News & Articles on Community Power
Developing renewable energy on the scale needed to make the energy transition will require public acceptance. Unlike nuclear power, where society can force a single plant on a community for the benefit of society at large, renewable energy will have to become ubiquitous in our communities and on our landscapes. This can only be possible when the majority accept this transformation. Experience has taught that acceptance is greatest when neighbors and the community at large can participate in the renewable energy revolution. The beauty of renewable energy is that everyone can take part–and own a stake in their future–when given an opportunity to do so. The challenge is creating the policies that make this possible, whether it’s for a community wind project or a solar garden.
Feasta: Community energy in Ireland
By
Erik Jan Van Oosten
Secondly there is the local vision which aims at small, localized, empowerment driven generation of renewable energy. Local ownership and control are seen as preferable to absentee corporate ownership. Additional advantages of community or local ownership are raised awareness which has proven to result in reduced energy consumption and an increase in local jobs helping the revitalization of villages.
Creating Local Energy Economies: Lessons from Germany [for Great Britain]
By
There is an evident movement in Germany, not toward re-nationalisation or even re-municipalisation, but toward a much more constructive, locally-governed infrastructure, which can enable community participation and ensure transparency, efficiency and the betterment of their neighbourhoods. This is a movement that reaches far beyond the community ownership of generation and municipal governance of public services toward a much more holistic and embedded approach to the very composition of the energy market.
Asahi Shimbun: 80% of Japanese municipalities eager to promote renewable energy
By
“The popularization of renewable energy has increasingly allowed local municipalities to produce electricity on their own,” said Tetsunari Iida, director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies. . . Iida said the development of renewable energies is a move away from the “colony model” of energy consumption, in which local communities depend on outside energy producers. . . “It is important for local communities to develop energy sources by their own initiatives and circulate the benefits within their communities,” he said.
Italian Group to Launch Crowd-Funding Campaign for Community Wind in Puglia
By
Patrizia Mastroleo
On 23 July, a group will gather in Castellana Grotte (Puglia) to launch a crowd-funding campaign to raise money for the first community-owned wind project in southeastern Italy.
Renewables International: How Germany’s new renewables policy will affect wind power financing
By
Craig Morris
Germany’s leading economics institute DIW has published a 36-page report in English on how the amendments to the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) will impact the cost of capital for wind power investors. They find that greater risks will increase the cost of borrowed capital – thereby making this aspect of the transition more expensive.
Renewables International: The chilling effect on energy co-ops of new German policy
By
Craig Morris
The DGRV, the umbrella organization for German energy cooperatives, has taken a survey of its members and found that a third of them have given up future investments.
WindShare: a stellar investment, a gallant icon
By
Stewart Russell
So when I see the WindShare turbine — whether fleetingly, from a GO train, or at extreme length when stuck on the terminally gridlocked Gardiner Expressway — it still makes me smile. We built an icon. We built careers then unknown to the province. We built hope. And from that, the return on satisfaction is better than any deal you can get on Bay St.
One cheer for the UK Government’s community energy strategy
By
Dave Toke
The Government has launched a discussion document aimed at ensuring that local people have the opportunity to gain shares or income from renewable energy developments, but in typically British centralising fashion it is ironic that this discussion seems to focussed on what the electricity majors want or are prepared to allow.
Radio-Canada: La coopérative Val-Éo semble avoir le vent dans les voiles
By
La coopérative aimerait pouvoir actionner ses éoliennes en décembre 2015. Déjà, 1,2 million de dollars ont été investis en capitaux locaux.
Citizen Ownership Remains Foundation of German Renewable Energy Explosion
By
John Farrell
placeholderI’ve been posting updates on local ownership of renewable energy in Germany since early 2011, and it’s abundantly clear that the Germans have yet to back down from their commitment to democratic, locally owned power.
