Don’t let big business control small scale energy systems
we will need to reduce the power and influence of the fossil fuel companies, kicking their representatives out of government and moving subsidies away from polluting fuels and towards clean energy. Divestment campaigns shouldn’t just call for an end to fossil fuel funding but galvanize a shift in public investments into cleaner alternatives: not corporate renewable schemes but community energy, sustainable local transport and energy efficiency projects.
We can’t just sit back and expect the falling price of solar and wind to sweep away the old energy order. Renewable energy could be a powerful tool for dismantling the current failed system – but we need to use it wisely, and not let it fall into the wrong hands!
Whose renewable future? New Internationalist MARCH 2015 Is big business poised to capture the renewables revolution? Danny Chivers draws up the battle lines. “……..This increasing reliance on companies, not governments, as providers of energy services and infrastructure is driven by a global economic system based on market ‘liberalization’, profit maximization and endless growth. It’s a trend that we need to reverse if we want renewable energy truly to be a force for good.
Luckily, alternative models are appearing all over the world. Renewable energy co-operatives have hundreds of thousands of members and are building and installing their own solar, wind and small-scale hydro projects from Indonesia to Costa Rica. They own three-quarters of Denmark’s wind turbines, and are growing rapidly in Spain, Britain and elsewhere; in Germany, more than half of renewable electricity generation is owned by citizens, co-operatives and community groups.
The energy industry has been taken back into public hands by democratically elected governments in Venezuela and Bolivia. The popular state-owned energy system in Uruguay has had real success in expanding energy access, and is now working on efficiency and wind power projects. Interest in locally controlled energy has been reignited in Europe by referendums in two major German cities (Hamburg and Berlin), where citizens voted in favour of their local councils buying back the energy grid from transnational companies.
However, it won’t be possible to achieve true energy democracy without changes to our wider political and economic system. What’s the use of campaigning for publicly owned energy if the national or local government is corrupt, undemocratic, or heavily influenced by vested interests?
We need to pursue the democratization both of our energy and our politics in parallel. In fact, we should see this as an opportunity, because these projects can support and mutually reinforce each other. Unaccountable corporate energy systems give powerful vested interests excessive influence over everything from household spending to government policy. Breaking the power of the fossil fuel corporations and big utility firms, and creating new income streams for communities, co-operatives and the public sector, will open up all kinds of new spaces for democratic change.
To make this happen, we need to pick some ambitious but achievable short-term goals that catalyse further change. There are lessons to be learned from Germany, Denmark and Bolivia, where government support for renewable energy co-operatives has led to a genuine transfer of power towards the grassroots. Bringing energy industries back under national or local control could be a valuable step, if combined with other democratic reforms; Norway, Denmark and Uruguay all have strong representation from workers on their national energy bodies.
To achieve these goals, we will need to reduce the power and influence of the fossil fuel companies, kicking their representatives out of government and moving subsidies away from polluting fuels and towards clean energy. Divestment campaigns shouldn’t just call for an end to fossil fuel funding but galvanize a shift in public investments into cleaner alternatives: not corporate renewable schemes but community energy, sustainable local transport and energy efficiency projects.
We can’t just sit back and expect the falling price of solar and wind to sweep away the old energy order. Renewable energy could be a powerful tool for dismantling the current failed system – but we need to use it wisely, and not let it fall into the wrong hands! http://newint.org/features/2015/03/01/renewable-energy-keynote/
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