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.
World first for community tidal scheme
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The world’s first community-owned tidal power turbine in Scotland has started exporting electricity to the local grid, Energy Minister Fergus Ewing revealed today.
Windpower Ownership in Sweden–a Review
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Paul Gipe
Windpower Ownership in Sweden: Business models and motives, the new book by Tore Wizelius helps English-speakers understand how Swedes have taken a sizable ownership of wind energy in spite of their government. In this, his book can serve as an inspiration to community wind advocates worldwide who face many of the same challenges faced in Sweden.
SPP: DECC ponders new community energy-only FiT rate in Britain
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John Parnell
The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) could develop a new feed-in tariff (FiT) rate under plans putout for consultation on Tuesday.
Renewables Interantional: Germany’s biggest community wind farm to open
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Craig Morris
A new wind farm to be opened in southwest Germany in a few weeks shows how much equity German citizens can bring together – and how much borrowed capital they can leverage. Clearly, the EU’s plans for a set-aside for community projects underestimates how big such projects already are.
Renewables International: Ownership & The role of energy co-ops
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Craig Morris
The purpose of today’s energy cooperatives, all of which are for-profit entities, has always been to allow individual citizens to pool their resources and leverage large amounts of capital for the development of projects that citizens otherwise could not undertake as individuals.
Renewables International: The energy transition: a German religious consensus
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Craig Morris
Some thoughts about the role of the church in Germany’s switch to renewables and lower consumption driven by citizens, energy cooperatives, and communities. While energy policy is a divisive issue in other countries across political lines, the Germans have been largely pulling in one direction for nearly two and a half decades.
ReNews: First Nation in tie-up talks
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The developers of several Ontario projects with feed-in tariff contracts are working on partnership deals with a First Nation. . . The Six Nations of Grand River is in negotiation with Longyuan Canada Renewables, Veresen, Boralex and Prowind Canada. Aboriginal equity participation can boost the 13.5 cents/kWh FiT rate by up to 1.5 cents for a 50% ownership stake.
Co-operative wants $1-million solar farm in Sudbury
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Jonathan Migneault
Bob Jeffery, vice-president of the SUN Co-operative board, said the group has made an application with the Ontario Power Authority’s Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) program, which offers small green-power generators a chance to sell power to the provincial grid at a guaranteed rate.
OREP: Oregon Renewable Energy Cooperative Bill Passes
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Mark Pengilly
SB 1520, which passed the Oregon House and Senate with bipartisan support, has been signed into law by Governor Kitzhaber. The bill allows renewable energy cooperative corporations to be created and capitalized without the requirement of securities registration.
GET: The right to make your own energy
By
Craig Morris
The switch from state-run water services to the private sector made the public aware of the difference between the two options, but the possibility of energy democracy is poorly understood outside Germany even among proponents of renewables. Do citizens have the right to make their own energy? Should such a right be made law explicitly?
