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]]>In Spain, two private energy companies account for 80% of the country’s energy market, and green energy suppliers are scarce. In December 2010, 157 people decided to try to produce their own renewable energy, and set up Som Energia.
Some members signed up with the aim of doing something to create a post-fossil fuel economic order and experiment with new forms of democracy. Some were not happy with their electricity supplier, and many were already involved in other cooperatives or other political initiatives and were interested in the energy issue.
In January 2011 Som Energia started to apply for the necessary permits and soon after entered the market as a non-profit cooperative committed to producing 100% renewable energy from hydroelectric, solar, biomass and wind power. Its first project was a 100 kW solar project on an industrial building in Lleida. The installation started in early 2012 and by April it was fully functional. Eight more projects then got underway. Around 5000 members invested €11 million. At present the cooperative produces 10% of all its supplied energy, while the other 90% comes from certified green energy producers.
Board members and members of the technical team.
Today Som Energia collaborates with over 300 municipalities – 160 of them contracted it directly as their electricity supplier. Every member can share their membership with five others so that they do not have to pay the deposit fee of €100 – helping provide green electricity to people on lower incomes. Som Energia also collaborates with villages with less than 500 inhabitants, which can contract Som Energia without paying the €100 entrance fee.
Seven years after the cooperative started it has 44,600 members throughout Spain and 69,619 clients receiving 100% renewable energy – figures that continue to increase. In May 2016 through its project Generation kWh, a collectively owned solar field was set up – the first of its kind in the country – currently supplying 1,300 households. Its revenue amounted to €30 million in 2017.
“Som Energia is clearly a successful energy cooperative with a promising future. It has kept a sharp focus and built a solid reputation, spread not by costly advertising but mainly by face-to-face meetings, social media and some regular media. It is a worthy enterprise gaining a place in a market influenced by conventional business interests tied to conventional political forces. scale of the cooperative, the speed with which it’s been established and scaled up, the success of the initative, and the democratic innovation in its management”
– David Soggie
Transformative Cities’ Atlas of Utopias is being serialized on the P2P Foundation Blog. Go to TransformativeCities.org for updates.
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]]>The post Catalonia, Spain: Building a powerful regional network for energy sovereignty appeared first on P2P Foundation.
]]>Xse emerged when different organisations and individuals identified energy-related problems affecting local populations, including fracking, the managing of hydroelectric dams by private corporations and extremely high voltage power lines, and the building of a pipeline through Catalonia to transport gas from Algeria to Europe. It also wanted to challenge government obstruction of renewable energies, and collusion with companies that creates some of the highest electricity prices in Europe.
Resistance to Spain’s dominant energy model has existed for years, but associations, groups and individuals from all over the Catalonian territory came together for the first time at the Day of Action for a Change of Model towards Energy Sovereignty in June in 2013. A few months later the Xarxa per la sobirania energètica (Xse) de Catalunya was formed to create an energy future based on democracy and social control of energy production, sustainability and, decentralization and being rooted in Catalonia.
Xse works through four ‘hubs’ or active local committees (Barcelona, Girona, Tarragona and Mallorca) and most of its resources come from member organizations. Its ‘energy municipalisation’ working group aims to re-municipalise the power grid inspired by German models, such as those in Hamburg and Berlin. It also works with lawyers specifically to analyse the regulations of the Spanish energy sector to study the possibility of shifting to a municipal energy model. This municipalist proposal has been largely supported by civil society organizations, individuals and political parties.
The Catalonian climate change law, advocated together with the Climate Justice Movement and adopted this September, includes a ban on fracking in Catalonia, the dismantling of nuclear power plants and a proposal to create a fossil-fuel-free Mediterranean. This law is nowadays suspended by the Spanish Constitutional Court.
Volt 4, group photo.
Moreover, one of their main annual activities, el VOLT, gathers dozens of activists weaving networks around the catalan territory, inspired in the Oligotox tours of Latinamerica, claiming environmental and social justice for the global and local Souths from a ecofeminist perspective.
“It is truly impressive the wide range of organizations that are engaged in the network and how much they have managed to accomplish in a very short period of time (less than 5 years!), including passing several municipal and provincial laws and regulations.”
– Lorena Zarate
Would you like to learn more about this initiative? Please contact us.
Or visit xse.cat
Transformative Cities’ Atlas of Utopias is being serialized on the P2P Foundation Blog. Go to TransformativeCities.org for updates.
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]]>The post Team Human: Pia Mancini “No Shame! Towards a Cooperative Economy” appeared first on P2P Foundation.
]]>Playing for Team Human today is Pia Mancini. Pia is a visionary democracy activist who co-founded the Net Party in Argentina and DemocracyOS. Pia joins Douglas to talk about her new project Open Collective.
Open Collective is platform that helps small, non-traditional organizations to collectivize, raise funds, and manage expenses in a networked and transparent fashion. Open Collective is a useful resource for listeners who are trying to build sustainable funding for their local community group, political organization, and even school club. Pia explains how Open Collectives not only is helping to fund a growing number of unique organizations, but signals a future where transparent, collective partnerships might foster new models of democratic participation and exchange of resources.
Douglas begins today’s show with a monologue on shame. How is shame used as an instrument of social control? Rushkoff advances a thesis on how open, transparent social organizing, like what is being fostered by Pia and Open Collective, counters shame and enhances our ability to forge solidarity.
Learn More About Pia’s Work:
Pia’s 2014 TED talk
Pia’s Medium blog
Cross posted from Teamhuman.fm
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