rays of hope

Rays of hopeClean and democratically controlled energy for everyone

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December 2014

We all need energy: to prepare food and heat water, store food and medicines safely, to study or work after dark and use phones or access the internet. While no one goes without energy entirely, over one billion people lack access to electricity. Millions more people go without enough energy to meet their needs because they cannot afford to pay for it.

It’s not that people go without energy because there is not enough to go around. Indeed, some of the countries where the greatest proportions of people go without electricity are those with the most energy resources. More than half of people in oil-rich Nigeria lack basic access to electricity. In Indonesia, the world’s biggest exporter of coal, over a quarter of the population have no electricity, with access rates even lower on the two islands of Kalimantan and Sumatra where most of the coal is mined.

Even in the UK, many people struggle to access the energy they need. Over seven million people live in fuel poverty, one in five households are in debt to their energy supplier and tens of thousands of mainly elderly people die of cold each winter. Yet the Big Six energy companies are making billions in profits each year.

Vital Energy

Photo: Bo Nielsen/flickr

Our energy system is also highly destructive. Around the world, coal mines displace whole communities and destroy livelihoods like farming and forestry. The extraction and burning of fossil fuels causes pollution which damages people’s health and their local environment. Meanwhile, we are on a path to catastrophic climate change as a result of a failure to wean ourselves off our fossil fuel addiction.

Corporate control of our energy systems means that multinational energy companies extract fossil fuels from developing countries to meet the demands of big business and consumers in the global north. And big banks continue to profit from financing dirty and destructive energy projects like oil drilling and coal power stations which goes unmonitored and unrestricted by governments. Once its investments are taken into account, UK-based bank RBS is estimated to have a carbon footprint 18 times higher than the total emissions of Scotland.

But around the world, communities are fighting these corporations, taking control of energy and finding new and more democratic ways of meeting their needs while respecting the limits of the environment. While none of these are perfect and there are still challenges to overcome, they demonstrate that there are real alternatives to corporate control of our energy systems.

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Corporate control of energy has failed to ensure that everyone can access the energy that they need. It is also keeping us locked in destructive ways of producing energy, so it’s clear that fairer, more democratic alternatives are needed.

There is no one-size fits all solution to meeting people’s energy needs in a sustainable way and in different places people are using different terms to describe their vision for a more just energy system. But there are a number of common threads.

No one disputes that energy should be provided in a way that gives everyone enough to meet their basic needs. In some parts of the world, this means public investment to provide a physical link for everyone to access electricity grids – something that has been achieved in countries like Costa Rica and Uruguay.

Energy justice

Erhard Renz / flickr

Top: Energy democracy now! Energiewende demonstration in Berlin, December 2013. Previous page: Sunrise in Copenhagen

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It also means ensuring that everyone can afford the energy that is available. In many places this is done through pricing systems which mean that the poor pay less. For example, in Cuba, the government provides enough energy for people’s basic needs at a very low price, with prices increasing steeply above this level, and the cost of power to run luxuries like air conditioning costing over 50 times that of the basic allocation.

It also requires that the rights of workers in the energy system are respected, and the production process does not cause destruction to other communities. Campaigns by trade unions and climate change campaigners in the UK and elsewhere have highlighted how a million good quality jobs could be created by investment in shifting to a green economy. Globally, the International Trade Union Confederation has estimated that 48 million new green jobs could be created over five years with enough investment.

There is growing consensus that control of energy should lie in the hands of those who produce and use energy, whether this is through public ownership or co-operative structures. In many parts of the world, people are experimenting with different ways of giving people a direct say in the decisions that are made about energy production and use. For example, Spanish energy co-operative Som Energia has pioneered ways of using the internet for decision-making, taking care not to exclude elderly members and those with less experience.

These democratic approaches are also taking care to move towards operating in a way that respects environmental limits: using renewable technologies or planning a phased transition away from destructive fossil fuels.

Som Energia Cooperativa / flickr

We’ve got the power: The founding assembly of the Som Energia Co-operative, Catalonia, December 2010.


