{"id":63110,"key":"Community_energy","title":"Community energy","latest":{"id":1274513,"timestamp":"2026-09-16T16:59:21Z"},"content_model":"wikitext","license":{"url":"https://www.appropedia.org/Appropedia:Copyrights","title":"CC-BY-SA-4.0"},"source":"[[File:Middelgrunden wind farm 2009.jpg|thumb]]\n\nThe aim of this page is to recognise, celebrate and encourage the self-empowerment of community agency networks ([[Citizens Action Network handbook|CANs]]) and community groups' activism for '''Community energy'''. Community energy is considered here in the context of the wider topic of [[Community energy#Sustainable energy|Sustainable energy]].\n\n{{Quote\n| text = My passion isn't for hydro, it's for people taking control of their own futures.\n| author = Ann Harding, Settle Hydro\n}}\n\n== News ==\n\n{{Card|text={{Newslist|keyword=Community energy|limit=3}}\n\n{{Read more|Community energy news}}}}\n\n== Video ==\n\n<div class=\"grid\">\n\n{{Video\n| video = yBsyg217kxg\n| title = To Catch the Sun - Small Scale Solar Book Introduction\n| authors = Lonny Grafman, Jul 28, 2021\n}}\n\n{{Video|GRvU-5OVhDM}}\n\n{{Video|-CYt13a6iD0}}\n\n</div>\n\n== Networks and support initiatives ==\n\n'''Creative Commons'''\n\n[https://www.lenses.polimi.it/ LeNSes] (Learing Network on Sustainable energy systems), multi-polar Network for curricula and lifelong learning capacity development focused on System Design for Sustainable Energy for All. It is a 3 year project (Oct 2013 - Oct 2016) funded by the European Commission (ACP-EU Edulink II), involving 3 design schools in [[Europe]] and 4 in [[Africa, community action for sustainability|Africa]].\n\n'''Other'''\n\n* 100% Renewable Energy Cities & Regions Network, [https://www.iclei.org/index.php?id=3339 iclei.org]\n* micro hydropower on [https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/microhydro/info Yahoo Groups]\n* Sustainable energy on [https://www.pinterest.com/explore/sustainable-energy/ pinterest]\n\n'''Organisations working with communities'''\n\n* [https://www.island-power.net/ Island Power], Renewable energy finance, ''added 17:32, 16 January 2025 (UTC)''\n\n== How to's ==\n\n{{Excerpt|To Catch the Sun}}\n\n* [https://www.microhydropower.net/download/layman2.pdf Laymans Guidebook on how to develop a small Hydro site] (11 MB +)\n\n== Maps ==\n\n* The world by renewable energy use, mapped, Jun 30, 2017, [https://www.indy100.com/article/renewable-energy-usage-mapped-world-europe-green-climate-change-electricity-7812636 indy100.com]\n* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160412215154/http://www.mapdwell.com:80/en/workwiththesun work with the sun®, Mapdwell]\n\n== Other resources ==\n\n* [https://microgridknowledge.com/ microgridknowledge.com], ''added 15:22, 10 February 2020 (UTC)''\n* [https://www.twoenergyfutures.org/ Two Energy Futures]\n\n'''Citizens data initiative'''\n\nIn developing countries, more than 1 billion people have no access to reliable electricity and more than 2.5 billion people rely on polluting and inefficient biomass and coal use for cooking and heating...[https://web.archive.org/web/20111128014225/http://www.wwf.org.uk:80/what_we_do/press_centre/?5417/WWF-to-IEA-Power-the-future-not-the-past wwf.org.uk].\n\n<div class=\"grid\">\n\n{{Video\n| video = apGEhHvu_0s\n| title = How a tiny Scottish island relies on wind, water, and solar energy\n| authors = BBC News, Nov, 2021\n}}\n\n{{Video\n| video = LDm_9gp__zE\n| title = We the Power Official Trailer, The Future of Energy is Community-Owned\n| authors = Patagonia, Apr 2, 2021\n}}\n\n{{Video|EYv7Opp7_cw}}\n\n{{Video|3h_Quso1QyM}}\n\n</div>\n\n[[Eigg community action]]\n\n== Community action projects ==\n\n* Microgeneration\n* Community energy projects\n* Energy awareness weeks\n* Promoting energy efficiency\n* Energy audits\n* Fuel poverty Projects\n* Energy Credit Unions\n* Community owned energy sources\n* Sustainable hydropower\n* Community solar gardens\n\n=== Energy poverty ===\n\nEnergy poverty is lack of access to modern energy services. It refers to the situation of large numbers of people in developing countries whose well-being is negatively affected by very low consumption of energy, use of dirty or polluting fuels, and excessive time spent collecting fuel to meet basic needs. It is inversely related to access to modern energy services, although improving access is only one factor in efforts to reduce energy poverty. Energy poverty is distinct from fuel poverty, which focuses solely on the issue of affordability.\n\nAccording to the Energy Poverty Action initiative of the World Economic Forum, \"Access to energy is fundamental to improving quality of life and is a key imperative for economic development. In the developing world, energy poverty is still rife. Nearly 1.6 billion people still have no access to electricity, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).