter
Community wind power in Europe and in the UK by David Toke
Explaining wind power planning outcomes: Some findings from a study in England and Wales by David Toke
Wind power in the UK: how planning conditions and financial arrangements affect outcomes by David Toke
Community Wind Power Ownership Schemes in Europe and Their Relevance to the United States by Mark Bolinger; LBNL -48357

2005 Windmill-Wildflower Hike Tehachapi, California

A Survey of State Support for Community Wind Power Development by Mark Bolinger; LBNL
Let the Sun Shine on Ontario's Electricity Bill
Farming the Wind for Electricity
Community Wind:The Third Way
Ontario Canada and Community Wind
Island to Build Scotland's First Community-Owned Wind Farm
Local Investment in Renewable Energy (Predac pdf)
Community Wind: Margam Wind Energy Clusters
Wind Energy for the Rest of US: A Brief Proposal for a New Wind Energy Association in the United States
Financing Distributed Wind Development 1997
Community-Owned Wind Development in Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands