Working Together: The Fastest Way to Our Green Transition.

 
Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast
 
Episode 122
 
Working Together
The Fastest Way to Our Green Transition
 
 
In the last few episodes I have discussed several topics relating to how our transition to a more sustainable economy will have a direct impact on everyone. These topics have included electric vehicles, an environmentally friendly economy, renewable energy and total decarbonization of our society. There is nothing about our lives that will go untouched. 
 
Obviously there are numerous barriers to making this transition. And certainly there will be a lot of resistance due to big business protecting their self interest. However it is completely possible through individual and community action that we can move forward toward a more sustainable future.
 
And that is the focus of E122, Working Together, the Fastest Way to Our Green Transition.  
 
Welcome back everyone to the Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast. This is your host Patrick and this is E122 
which is called Working Together, the Fastest Way to Our Green Transition. 
 
What I want to focus on in this episode is a very simple and often overlooked way to our sustainable future. It is called working together. If you have listened to my last several episodes then you know that despite the tremendous need for us to transition to a sustainable economy there is going to be considerable resistance and a significant number of barriers for us to overcome. 
 
If you listened to E121 then you will remember that I talked about a report that was put together by the Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. That report discussed opposition to renewable energy projects and detailed 121 local polices and 204 renewable energy projects that were being contested between 1995 and 2022. 
 
Opposition to renewable energy projects typically included local laws that delay or restrict renewable energy, moratoria or bans on renewable energy development, and zoning changes designed to block projects. In most cases, this attitude of “not in my backyard” successfully delay, scaled down, or resulted in complete cancelation of the project. Well in this episode I am going to present to you the exact opposite attitude. 
 
While it may be true that it is impossible to fight the government and equally as difficult to fight big business, there is a way that we can accomplish what we need without going head to head with the super powers that have billions and maybe even trillions of dollars, euros, pounds, pesos, or whatever it may be. It is called the power of the people. 
 
If you remember the three pillars of sustainability are people, planet, and profits. I believe that the planet will get along just fine without people. But it is the people that make up the society, the culture, and the economic forces that drives much of what we do and how we live. And in the end, I truly believe it is the common everyday person that will make the difference when it comes to building a sustainable future. 
 
Margaret Mead, who was a cultural anthropologist and frequent lecturer in the 1960s and 1970s once said  “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful and committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
 
And yes it is that simple in some respects. Or perhaps I should say it is simple but not easy. 
 
If you have been following me for some time and enjoying the podcast then you know that I have a tendency to be a very independent person. That is probably not too much of a stretch for you to believe because I have lived off the grid for so many years. Anyway, you have likely heard me say before that as long as someone else is in control of your resources they are in fact in control of your life. 
 
That is the very reason I am so much in favor of being in charge of as many of my own resources as possible. For example, the local utility company wanted to charge me an exuberant amount of money to run electricity to my cabin. My initial response to that was to learn to live without electricity. But eventually I set up my own personal power station in the form of a solar array. I got around the exuberant expense associated with dealing with the utility company by taking charge of things myself.   
 
So, while we all wait around for government and big business too adjoin from their never ending board meeting and actually accomplish something, there are a lot of things we can in the mean time to be quite productive. And those things will be accomplished by working together. 
 
In this episode I want to give you a number of different examples where local communities have taken matters into their own hands to accomplish some rather amazing things. Not only that, I want to also give you some examples of how businesses and local communities have worked together to further the transition to a renewable future. 
 
Iceland
 
One of the best examples that I have mentioned before is the country of Iceland. Presently, this entire country is run almost solely on renewable energy. But this transition was spurred by local entrepreneurs. It started when a couple of local farmers built a primitive geothermal heating system. Local municipalities built on their success by expanding and improving projects. 
 
Eventually other local farmers built small hydroelectric systems to power their homes. By 1950 about 530 small scale hydroelectric power plants were scattered throughout Iceland. Furthermore the government established a geothermal drilling mitigation fund in the late 1960s. The fund was used to loan money for research and test drilling and to provide cost recovery for failed projects. 
 
And it was the power of working together that provided Iceland with a diverse, stable economy that attracted international industries, provided local jobs, established a national power grid, and gave the country the energy independence that they needed. 
 
 
 
Netherlands
 
If you remember from one of my previous episodes, one of the barriers to our transition to renewable energy is challenges around siting, meaning the location of renewable energy projects. While this should not be an issue in larger countries with plenty of land, it is an issue in much smaller countries. The Netherlands has a high population density and the country is about 16K square miles in size. Comparatively speaking, the state of Maryland in the US is about 12,400 square miles. 
 
In the Netherlands, they have found a rather unique solution to this problem. Solar has now been installed on car parks, commercial lakes, sheep grazing areas, unused buildings, train stations, airfields and even on strawberry farms. 
 
