Community energy: A practical guide to reclaiming power

Founded in Portugal in 2013, Coopérnico is a renewable energy cooperative that harnesses solar power for the benefit of the local community. It started when founder Nuno Brito brought together 16 citizens to invest in a small solar plant. They now have more than 1,800 members, that invested over 1.7 million Euro in 28 solar stations, with a total peak capacity installed of about 1.9 MWp. As they are in southern Europe in Portugal focusing on Solar makes a lot of sense, but look around in your area and see if perhaps wind or hydro is more suitable.

One way that the cooperative works is that it rents the roofs of socially-orientated institutions for its PV projects, providing those institutions with extra income. At the end of the lease, the co-operative will offer the solar apparatus to the hosting institutions for free. The energy produced on these rooftops is fed into the grid and bought by the distributor at a fixed price.

Coopérnico is also active in the retail sector, which means that they can directly sell electricity to their members at a fair price, guaranteeing that the amount of electricity produced by Coopérnico’s projects is more than the one consumed by its members. This is part of what has allowed them to become very successful.

Currently Coopérnico is focused on three main areas – renewable energy production, the commercialization of energy for its members and energy efficiency. They have a mission that included these four points:

1. 100% renewable energy all electricity is produced exclusively from renewable energy sources
2. Social value creation all their projects create social value, either by close collaboration or the sharing of revenues with organizations operating in the social economy
3. Developing local economy they prioritize working with local partners when they develop a new project. This creates local jobs and promotes the transition to a sustainable economy
4. Integrity and transparency Coopérnico see these as the basis for long and trusting relationships. Updated information on their projects is shared with all the members that have supported them.

Som Energia means “we are energy” in Catalan. Som Energia was the first energy cooperative established in Spain. The cooperative was founded by 150 citizens in 2010, who were inspired by Ecopower in Belgium and Enercoop in France. Most citizens can’t afford to build wind, hydro or solar projects alone, but Som Energia offered the possibility to work together to support renewable energy from regional sources. The non-profit organisation started out by purchasing local green energy from existing sources, so members could buy affordable electricity.

Meanwhile, Som Energia built its own solar installations and worked on new renewable production projects with its local groups. The goal was to produce enough electricity to meet 100% of the members’ consumption.

Seven years later, the project had 47,000 members. Today, Som Energia has nearly 68.000 members. To date, more than six thousand members invested a total of €15,000,000 in the project. After the Spanish government suddenly stopped providing financial support, Som Energia came up with an innovative new financing system called Generation kWh, to set up new projects against market price.

Consumers supplied by Som Energia are not just customers but co-owners of the cooperative, who participate in decision-making. They can also invest directly in the development of renewable energy. Som Energia combines the cooperative model, peoples’ commitment and renewable energy generation in an inspiring way, offering every person in Spain the chance to participate in the transition, and invest directly in renewable projects to develop a sustainable economy, a growing grassroots demand.