# Subcategories f.i. wind, solar etc # See also Make Commoning Work, Realms of Commoning # Projects # notes to be placed elsewhere later: Policy Proposals from ECA environment Energy encompasses electricity production, transportation and efficient use as well as mobility and heating systems. # Problem Giant gas pipelines, international grid connections and the support of large centralized energy companies and infrastructures are contradictory with the construction of a democratic energy system. By treating energy as a commodity, the EU creates a production-driven system, unable to respond to the urgent need of saving it (one of the key pillars to reduce CO2 emissions). The result is that we live in a state of "energy obesity" (as stated by John Byrne) under the control of large market actors, and which is hardly accessible to small actors (like co-ops). Proposals for "Energy commons" - a "commons-based" energy EU law that guarantees and facilitates the right of citizens and communities to produce, consume and manage their own renewable energy without legal, administrative or technical barriers. - Profits should remain within the communities/state hands Specific infrastructure like smart grids or storage should be implemented under civil control (i.e., data should belong to the communities) Data Commons Financial schemes should be designed to enable community energy to blossom (e.g., feed-in-tariffs, re-municipalization an others. This new paradigm would help to share appropriate energy technologies with communities of the Global South with the opening up of patent protections of climate-friendly technologies, especially those developed with EU and public funding. Cooperation should replace energy colonialism. # Existing experiences All over Europe, there are many energy co-ops organized into federations like the DGRV in Germany There is a European federation, which is already gathering knowledge and building capacity for enabling community energy, REScoop There are other models, like Sustainable Energy Utilities SEU, where energy is treated as a commons in the USA, e.g. the SEU Delaware. - Interesting experiments in Barcelona, where the municipality looks at the energy system in its globality and with a focus on fighting energy poverty.
# See also Make Commoning Work, Realms of Commoning
- Ateliers du Soleil, Vienne, France Europe, html 