Ed Davey has been writing in the Guardian about grassroots energy projects.
He tells us the Government has commissioned research to find out what encourages people to get involved in community energy projects in the hope of generating more across the UK. So, what are these projects?
People across the country are coming together to change the way we think about our energy system and their relationship with it. From a community-run advice service in Hampshire that promotes energy efficiency to a community-owned windfarm just north of Swansea, to a renewable heat project in Herefordshire that replaces fossil fuels with locally grown biomass.
Today I will be visiting the Repowering London project in Brixton. Several hundred square metres of solar panels have been installed on six blocks in the Loughborough Estate and the project is providing work placement opportunities for local young and unemployed people from the estate.
He talked about the initial findings of the research which should probably surprise nobody:
Our initial research found that keeping energy bills down is the main driver for people to get involved in community energy projects. Environmental reasons – like the desire to be active in the fight against climate change – and the aspiration to help improve wellbeing in disadvantaged neighbourhoods were also key factors.
Why is he wanting to encourage such initiatives?
I strongly believe that there is appetite for this grassroots approach and want to see nothing short of a community energy revolution. I amsupporting collective purchasing and switching to help more and more people to buy energy together, but I also want to see more people saving and generating energy together.
You can read the whole article and watch a short video about the Brixton project he visited yesterday here.
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5 Comments
The link concerning collective purchasing of energy to MoneySavingExpert is very good. However, Martin does do the back of the envelope maths and shows that a scheme service does need substantial numbers of subscribers/members if it is to recover its administration costs. which therefore does bring into question the viability of the scheme from a residents (association) self-help/self-start point of view. Also the results of the South Lakeland (https://www.libdemvoice.org/ed-davey-writes-how-we-can-tackle-rising-energy-bills-32664.html ) pilot provides some additional hard data on which to assess the viability of a scheme targeted at a slightly wider audience.
Sorry to seem negative, but unless there is a real opportunity there for someone to make a difference and get compensated for their efforts, these schemes will just remain good ideas.
maybe you will come to the Green Liberal Democrats Annual Conference on Sat 15th June when Ed will be talking and taking questions.? for full details go to: http://www.greenlibdems.org.uk
Community schemes need more capital to get to a scale that is meaningful to the UK’s energy mix. To achieve the sort of revolution Ed is looking for we need more and better incentives to put money into community schemes. The EIS should be expanded and supported by new grants to help set up schemes.
It probably all seems very wonderful to someone like Ed who does not live on the same planet as the rest of us but anyone who knows just how much electricity a nuke or coal power station produces will understand how piddling these schemes are.
We have spent twenty five years pratting about with wind turbines and still not found a way to make them generate electricity when the wind is not blowing. If we get started on the next generation of nukes now we can buy a bit of time to develop Nicola Tesla’s Radiant Energy technologies. Oops, sorry, that’s very offensive of me to mention a technology that is low cost, clean, sustainable and offers corporate energy no scope to increase profit or control of the market.
@Thorpe
Great blog you link to there. Cast down your tin foil hats and despair, ye Bilderbergers.