Let the people lighten energy load with citizen-owned schemes
Urgent climate action must be taken and communities are willing to participate in their own electricity production.
The challenge of climate change is global and it demands action on an international scale, such as the Paris Agreement. But a large part of the solution will be local, involving all of us in the way energy is produced and consumed.
The potential for citizen involvement in electricity production is considerable. A recent study showed that by 2050 half of all Europeans could produce their own electricity either at home, as part of a cooperative, or in their small business. Counting generation from wind and solar power alone, these small actors could meet almost half of Europe’s total electricity needs.
Even more people could support the energy transition, and share in the benefits, by storing power in batteries, electric vehicles and smart boilers. This enables the grid to draw power when it’s cheap and plentiful, and temporarily lightening the load if there’s a peak in demand.
These projections may seem generous, but they must be considered in the context of the unprecedented fall in wind and solar prices. Since 2009, the price of solar panels has fallen by 80% and wind turbines by 40%. And it won’t stop there. Renewable energies are becoming competitive with fossil fuels and new nuclear, such as Hinkley Point, where EDF will try to build the most expensive reactors in the world and provide electricity at an unprecedented cost.
Renewable energies and supporting technologies, like storage and demand response, are advancing in leaps and bounds. The old energy companies have been sluggish in catching up, so a regulatory framework that favours the status quo will slow the necessary change to clean energy. Conversely, the right policies can fulfil the great potential for citizen-owned energy.
Too often the debate around renewable energy focuses just on the technology. But the benefits of citizen-owned renewables are manifold. Encouraging ordinary people to invest in renewable energy taps a large source of reliable funding for projects. As local people profit from renewable energy projects, and have a say in their planning and running, opposition to developments is avoided in an equitable way.
This also builds more public support for renewable energy generally, with a positive knock-on effect for government policy. The returns on investment in these citizen-owned projects are likely to be spent in the local economies, supporting employment and businesses.
The European commission has at least paid lip-service to the important role ordinary people have to play in energy production, as they set out their plan for an EU energy system “with citizens at its core” who “participate actively in the market”. As they and our national governments develop energy policy, we should be demanding that they allow citizens to become active participants, not just passive consumers.
What rules do we need in order to unlock this potential? There should be recognition that peoples’ active participation in the market doesn’t just mean the ability to switch supplier – it means producing, consuming and selling their own energy either individually or collectively through cooperatives.
These new entrants need to have fair access to the market, with rules designed for small, medium and large producers alike, without discrimination. For example, the impending tax hike in the UK for owners of commercial and public sector buildings that have installed solar panels is very problematic. We need to see fair prices for the electricity people put back into the grid as well as fair access to the distribution networks. We also need to see an end to punitive taxes, charges and administrative procedures that favour the bigger established players in the energy market.
That urgent climate action needs to be taken is no longer up for debate. But we must recognise that there are opportunities as well as challenges. Millions of people are ready to transform our energy system, if the right environment is created for them to do so. We are on the cusp of true energy democracy. It is a chance we cannot miss.
Source: The Guardian
