Community-owned energy is mentioned in the story Climate Gamers where it is tied to resilience against the kinds of catastrophes that are probable in a globalized world facing a climate crisis, such as supply chain breakdowns, cybercrime, loss of internet, financial crashes etc.
Next time there was a disaster she repeated her plea. We should go local. Devlin responded in the chat, writing in capital letters how it would slow down innovation. She was back. Let me just try, local decision-making, community-owned energy, local currency, local food. The whole system won’t crash if we make self-sufficient yet interlocking communities.
Climate Gamers
Other aspects mentioned here that provide resilience include local currencies covered in our green finance page and local libraries of things covered in the sharing economy page.
There are numerous community energy projects across the world – many in Germany and Scandinavia and several in UK including https://www.sharenergy.coop/project/brassington-heat-network-rcef-feasibility-study/. One of the first community energy villages in the UK is Smart Fintry see: http://smartfintry.org.uk/
‘Community Energy is part of a growing movement in the UK whereby local communities are involved in energy projects that they own and control. Community energy gives communities the opportunity to invest in energy projects in their area thereby helping local people have a stake in their energy infrastructure. A key feature of these projects is that all surplus profit is used for community benefit which helps increase their impact. Community energy has a key role to play in the transition toward a more efficient, low carbon, decentralised energy system.’
Derbyshire Dales Community Energy newsletter
Here’s a story about how a council estate in Bristol UK overcame planning laws to set up a wind turbine which will power 3000 homes and bring in £100k annually to the community.
Another inspiring story follows two artists as they raise money to install solar panels in their London borough, putting power generation in the hands of their community,
Interested in progressing this solution further?
| Actions for policymakers (e.g. central/local government | Fund community-owned energy projects. Make it easy for residents to purchase renewable energy e.g. https://solartogether.co.uk/ |
| Actions for funding bodies | Award grant funding to community energy schemes. |
| Actions for businesses | set up a social enterprise to provide local renewable energy |
| Actions for public | set up or join a local group to campaign for community-owned energy Social media campaigns & lobbying of governments. Find your government representative or Member of Parliament and email them, whether you are in Australia; Canada; UK; USA or elsewhere. Vote for ‘The Party of the Future’. |