This transition has been driven by a combination of a tremendous drop in equipment costs, an effective government energy subsidy scheme, and ambitious government goals to become 70% energy independent by 2030. Additionally this transition has been driven 
by skyrocketing energy prices and a desire to decrease dependence on foreign oil and gas. High prices have simply made gas fired energy plants unprofitable. Their plan for energy independence is a combination of wind and solar. 
 
The Dutch government has enacted new laws in line with their ambitious goals.  In recent years the country generated 14% of its electricity from solar farms compared to only 1% in 2015. The nations 2022 renewable energy budget was 13 billions euros, which is about $13.9 billion USDs.
 
Additionally, the government has very friendly net metering laws. Net metering is an arrangement that allows private home owners to sell their excess energy production to the local utility company. This helps them to offset the cost of their renewable energy installation. Such an arrangement is a huge encouragement for people to switch to renewable energy. Consequently, there are now more that 2 millions homes powered by renewable energy.  This means about 26% of homes in the Netherlands have solar compared to 4% in the US. 
 
Solar farms are being installed on old landfill sites, on man made lakes, and in conjunction with agriculture projects. One such project involves growing strawberries and raspberries under solar panels. This replaces the traditional plastic covering the farmers have used in the past. It was found that such a method reduces the need for water by 25%.
 
Additionally, because renewable energy siting is limited in the Netherlands, solar developers have been careful to keep local interests in mind. For example, the country’s renewable energy plan stipulates that the goal should be to allocate 50% of the energy production to local communities. What this means is that developers must invest in the local community by providing energy or setting up a socio-economy fund to pay for energy efficient improvements. 
 
Working with local people and keeping their interest in mind produces a cooperative effort and further promotes the implementation of renewable energy. In the Netherlands, instead of fighting over who gets to use the land, they have worked together and developed a mutually beneficial arrangement. 
 
 
The Danish Island of Samso
 
 
Another example of amazing cooperation is the Danish island of Samso which certainly deserves some special attention. This island successfully transition from fossil fuels to 100% renewables in just ten years. The decision to make the transition was made by Samso Municipality in 1997. At the time the islands electricity was supplied by an undersea cable from the mainland of Denmark with coal supplying most of the power.  Oil was shipped from the mainland and that was used to heat homes and businesses and was the source of virtually 100% of local transportation. 
 
Their initial plan was on and off-shores wind turbines, heating would be provided with biomass and electricity, there would be local heating districts, solar panels, improvements in energy efficiency in homes and the use of electric vehicles. 
 
Financing for the project required the participation of citizens as well as other stakeholders. There would also be local ownership of the energy investments. By 2007, they were producing more electricity than they needed. 
 
Consequently this transition proved to be a good investment, it resulted in community cohesion, and provided a tremendous amount of local employment. This island is often cited as one of the most inspiring examples of a community transition to renewable energy. It truly became the world’s first renewable island. 
 
Muttersholtz, France
 
There is a tiny village of 2,200 people in north east France called Muttersholtz, I hope I am pronouncing that correctly. This community enjoys no electricity bills due to the installation of renewable energy. This is because they decided to develop their very own micro-power plant. 
 
This tiny village built three wind turbines on local rivers, installed solar panels on roof tops and made several energy efficient improvements to their buildings. Between 2008 and 2022, they reduced their energy consumption by 40%. Even though the development cost 2 million euros public buildings only use 10% of the energy produced and the municipality sells the other 90%. The village saves 43K euros per year in energy costs and the sale of energy brings in 60K euros. Future plans include expansion of their energy production in order to power local homes. 
 
This French village won the award for biodiversity in 2017 and locals are already saying that perhaps other villages should follow their example. 
 
 
Re-powering London
 
The non-profit organization Re-powering London is an energy cooperative  that works with local authorities and community groups to promote renewable energy usage in low income areas. This organization enables local communities to invest in ethical solar projects which are often placed on social housing. Profits from the sale of electricity is used to benefit the local community but it also gives investors an annual benefit. Its projects are also run democratically using local Community Benefit Societies so that everyone has a voice is what is accomplished for the community. But the end goal is to produce low cost, low carbon, de-centralized, affordable energy. 
 
Re-powering London has also played a key role in social programs which educates younger people, adults, engineers, financial people, IT and other technical folks, about the legal and market elements of setting up a renewable energy power station with cooperative ownership. What this means is that skills stay in the local community and are used to benefit the entire community. 
 
At this point there are energy cooperatives all over the UK. Just as in Iceland, it started with small groups of people. The second phase of action came with government funded feed in tariffs that provided payment for smaller scale energy projects such as solar, wind and hydro. And now the third phase is to see if such projects can survive without government funding. 
 