In Denmark, thanks to government support and tax incentives, wind power provides one-fifth of the country’s energy and three-quarters of the country’s turbines are owned by co-operatives. This model has inspired a similar approach in Germany, where over half of the renewable energy capacity is now owned by individuals or farms, much of it through co-operatives, rather than big energy companies. As a result there is far more support for renewable energy: 90 per cent of Danes support wind power as their favoured source of energy.

In Uruguay, the government has adopted an ambitious plan to transition away from fossil fuels and anticipates becoming an exporter of energy to neighbouring Argentina and Brazil.

One advantage of renewable technologies for communities that invest in them is that once the initial costs of buying the solar panels or wind turbine have been covered, the running costs are very low. In many projects, this has enabled the revenues from selling the power produced to be put to other uses. For example, in Zschadrass in Germany, the money generated is used to help cover the costs of running the local kindergarten and pay for free school meals and an annual holiday camp for local children.

Solar panels being installed on top of a council estate by Brixton Solar co-operative society

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Top: The growing numbers of the Som Energia Co-op at their general assembly in 2013.

Co-operative energyCo-operatives are democratically owned and controlled by their members, who are usually producers or consumers, or sometimes both. This democratic control means that it is possible for them to choose to focus on improving energy access and shifting to more sustainable sources of energy, rather than on profits for distant and unaccountable shareholders.

In some places, small-scale energy co-operatives are providing electricity to communities that otherwise would not have any. Where these communities operate fairly, all members stand to benefit. For example, in Indonesia, villages in the Mount Halimun region of west Java are equipped with micro-hydro turbines that are run and maintained by the community through a co-operative. The energy generated is cheaper than that bought through the national grid and the co-operative is able to be flexible about payment dates if a household doesn’t have enough money one month. The electricity means that local children are able to study in the evenings using electric lights.

Som Energia Cooperativa / flickr


Co-operatives can also function on a larger scale. For example, Costa Rica has four large rural energy co-operatives that are run by the communities that they serve and function alongside the state energy company. They have played an important role in increasing energy access using the bills paid by consumers to develop local electricity grids or extensions to connect households onto the national grid. The co-operatives do not have to rely on government subsidies and use some of the funds generated for projects like education programmes. Access to electricity in Costa Rica now stands at 98 per cent nationally.

In total, these four co-operatives account for 15 per cent of the electricity distribution in the country and provide around 40 per cent of service in rural areas. Initially established in the 1960s, since the 1980s they have also been involved in electricity generation, running two small-scale hydro-electric plants. The co-operatives have regular public meetings where decisions are made about pricing and leadership.

In Spain, Som Energia (‘We are Energy’ in Catalan) co-operative was set up in 2011 in response to the high bills of the large energy companies, the largest two of which account for 80 per cent of the Spanish energy market, and the lack of green energy options. Four years after being established, it has set up eight solar roof installations and a biogas plant, and is in the process of building Spain’s first community wind turbine. It has 16,000 members who purchase electricity from the co-operative.

Members of the community inspect a hydro-electric turbine in Palanggaran, Indonesia

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In the wake of the Indignados protests against austerity following the financial crisis, many people have joined Som Energia, welcoming an opportunity to invest their savings in a project which create social value, rather than leaving it in the care of corrupt bankers.

The co-operative is trying to make it as accessible as possible for those on low incomes to join, and its membership fee of ¤100 is relatively low compared to similar projects. While Som Energia does not receive the state subsidy that the big energy companies do to enable them to offer lower prices to poor consumers, it aims to offer some kind of social tariff financed from its profits.

It has also pioneered democratic inclusion, offering a high level of transparency through publishing information on its website and having a structure based on local working groups which decide on their own priorities, whether training to members, increasing energy generation or making links with other organisations. Its annual general assembly takes place via the internet with trial runs available beforehand to ensure that those who are less familiar with online technology are able to participate.

As well as producing energy, Som Energia aims to act as a platform for social and environmental campaigning, supporting existing organisations and providing space for discussion and making the links between the different issues people are facing. It is campaigning hard against reforms by the Spanish government which look set to protect the interests of the big energy companies while making life more difficult for small producers like Som Energia.