\". As a result of this situation, a new UN initiative has been launched to coincide with the designation of 2012 as the International Year for Sustainable Energy for All, which has a major focus on reducing energy poverty. {{W|Energy poverty}}\n\n=== Community solar farm ===\n\n[[File:Westmill Solar Cooperative 1.jpg|thumb]]\n\nA community solar farm or garden is a [[solar power]] installation that accepts capital from and provides output credit and tax benefits to individual and other investors. In some systems you buy individual solar panels which are installed in the farm after your purchase. In others you purchase kW capacity or kWh of production. The farm's power output is credited to investors in proportion to their investment, with adjustments to reflect ongoing changes in capacity, technology, costs and electricity rates. Companies, cooperatives, governments or non-profits operate the farms.\n\nCentralizing the location of solar systems has advantages over residential installation that include:\n\n* Trees, roof size and/or configuration, adjacent buildings, the immediate [[microclimate]] and/or other factors which may reduce power output.\n* Building codes, zoning restrictions, homeowner association rules and aesthetic concerns.\n* Lack of skills and commitment to install and maintain solar systems.\n* Expanding participation to include renters and others who are not residential property owners. {{W|Community solar farm}}\n\nSee also: [[Community solar]]\n\n=== Decentralized energy ===\n\nDistributed energy, also district or decentralized energy is generated or stored by a variety of small, grid-connected devices referred to as distributed energy resources (DER) or distributed energy resource systems.\n\nConventional power stations, such as coal-fired, gas and nuclear powered plants, as well as hydroelectric dams and large-scale solar power stations, are centralized and often require electricity to be transmitted over long distances. By contrast, DER systems are decentralized, modular and more flexible technologies, that are located close to the load they serve, albeit having capacities of only 10 megawatts (MW) or less.\n\nDER systems typically use renewable energy sources, including small hydro, biomass, biogas, solar power, wind power, and geothermal power, and increasingly play an important role for the electric power distribution system. A grid-connected device for electricity storage can also be classified as a DER system, and is often called a distributed energy storage system (DESS). By means of an interface, DER systems can be managed and coordinated within a smart grid. Distributed generation and storage enables collection of energy from many sources and may lower environmental impacts and improve security of supply. {{W|Distributed generation}}\n\n=== Energy audit ===\n\nAn energy audit is an inspection, survey and analysis of energy flows for energy conservation in a building, process or system to reduce the amount of energy input into the system without negatively affecting the output(s). An energy audit is the first step in identifying opportunities to reduce energy expense and carbon footprints. {{W|Energy audit}}\n\n=== Energy efficiency ===\n\nAccording to the International Energy Agency, improved energy efficiency in buildings, industrial processes and transportation could reduce the world's energy needs in 2050 by one third, and help control global emissions of greenhouse gases.\n\nEnergy efficiency and renewable energy are said to be the twin pillars of sustainable energy policy and are high priorities in the sustainable energy hierarchy. In many countries energy efficiency is also seen to have a national security benefit because it can be used to reduce the level of energy imports from foreign countries and may slow down the rate at which domestic energy resources are depleted. {{W|Efficient energy use}}\n\n=== Microgeneration ===\n\nMicrogeneration is the small-scale generation of heat and electric power by individuals, small businesses and communities to meet their own needs, as alternatives or supplements to traditional centralized grid-connected power. Although this may be motivated by practical considerations, such as unreliable grid power or long distance from the electrical grid, the term is mainly used currently for environmentally conscious approaches that aspire to zero or low-carbon footprints or cost reduction. {{W|Microgeneration}}\n\n=== Microgrids ===\n\n{{Wikipedia excerpt|Distributed generation|Microgrid|paragraphs=4}}''- End Wikipedia Sourcing''\n\nMicrogrids are also noted to be a more reliable source of energy production and distribution than the larger microgrid system. This is due to their increased resilience to blackouts caused by extreme weather events and power shutoffs. Since microgrids can operate as an island system in the case of an event where power is lost from the main transmission lines into the macro grid system, microgrids are still able to function. Furthermore, microgrids can provide power to key infrastructure points that require a consistent source of power in order to operate effectively. This makes them potentially incredibly valuable when looking into he future of our energy distribution grid.