Power Purchase Agreement, Boston, Massachusetts 
 
The Power Purchase Agreement in the city of Boston is another good example of a cooperative effort. This was an agreement signed by the Boston Medical Center, Friends of Post Office Square and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This contract made it possible to construct a 650 acre 60 MW solar farm in North Carolina. 
 
Amazon and Arlington County, Virginia
 
 
Another such agreement was arranged between Amazon and Arlington County, Virginia. These two entities made an agreement to build a 120 MW solar farm which is anticipated to be cost neutral to both parties. This project will help the county for achieve 80% of their electricity from renewable energy and Amazon will also use the energy to power their headquarters and other Virginia-based operations. 
 
Ready for 100 Campaign
 
 
Another great example in the US is the Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 campaign. This campaign started in 2016 right after the US pulled out of the Paris agreement. The goal of the campaign was to have 100 communities transition to 100% renewable energy. 
 
As a result of this campaign, over 100 cities in the US are now powered by 100% renewable energy. Additionally, more than 200 communities, 10 school districts, eight states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have made the commitment to 100% renewable energy. And thanks to this campaign over 100 million people now live in a place that is transitioning away from dirty fuels. 
 
 
Summary
 
 
In E120 where I discussed the reasons as to why we are not using more renewable energy, I detailed a number of barriers to our transition to a cleaner energy source. But as you can see from these examples, there is a way to work around those barriers. We just have to embrace the power of working together and it has to become a priority. 
 
Comparatively speaking, the GDP of the Netherlands is about $1 trillion USDs. The GDP of the US is about $23.24 trillion. Yet the renewable energy budget in the US is $15 billion compared to the Netherlands which is about $13.9 billion. Obviously renewable energy is not the priority of the US government. But, we can get around that by working together. 
 
It is going to require educating residents and business on the benefits of renewable energy. This is going to require the collaboration between cities and corporations. Municipal-corporate partnerships not only adds more electricity to the grid but it also increase the visibility of large scale projects. This type of collaboration makes it easier to remove market barriers so that the purchase renewable energy is more accessible. 
 
Obviously it is time for more collaboration on renewable energy projects. Such collaboration requires some upfront planning, agreement on mutual goals, early decision making and a whole lot of coordination. But, the potential benefits far out weigh the initial challenges. 
 
In E85 I discussed our general loss of energy security. We essentially transitioned from a lot of local power plants to centralized large power plants. This is because it saved money and resources. But this also makes our power grid less secure and vulnerable to hackers. Not to mention that our national power grid is aging and black outs have increased dramatically in the last 10 years. And this is the case all over the world. But another barrier to our transition to renewables is the fact that we do not have appropriate infrastructure. 
 
These two factors alone should provide a lot of incentive for local ownership of community power stations because energy generation would become decentralized and consequently much more secure. 
 
Re-powering London provides a golden illustration of what makes community energy projects successful. There was a clear vision of their goals and objectives. There were motivated individuals. And the community cohesion around the project produced opportunities for networking to raise financial assets as well as the technical knowledge to make it all happen. 
 
Again, the power of working together has the potential of putting energy generation in the hands of normal people. It provides community cohesion, energy security, promotes deeper understanding of environmental issues, and brings people together to work on a common project that may otherwise never get to know each other. 
 
Imagine if you had part ownership in your own community power station. Imagine the security that would produce. Imagine what it would be like when a major storm takes down the power grid and hundreds of thousands of people are without energy except your community. Imagine a time when you are no longer subject to rates hikes. Imagine a time when your cost of energy is no longer affected by the instability of the world energy market. 
 
Iceland found a solution to that. The Netherlands found a solution to that. The Danish island of Samso found a solution. Re-powering London found a solution. And thanks to the Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 Campaign, over 100 communities around the US also found a solution. 
 
And as I have shown through numerous examples, when the common everyday person works with someone else to create a local solution, sooner or later the policy makers will come out of their board room and actually pay attention. What these examples have proven is that citizen owned renewable energy projects can go a long way to bridge the enormous gap between government action and what is actually needed to make our transition to renewable energy production. 
 
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful and committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” 
 
You know one of the three pillars of sustainability is people. Consequently we should never forget the power of a good conversation. We should never forget the power of people working together. And that is how the world becomes of better place. That is how the world becomes sustainable. 
 
And speaking of working together, I certainly hope you will take the time to leave me with a review as well as subscribe to The Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast as well as my companion blog Off Grid Living News.  
 
Well folks, I think that about wraps it up for this week. Be sure to join again next week for another enlightening episode. Until then, this is your host Patrick signing off. Always remember to live sustainably because this is how we build a better future. 
 
Patrick
 
 
Resources
 
Communities Can Create Their Own Power Stations
 
How Cities and Companies Can Collaborate for a Clean Energy Transition
 
RePowering London 
Patrick