Santos Co-operative founded in 1965, one of four rural electrification co-ops in Costa Rica

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Sergio Quesada / flickr


Community control of land and energy in Scotland

In Scotland, some communities have benefited from land reform legislation to take control of the land and renewable energy resources in their area. This has particularly been the case on some of the Scottish islands, many of which had single landowners who lived away from their estates, or were under state control.

Increasingly, these communities have taken back control of the land, and used their renewable energy resources for the first time to generate an income for the wider community. Community Energy Scotland, an organisation with its roots in one of Scotland’s regional development agencies, has led the community energy movement in Scotland resulting in numerous community-owned wind and hydro schemes across the country.

Wind turbines on the Scottish Isla of Gigha

Colin G. Anderson


Examples include South Uist (Storas Uibhist) and the Isla of Gigha. Gigha is a small island which had suffered from a succession of remote private landlords. Many islanders had poor housing and no security of tenure under these landlords. In 2002 the land was bought out by the community, which then repaid in full the loans raised for this purchase. In 2005 they commissioned three small wind turbines which have produced a steady income which has been used to upgrade the housing stock. In 2012 they built a fourth wind turbine. This adds to the green energy that is in islanders’ control and uses a valuable resource to support local businesses.

An important aspect of the Gigha turbines is the confidence they have added to the community. Because Gigha was the first place to have a community-owned windfarm, the island has benefited greatly from other communities’ interest in the scheme. The turbines themselves are also a physical statement that the island is in community control and positive about a sustainable future. One clear sign of this is the fact that the island’s population has now risen from less than 100, ten years ago, to over 150 now.

A similar project by Storas Uibhist, the community trust which now runs the island of South Uist has three larger turbines. Elsewhere in Scotland, other community trusts are leasing land from the National Forest estate for hydro schemes where the community is the developer, owner and the full beneficiary of the project.

Community wind farm, South Uist

Christine McIntosh / flickr


Above: September 2013: Unser Hamburg - Unser Netz (Our Hamburg - Our Grid) activists successfully campaign for a ‘yes’ vote to return the energy grid to public ownership

Energy in public handsIn most countries where universal energy access has been achieved, it has been as a result of public investment in large-scale infrastructure to deliver electricity to every household. Public ownership of energy systems removes the profit motive, reducing incentives to raise prices. It also tends to improve energy access by directing investment in infrastructure to areas where it is most needed, such as more remote regions or low income communities, rather than sticking to the most profitable areas. In many countries the energy system has been kept in public hands or renationalised, as in the cases of Bolivia and Venezuela.

Uruguay is one country with public ownership of its energy system which is showing how a more just energy system could be achieved. The government has set ambitious targets for both ensuring everyone has access to energy and also shifting to more sustainable energy sources, both for electricity production and for other uses such as transport.

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To date, 99 per cent of the population of Uruguay has access to electricity and almost two-thirds is produced from renewable sources, mainly large-scale hydroelectric power. However, with climate change set to disrupt rainfall patterns, there are plans to diversify, particularly into wind power. Energy efficiency also plays a major role in Uruguay’s plans to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

The labour movement in Uruguay plays an active role in the energy sector and led successful opposition to attempts at privatisation in 1992. It is now engaged in proposals to democratise the state-owned energy company, UTE, which is responsible for most of the country’s electricity generation and is popular with Uruguayan citizens.

Localising public powerParticularly in Europe, local government control of energy is increasingly seen as a way of giving people greater democratic control of energy and other public goods such as water and transport. In many cases it is also leading to better services.

In Germany’s second largest city, Hamburg, citizens voted in September 2013 for their local council to buy back the energy grid from multinational companies E.On and Vattenfall. The change came following the Our Hamburg - Our Grid campaign which argued that these companies were failing to act in the best interest of local people and were delaying the shift to renewable energy.

In Berlin, a coalition of local organisations known as Berliner Energietisch (Berlin Energy Roundtable) campaigned for a similar referendum which saw 83 per cent of those who voted supporting plans for a social and ecological community-owned energy supplier to take over the management of Berlin’s energy grid. The plans included lower prices for poor consumers and strong democratic control with energy users and workers represented on the governing panel.

