Community owned energy production
Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2010 1:01 pm
Hi everyone, I'm fairly new to this site but thought i'd float an idea out there and see what people's experience or opinions on this are.
I like the idea of being self sufficient, but i think that it is far healthier to be community sufficient. With this in mind i've been thinking about the idea of community owned energy production. Has anyone encountered this or know of any places that already do this? What method of production are they using? What would work best? How could it be managed?
I'm sure that there are more efficient ways for a small community to be off-grid than for everyone to have their own turbines or solar panels. Surely it would be more efficient for that community to have one large turbine or similar. It would mean a more efficient production of energy, reduced maintenance costs, and would surely help towards that sense of interdependence.
The reason that i am putting this idea out there is because i am about to be moving to a new-build development where all of the houses have been built with some eco-features (maximising light, heat exchangers, sustainable building materials, ground drainage of greywater, etc.). Once all of the properties on this development have been sold, all of the home owners will automatically become members of the management company that will deal with maintenance on the site. I'm not sure how this will work in practice, but it seems like a great opportunity for the said community to do something like this. There will be about 150 homes on the development, and hopefully there will be a good proportion of home owners who have bought their home for similar eco reasons as i have and will therefore also be interested in this idea too.
Let me know what you think.
Martin
I like the idea of being self sufficient, but i think that it is far healthier to be community sufficient. With this in mind i've been thinking about the idea of community owned energy production. Has anyone encountered this or know of any places that already do this? What method of production are they using? What would work best? How could it be managed?
I'm sure that there are more efficient ways for a small community to be off-grid than for everyone to have their own turbines or solar panels. Surely it would be more efficient for that community to have one large turbine or similar. It would mean a more efficient production of energy, reduced maintenance costs, and would surely help towards that sense of interdependence.
The reason that i am putting this idea out there is because i am about to be moving to a new-build development where all of the houses have been built with some eco-features (maximising light, heat exchangers, sustainable building materials, ground drainage of greywater, etc.). Once all of the properties on this development have been sold, all of the home owners will automatically become members of the management company that will deal with maintenance on the site. I'm not sure how this will work in practice, but it seems like a great opportunity for the said community to do something like this. There will be about 150 homes on the development, and hopefully there will be a good proportion of home owners who have bought their home for similar eco reasons as i have and will therefore also be interested in this idea too.
Let me know what you think.
Martin