From German and Indian best practice…
On yesterday’s weird and wonderful website Sidmouth Solarpunk a blog piece was put together suggesting “the solarpunk future isn’t speculative fiction but rather something that’s already materializing.”.
Or, to put it another way, as the piece did:, we’re looking at a world reorganized around renewable energy, genuine cooperation, and sustainable design that doesn’t sacrifice beauty or dignity in the process.
It looked at how the district of Vauban maintains one of Germany’s lowest neighborhood-scale carbon footprints while simultaneously achieving high resident satisfaction scores.
And it looked at how across Sub-Saharan Africa and increasingly throughout India, a new infrastructure model is emerging that bypasses centralized grid systems entirely in favor of distributed solar installations financed through pay-as-you-go systems enabled by mobile money platforms.
… to Sidmouth and East Devon best practice
A decade ago, the Vision Group for Sidmouth embarked on a a very active project: SidEnergy There was a big event with the 2014 Sidenergy launching its share offer – but it had to close down with the withdrawal of central government funding.
With the Climate Awareness Sidmouth Project, there has been some discussion and efforts looking at local energy production. Last year, Exeter Community Energy was at the ECO HUB Sidmouth, offering free advice on keeping cosy. But we have to be thinking about what might be an existential question for us here: Where is the Sid Valley going to get its energy from in the future?
The Vision Group for Sidmouth is on the mailing list of Power for People which is campaigning to push for local communities being able to do local energy production projects. And if you look at what’s happening with ‘decentralised energy distribution systems’ in other parts of the world, this is already happening, as the Sidmouth SolarPunk piece above demonstrates pretty clearly.
As for what’s actually happening in Sidmouth when it comes to ‘doing something about energy locally’, there have been quite a few initiatives. As part of the CAPS project, the Town Council bought an infra-red camera to help stop Sidmouth homes ‘leaking heat’. Over the years, the VGS and the Science Festival have organised visits to private homes to see what local residents have done to install renewable and energy-saving systems. There have also been trips to the East Devon Anaerobic Digestion plant (which also deals with our food waste, as well as generates energy).
To what extent this will help people save on their energy bills and incentivise them to buy a solar panel or two, is difficult to say, although central government might help, as households could be given interest-free loans to buy solar panels and heat pumps.
Well, over the coming year, the CAPS and Eco Hub projects, as well as the Science Festival, hope to share practical approaches on how we might up the amount of renewable energy in the Sid Valley!
Meanwhile, here’s some food for thought at tomorrow’s Café Scientifique: Water – The Ultimate Disruptive Energy Source?
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