The turnout for the vote was just four per cent below what was needed to make the vote count, meaning that the plans are on hold for now. However, the result is still more democratic control because the local authority is planning to take forward a supplier project of its own, and the newly-founded Bürger Energie Berlin (Berlin energy co-operative) is aiming to take over the electricity grid.


Funding the energy revolutionIn Africa, the public sector is the main investor in the electricity sector, with nearly 90 per cent of investments being carried out by the state.

In some countries, government subsidies are being used to enable individuals and community groups to provide renewable energy. In the UK, thousands of people benefit from feed-in tariffs for small-scale solar and wind generation. The energy they generate is used for their own consumption and any extra is sold to the national grid, reducing their bills and helping to replace fossil fuel and nuclear energy sources with renewable energy production. In some areas, local councils and housing associations that provide housing to families on low incomes have taken advantage of the scheme to install solar panels on their housing, reducing their bills and also allowing the provider to recoup the costs of the panels.

The UK’s scheme was inspired by Germany’s Renewable Energy Act which was passed in 2000 and sees a similar feed-in tariff funded through German citizens’ energy bills. Today, over one-quarter of Germany’s electricity comes from renewable sources, almost four times 2000 levels. The renewable energy sector now employs 380,000 people (a ten-fold increase since 1998) and manufactures a third of the world’s solar panels and half its wind turbine rotors. It has also led to a shift from reliance on a few large energy companies to a more decentralised system, much of which is owned by individuals and co-operatives. Building on a strong tradition of co-operatives in sectors such as agriculture and banking, in recent years there has been an explosion in the number of new energy co-operatives setting up, from 101 in 2007 to 586 in 2011.

Similar schemes also exist in the global south. For example, the Peruvian government launched a scheme in 2013 to provide two million poor citizens with electricity through the installation of 12,500 solar panels. Through this programme, levels of energy access should reach 95 per cent by 2016.

There are now calls for a global feed-in tariff which would direct money from rich countries which have made large contributions to climate change to communities in developing countries to enable them to produce their own renewable energy.


Join the movementOver the past few decades, corporate control of our energy systems has become entrenched. The results have been disastrous: over a billion people remain without access to electricity. From Leeds to Lima, millions more struggle to afford the energy they need for daily life. At the same time, we remain heavily reliant on dirty energy sources that destroy communities and are contributing to disastrous climate change.

Those profiting from the global energy crisis want us to believe that our corporate-controlled energy system is the only way things can be. But across the globe, people are taking things into their own hands and building energy systems that work for people and the planet.

Whether it’s getting involved in a local renewable energy project, campaigning to get financial investments out of dirty energy schemes or joining a group like Fuel Poverty Action to stand up against fuel poverty and the stranglehold the Big Six energy companies have over our energy system in the UK, everyone can be involved.

Taking inspiration from communities around the world, we can all help bring about energy justice.

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Top: ‘People power’ - members of Westmill solar co-op celebrate at their first AGM

Top: A wind turbine is raised on the beach at dawn in Durban, South Africa on the eve of the 2011 climate talks. Front: Members of Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement with one of their handmade wind turbines. Photo: Katherine Haywood

Part of the Exploring Alternatives pamphlet seriesAnyone campaigning for change will regularly come across the question ‘so what is your alternative?’

It’s a question that often throws us. We have lived through 30 years of free market mantra in which corporate power, the efficiency of the private sector, and the need to appease financial institutions are never questioned. It is difficult for us to imagine, let alone express, what a different world might look like.

This series of short booklets is an attempt to help activists answer the question. It doesn’t give a prescription for what another world would look like. Rather, it draws on current struggles around the world to show that alternative models are being built right now.

The alternatives in this series give us a glimpse into a different sort of society. They are intended to provoke and inspire – to wake us from the nightmare of a world economy that revolves around profit and loss, so that we might imagine a world truly fit for human beings.

Produced by Global Justice Now (formerly the World Development Movement) as part of the Economic Justice Project. Global Justice Now works in solidarity with people in the global south to fight the causes of poverty and inequality. It is one of the organisations which is part of the Economic Justice Project. See www.globaljustice.org.uk and www.economicjusticeproject.org.uk

Design: www.revangeldesigns.co.uk

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