A community energy revolution? Or: can we prove Kafka wrong? - 5th September 2014

One of the great things about working independently is that you only have yourself to answer to. So, while I’m grateful to the brilliant organisations I collaborate with on community energy (Co-operatives UK, Pure Leapfrog, Centre for Sustainable Energy to name a few) sometimes you just want to say exactly what you think, without having to represent anyone’s position. That’s (more…)

Want to buy a wind farm? Now’s your chance… - 16th April 2014

Perched on a fell above the Lakeland town of Ulverston, just down the road from me, are four wind turbines. They’ve been turning steadily since 1997. The turbines all look the same. But one of the four is very different. It was the first in the UK to be owned by local people, who established a co-operative to buy shares (more…)

Government backing for community energy - 27th January 2014

Community energy is, I hope, an idea whose time has come. I’ve worked on it for a long time: a scary seven years ago, I published this report, Grid 2.0, which argued that the energy system needed to be reshaped to put people at the centre, rather than placing them as consumers at the end of a long chain that (more…)

Flitting betweeen philosophers and firefighters: The Tyndall Centre’s Radical Emissions Reduction conference - 18th December 2013

I’ve just spent a fascinating couple of days at the Tyndall Centre’s conference on ‘Radical Emissions Reduction’, put together by the redoubtable Kevin Anderson and colleagues. The idea behind the event was simple: to amass evidence and share ideas on how to achieve a radical cut in carbon emissions, defined as eight per cent reductions per year for the UK. (more…)