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.
Community-Owned Wind Development in Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands
By
Paul Gipe
While the following report on a Trip to Northern Europe in 1996 is more than a decade old, much of the information remains relevant. Wind turbines are bigger and more costly today than those mentioned here, but the principles of community ownership and the attitudes of the proponents are same as they were then.
Cooeperatieve Windenergie Vereniging Kennemerwind
By
Paul Gipe
Kennemerwind was not the first wind cooperative in the Netherlands, but is one of the largest in number of members. (Several members of the Dutch wind fraternity own shares, including ECN’s renewables director Jos Beurskens.)
Farmer Noud de Schutter
By
Paul Gipe
Noud de Schutter is president of Vereniging Windenergie Noord Holland (the wind turbine owners association of North Holland) and a …
