Community Energy in Germany

Description

'Germany produces over 20 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources, with communities generating about a quarter of this. In the UK, less than 1 per cent is generated by communities. The coalition concluded that they want the UK to dramatically increase this figure by 2020 and set out to distill the benefits and principles for community energy in the vision.

We saw many models of how the Germans have achieved, from Badenova - a large utility - to the pioneering villages of Feldheim and Freiamt. Badenova is run jointly by the city-region of Freiburg, and embraces renewables including turning food waste into heat and power for thousands of local homes. Feldheim is a rural village near Berlin of just 140 inhabitants that has worked with a local commercial renewable energy developer to become completely off-grid and reduce its energy bills by a third, employing around 30 people from the village. It generates 40% more energy from renewable energy than it needs, owned and financed by thousands of local members of the cooperative." (http://www.forumforthefuture.org/project/discover-community-energy/overview)