Transition Town Maidenhead’s Energy Cooperative launched
By Ben Brangwyn 8th May 2010
Meeting the energy challenge head on, together
Transition Town Maidenhead has some very entrepreneurial characters. With the introduction of FITs (Feed in tariffs) for domestically produced energy, an opportunity has arisen for communities to save energy, reduce CO2 emissions, save money, create some wealth and share it around.
Three transitioners there have responded to that opportunity by creating an energy cooperative that they launched very recently. Here’s a quick description from their website:
- “Smart Energy is a renewable energy co-operative that has been formed to help householders and businesses benefit from the huge advantages of adopting renewable energy solutions. We negotiate group discounts for the bulk buying of solar installations and take a small percentage of that discount from the suppliers as our fee. From this, we will be able to provide annual dividends to the co-operative members.”
It’s early days for them, so don’t expect too much from their blogs and press releases right now. What you might learn a lot from, however, is their ideas, their approach and their timing.
From a wider perspective, the emergence of social enterprises from transition initiatives is a very welcome sign that employment and livelihoods are feasible and practicable as we navigate through our collective energy descent.
For more information, go to the www.smartenergy.coop/ website.