Community Power

= i.e. can refer in the narrow sense to the Community Renewable Energy movement, or in the broader sense, to the "power of the community" to manage its own affairs, i.e. the Localization movements

Definition

The World Wind Energy Association's Community Power definition of 'community renewable energy:

"The WWEA Community Power working group agreed on the following definition:

A project can be defined as Community Power if at least two of the following three criteria are fulfilled:

1. Local stakeholders own the majority or all of a project

A local individual or a group of local stakeholders, whether they are farmers, cooperatives, independent power producers, financial institutions, municipalities, schools, etc., own, immediately or eventually, the majority or all of a project.

2. Voting control rests with the community-based organization:

The community-based organization made up of local stakeholders has the majority of the voting rights concerning the decisions taken on the project.

3. The majority of social and economic benefits are distributed locally:

The major part or all of the social and economic benefits are returned to the local community."

(http://www.wwindea.org/communitypowerdefinition/)

More information

• Simon Kaye on the World-Changing Commons Research of Elinor Ostrom‎ : "Ostrom is the intellectual hero of the community power movement."