A cooperative in Flanders is wildly successful. But the Belgian co-op is two things at once: a builder of renewables and a power provider to its investors – a rare combination in Germany. Craig Morris looks at Ecopower’s success.
All posts tagged: Local Ownership
Cash cow of power sector goes dry
Over at Renew Economy, our colleague Giles Parkinson reviews a study by HSBC showing that “generators are to be the biggest losers” in the energy transition currently taking place worldwide. Today, Craig Morris talks about what that looks like in Germany.
Learning from the cell phone phenomenon
Microgrids based around solar can help developing countries leapfrog into a new energy paradigm – they make clean and cheap electricity available to the poorest, as Laurie Guevara-Stone reports.
Nervousness behind the scenes in Berlin
Craig Morris just spent three weeks in Berlin and other German cities speaking with a slew of energy experts off the record. Today, he talks about the nervous mood in the wake of the recent policy changes.
The Feed-in Tariff is better than is commonly understood
The Feed-in Tariff (FiT) has proven to be the most successful policy for climate protection and sustainable development. As the cornerstone of overwhelming renewable energy development worldwide, it has resulted in significant greenhouse gas emission reductions, green jobs, revenues for governments and citizens and cost-competitive alternatives to harmful fossil fuels. Despite all that, the FiT is currently under attack. This is especially so in frontrunner country Germany, where the government has approved the phase out of the FiT through recent reform. But as Anna Leidreiter explains, the Feed-in Tariff is a better policy than is commonly understood.
The Death of another ‘Beautiful Game’?
The European Commission is redesigning its renewable energy policy – at the expense of small co-ops, citizens and consumers. Alan Simpson compares the situation to football – and hopes that we can still turn around the game.
Regenerative Urban Development in Practice: Renewable Wilhelmsburg
The Re-Municipalization of the Hamburg Grid
In a successful referendum, Hamburg’s voters forced the city to buy back the grid last year. Charleen Fei and Ian Rinehart summarize how a broad and inclusive campaign driven by the civil society made this historic event possible.
The goal of market competition
A recent IZES study discusses specific energy policy models Germany could adopt if it discontinued feed-in tariffs as proposed by 2017. To see what policy design is best, we first have to define the goals. Craig Morris investigates.
Germany’s Renewable Energy Law Is About to Look More American
The next phase of Germany’s energy transition takes competitive markets into account. This way, the German Energiewende could look more American, argues Betham Paulos.