Collective Power: changing the way we consume energy

By Hugh Goulbourne / @communityenergy

Rising and volatile energy costs will increasingly be a source of major difficulty for households and businesses over the next 5 years. Many experts believe that we will see global energy shortages by 2012, a problem that will be compounded by the challenge of climate change.

‘Collective Power’ is a concept which we use to describe what we believe will be an essential new era of working together at a community level to confront our energy-challenged and climate change-constrained future head-on. It proposes a simple way in which ordinary people can come together to take control over their energy costs and gain power in the climate change debate.

We all know that the long-term future of our economy and planet is at stake – if we do not take stock now and reduce our reliance on carbon-based oil and gas for our energy needs then we are heading for a massive energy crunch and global climate catastrophe. But what has been missing up until now has been the question of ‘how?’: what sort of structure can provide a vehicle through which communities up and down the country can both reduce and meet their energy needs; and how can we ensure that all people, not just the few, will be able to share in the gains of the new energy infrastructure that is created?

The answer is that we need greater community ownership. Ownership creates not just control but also confidence and self interest, the two key components for encouraging us to engage in any particular project or course of action. Through collectively pooling their purchasing power, residents, local businesses and public sector organisations can all come together to save money and help tackle the threat of climate change. Banding together in this way, energy co-operatives are able to purchase their own energy on the wholesale energy market and negotiate affordable deals for state-of-the-art smart metering technology. This should allow households to realise savings of between 10-20% on average.

While these organisations may begin as a practical expression of self-help, they have the capacity to revolutionise the way in which we purchase and produce energy. Once established, the co-operative forms a framework through which ordinary people can build and own an infrastructure that will reduce their long-term energy costs and manage the reduction of their carbon emissions.

Ed Miliband, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, has stated that protecting the future of our planet:

“requires actions by individuals, but nobody believes that a wind turbine on your roof alone is going to solve the energy challenge on its own. These things are not worth doing unless everybody does them, so it requires us to come together collectively and act.”

The opportunity exists to create a new social movement that can ensure that we are all able to make the change to an energy-efficient economy. What some might consider to be a wasteful economy has led all of us into difficulties, and for which we may be paying the price for a number of years. There has never been a better time for communities to join together to build a sustainable energy future for the UK.

Hugh Goulbourne, with Robbie Erbmann and Piya Malik, is the author of the Co-operative Party pamphlet Collective Power: Changing the way we consume energy, launched this weekend and available at www.party.coop.