Energy
Community involvement with solar farms: what it means for councillors, planners and community groups
Image: the largest community-owned solar farm in the UK at Westmill Solar Coop near Oxford, where 5000 local people own £16 million of solar PV. Here’s a follow on from our recent blog Scaling up Community energy: a how to guide. Originally written by Will Cortell over at Brighton Energy Cooperative. Many places across the country […]
Originally written by Will Cottrell over at Brighton Energy Cooperative. We’ve done well. Really well. The 40-odd energy coops that exist across the country have so far raised £18m quid for spanking new renewable installations. In 2013 131 new energy coops were registered, so we’re looking forward to seeing things grow hugely in 2014. Exciting times. Reclaiming […]
What is really going on Iceland? Have they been jailing bankers, creating unprecedented press freedoms and crowd sourcing their new constitution? Thanks to Gunnar Grimsson (Citizens Foundation and Your Priorities) for his fascinating interview. His insights are key and really give a balanced, behind the scenes, view of what is happening in Iceland since the 2008 economic crash. […]
Very interesting question posed in today’s guest blog from Alex Germanis of Pure Leapfrog…. In the subsequent fallout from the war on Wonga, has debt once again become the bad guy? There certainly are unpalatable consequences to bad debt, yet throughout human history we have used debt, whether in barter-based economies or today’s complex […]
We are at an interesting junction in the evolution of community energy in the UK. The path to creating ownership of energy generation at the local level has never been easy, but as we make our way through 2013, it seems that the government has finally awakened to the cause, and community energy groups are […]
Mapping a community’s needs and resources is one of the first things that many community groups do, when beginning their journey into local change-making. See also this post from the Transition Network that positions community mapping within the context of lots of other “ingredients” needed for community change-making (The term ‘ingredients’ is the Transition term for […]
I was very excited to be returning to Sao Paulo, Brazil and exploring it from a REconomy perspective. I lived there for 7 years during the 90’s and I know that pretty much anything is possible within the Brazilian economy. For example, do you think that what happened in Cyprus was extreme? That’s child’s play! […]
I’m delighted to say that the outputs of this project are ready for sharing. This post is about the work in Totnes, which started in 2011. It’s a combined effort of the national REconomy Project, along with Transition Town Totnes (TTT). Outputs from Herefordshire will follow shortly, and those from Brixton in London by mid […]
A beautiful old high street on a hill, surrounded by green – the market town of Lewes makes me feel instantly at home. The town is buzzing with excitement as the Olympic torch is about to pass through. There’s about 16,000 residents, most of them on the street today. The largest employer here is the […]
Dunbar is a small seaside town about 30 miles south east of Edinburgh. Having played a role in the historic wars of our island (once a safe haven for Mary Queen of Scots), it more recently was the birthplace of the ‘world’s first environmentalist’ John Muir before his move to America. It has around 8,000 […]
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