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February 2012 will be the 30th anniversary of the publication of The Power of Wind. In the foreword I wrote: “we suggest that municipalities immediately start work on a full evaluation of their renewable resources.”
As far as I know, in the past 30 years, not one municipality or county in Catalonia has made an evaluation of their renewable energetic potential. And very little has been done to make use of the local riches available. Instead, the majority of municipalities have favoured the construction of uncountable buildings, many of which are homes that are ovens in summer and refrigerators in winter and therefore need enormous quantities of fossil fuels and/or electricity to attain some level of comfort. The money for this energy bill has all been spent for the benefit of the energy oligopoly. Which means that it left our municipalities, leaving them poorer. It is possible to quantify this impoverishment of local economies, and the result would be shocking.
One way to strengthen local economies could be the one chosen by many German and Austrian Town Halls. They are in a sort of race to see who can first reach a 100% renewable and local energy supply. Some will argue that there is no money for that here (a consequence of the past bad policies), and that municipalities are incapable of investing in renewable energies. What is often forgotten is the capacity for investing of families, which can be quite considerable.
The Belgian cooperative Ecopower for example supplies 40.000 families with 100% renewable energy from power plants (wind, solar, hydroelectric, biomass) built with the dues of its members. In Catalonia SomEnergia was founded nearly a year ago in Girona; it’s a cooperative that aims to supply 100% renewable energy and to invest in local renewable energy sources. In less than a year it surpassed 1000 members and is already starting to supply green energy to its members. The first photovoltaic plant that will be financed by the cooperative is being designed.
To recover the reins of energy supply is a key matter. Existing technologies for using local renewable energies can be used individually or collectively. It is our collective responsibility if we want to “live well without causing harm.” Pep Puig i Boix, PhD. (Industrial engineering) Vice-President of EUROSOLAR – European Association for renewable Energies
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