\n\nMicrogrids can also help communities take control of their own power by decreasing it's reliance on the macro grid. This could help make electricity prices more affordable in these communities. They re also much easier to construct and maintain making them key when attempting to fight any areas experiencing an energy crisis. There are also government incentives attached to microgrids in order to make they more affordable, attached to their typical status as a renewable energy source...[https://www.pacificdataintegrators.com/insights/microgrid-pros-and-cons pacificdataintegrators.com]\n\n=== Sustainable community energy system ===\n\nA sustainable community energy system is an integrated approach to supplying a local community with its energy requirements from renewable energy or high-efficiency co-generation energy sources. The approach can be seen as a development of the distributed generation concept.\n\nSuch systems are based on a combination of district heating, district cooling, plus 'electricity generation islands' that are interlinked via a private wire electricity system (largely bypassing the normal power grid to cut transmission losses and charges, as well as increasing the robustness of the system). The surplus from one generating island can therefore be used to make up the deficit at another. {{W|Sustainable community energy system}}\n\n== Campaigns ==\n\n* [https://www.reclaimpower.net/ Reclaim Power], global collaboration connecting climate and energy struggles\n\n== Sustainable energy ==\n\nSustainable energy is defined, for the purposes of this article, as energy which, in its production or consumption, has minimal negative impacts on human health and the healthy functioning of vital ecological systems, including the global environment, and that can be supplied continuously to future generations on earth. Such forms of energy include, but are not limited to the following: [[solar thermal]], solar photo-voltaic (PV), wind, hybrid wind-solar, [[fuel cell]], [[geothermal]], small-scale (mini- and pico-) hydro-electric, tidal and wave. This definition specifically excludes nuclear and [[fossil fuel]] energy or their \"improvements\" as an option thereof...<ref>Nuclear power is sometimes presented as a sustainable, clean energy source. However, \"(a)s long as the limited supply of rich uranium ores hold out, the nuclear energy fuel chain does indeed, after about 7 years of operation, produce less [[CO2]] than a gas-burning plant. But when the uranium content of ores gets below around 0.05%, it becomes doubtful if nuclear power will lead to the production of any less CO2 than just burning fossil fuel directly.\" (IVEM Centre for Energy & Environmental Studies, University of Groningen, Netherlands, April 2001).\n\nFurther, \"at all stages of nuclear power generation, nuclear energy produces substantial amounts of waste and environmental pollution (from uranium mining tailings through to spent nuclear fuel, plutonium, and other highly radioactive wastes). [Although the nuclear reactor of a nuclear power station does not, in itself, produce any CO2,] the nuclear fuel chain is a significant source of carbon dioxide emissions; it causes radioactive contamination of the air, water and land…and encourages the proliferation of nuclear weapons…\" (Pacific News Bulletin, January 2001.)</ref>\n\n== Near you ==\n\n{{Map\n| category = Community energy by location\n}}\n\n{{Localtopic}}\n\n{{Basic needs footer}}\n\n'''See also''': [[Climate action]], [[Environment quality]], [[Localism]], [[Sustainable energy]], [[Sustainable transport activism]]\n\n{{CASwiki footer}}\n\n'''External links'''\n\n* [[Wikipedia:Sustainable energy]], [[Wikipedia:Microgeneration|Microgeneration]], [[Wikipedia:Community solar farm|Community solar farm]], [[Wikipedia:Appropriate technology#Energy generation and uses|Energy generation and uses]], [[Wikipedia:Energy harvesting|Energy harvesting]], [[Wikipedia:Efficient energy use|Efficient energy use]], [[Wikipedia:Cogeneration|Cogeneration]], [[Wikipedia:District heating|District heating]], [[Wikipedia:District cooling|District cooling]], [[Wikipedia:Energy audit|Energy audit]], [[Wikipedia:Energy hierarchy|Energy hierarchy]], [[Wikipedia:Stand-alone power system|Stand-alone power system]], [[Wikipedia:Category:Energy conservation|Energy conservation]] (category), [[Wikipedia:Category:Renewable energy|Renewable energy]] (category)\n* [https://wecaresolar.org/ We Care Solar ]\n* [https://www.wisions.net/ WISIONS]\n* [http://localpower.org/ World Alliance for Decentralized Energy] raises the profile of all forms of decentralized energy or distributed generation including renewable technologies such as solar PV and small scale wind power. {{W|World Alliance for Decentralized Energy}}\n\n'''Notes'''\n\n<references />\n\n{{Page data\n| license = CC-BY-SA-3.0\n| description = Community energy gives citizens power over renewables. Appropedia explains how shared projects cut costs and inspire collective action.\n}}\n\n[[Category:Community energy]]"}