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.
ReNews: Ireland draws on local power
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Irish energy minister Pat Rabbitte (pictured) has taken the wraps off the Republic’s first community-owned wind farm. The 4.4MW Templederry project in County Tipperary is owned by a co-operative of locals and landowners, including students, farmers and a local priest. It will have an output of about 15GWh a year.
Guardian: Remote Scottish windfarms to receive guaranteed price for their electricity
By
Severin Carrell
Community-owned windfarms on some of Scotland’s remotest islands are likely to gain from a new deal to buy their electricity at a higher price, Ed Davey, the energy and climate secretary, has said.
ResPublica: The Community Renewables Economy: Starting up, scaling up and spinning out
By
Jelte Harnmeijer,matthew Parsons,caroline Julian
ResPublica reveals that community owned energy could grow 89 times its current size if the right national and local policies are put in place. In Germany, community energy accounts for 46% of all energy produced from renewables. In the UK this figure stands at just 0.3%.
Eolico Cooperativo: Corso gratuito della durata di un giorno con Paul Gipe e Francesco Paraggio
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Seminario sulla realizzazione di piccole e medie aziende locali per la produzione di energia tramite impianti eolici la cui proprietà sia diffusa sul territorio. Oggi questa formula, ancora poco diffusa in Italia, è un riferimento nel mercato eolico europeo. In Germania circa il 50% degli impianti è sviluppato da cooperative locali. . . Presso Consorzio Sapori & Sapori, Castellana Grotte (BA) il 29/9/2013 dalle ore 9:30 alle 18:30.
TREC: 2nd Annual Climb Toronto’s Community-Owned Wind Turbine 5-8 October 2013
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Want a fun and challenging experience that your friends haven’t had? Want to be a trailblazer and make a real impact in the fight against climate change? Building on the success of last year’s inaugural event, TREC Education is proud to announce the 2nd annual Climb the Turbine Fundraiser, from October 5th – 8th 2013.
More of Morris on Community Ownership of Renewables in Germany: All Major Political Parties Support
By
Craig Morris
Energy democracy is not just about having your own solar roof . . . Conservative politicians Ingbert Liebing and Josef Göppel also expressed their support. “In northern Frisia, we have more than 90% community wind farms, and that increases local acceptance,” Liebling stated. His southern German colleague Göppel said, “We now have more than 650 energy coops nationwide, and power production has truly become a popular sport in the south.”
Greenpeace: Renewable Energy is the Economic Motor for Communities (auf Deutsch)
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In 2012 17 billion Euros were added to local communities in Germany by wind and solar energy, according to a study for Greenpeace.
UK Parliament: Local Energy
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Energy and Climate Change Committee
Government provides support to households who install small-scale renewable energy systems through the Feed-in Tariff scheme (FiT), while large scale projects like off-shore wind farms will be supported through new fixed-price Contracts for difference (CfDs). Medium-sized energy projects between 10-50 Megawatts (MW) are currently slipping through the net, however, being too big to receive FiTs yet too small to take advantage of CfDs.
UK Parliament: “Support communities who want to install renewable energy systems”
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Energy and Climate Change Committee
Businesses, cooperatives, local authorities, schools and housing associations should be given financial support to install medium-sized renewable energy generating systems – such as solar arrays, wind turbines and district heating systems – because of the benefits these projects can bring to communities and the country as a whole, MPs on the Energy and Climate Change Committee have said.
Renewables International: Utility-scale solar small in Germany
By
Craig Morris
The statistics are further evidence that the German PV market has a relatively large share of small, distributed systems in an international comparison. One reason is strong community and citizen ownership in the country. Indeed, even systems with hundreds or thousands of kilowatts (such as a recent 7.8 MW project) are often owned by communities and citizen investors, not utilities. The label “utility-scale” is therefore probably misleading in Germany to begin with.
