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.

Accroître Les Possibilités en Matière D’Energie Renouvelable en Ontario

By

Ontario Ministère De L’energie

COMMUNIQUÉS Version Original Ontario Ministère de l’Energie Pour diffusion immédiate Relations avec les médias 416 314-8975 Le 21 mars 2006 …

Solar Office. Solar powered office building in Schonau, southern Germany.

Strom Rebels of Schönau: The Village That Built Their Own Solar Utility

By

Paul Gipe

Alt captured that rebellious spirit in his inspiring tale of the small town of Schönau and how residents built a solar utility in the deep recesses of Germany’s Schwartzwald–the Black Forest of legend. The story has all the elements of its own legend in the making. Small town Davids against electric utility Goliaths. Simple townsfolk with a bright, you could say “sunny”, outlook on the future. And a decades-long struggle to bring their dream to reality. There’s a movie script waiting to be written, or at least a documentary

Toronto’s WindShare cooperative. WindShare’s more than 400 members own one half of the wind turbine. Toronto Hydro, the municipal utility owns the other half. The Lagerwey 52 meter (170 foot) diameter wind turbine stands at a prominent location overlooking the Gardiner Expressway in Canada’s largest city. The first urban wind turbine in North America, it has became a beacon for renewable energy advocates across the continent. 2009.

Toronto’s WindShare Coop

By

Paul Gipe

North America’s first truly urban wind turbine is located on the grounds of the Canadian National Exposition, the CNE or …

WindShare Performance Table

By

Paul Gipe

Wolfgang Paulsen, Bohmstedt, and Butendiek

By

Paul Gipe

  Wolfgang Paulsen is one of the owners of a Bürger wind project in the far northwest of Schleswig-Holstein near …

Josef Pesch Freiburg Baden Wuertemburg Germany 11 21 2005 0066

Josef Pesch–Strom Rebel of Freiburg

By

Paul Gipe

Pesch was named a strom (electricity) rebel by Elektritzitätswerke Schönau (EWS) in 2005 and that was a good reason for …

Samsø: Denmark’s Renewable Energy Island

By

Paul Gipe

  Samsø is a 112 square kilometers island off the east coast of Denmark’s Jutland peninsula. Home to 4,300 residents, …

Observations on Bürgerbeteiligung–German Share Cooperatives–by Henning Holst

By

Paul Gipe

  I first met Henning Holst in the late 1980s or early 1990s when he was developing citizen-owned wind projects …

Le Haut des Ailes: France’s First Large-Scale Cooperative Wind Plant

By

Paul Gipe

Some of the RePower turbines in Le Haut des Ailes near Igny, Lorraine, France. Photo by Paul Gipe We were …