Episode 03: Community Owned Energy - Dan McCallum
Inside the Episode with Dan McCallum, Co-Founder of Egni Cooperative and Awel Aman Tawe (AAT):
How does Community-Owned energy work and what is a ‘Cooperative’ model?
Two ‘Social Enterprises’ Combine: The Egni <> Merthyr Town FC Partnership
Predictions for the future of community-owned, decentralized energy
References:
Egni’s Share Offer Document outlining the Egni model in much greater detail
Resources for starting your own co-op:
Other Resources on Co-ops in the EU:
Ecopower - cooperative in Belgium
Energy Sparks - School-specific data platform on energy usage.
Encouraged Reading - Reimagining our socio-economic system through Cooperatives:
How to be an Anti-Capitalist in the 21st Century, Erik Olin Wright
Planet on Fire, A Manifesto for the Age of Environmental Breakdown
Background: Climate Innovation <—> Justice
At COP26 in Glasgow, a huge topic of conversation was the intersection of environmental justice and the development of new innovative technologies. New solar, wind, marine (and many more) technologies are becoming more mainstream everyday, driving our dependence on fossil fuels down, and that’s great. However, sometimes these new technologies are not built or implemented with ‘justice’ in mind - just profits for a few owners and/or investors. Therefore, multiple events and panel discussions each day dug into challenges and potential breakthroughs where these two concepts (climate innovation and climate justice) meet.
One question that was consistently asked of panelists by moderators and audience members was: ‘As a new project is getting up and running, how can you approach that work through a lens of justice for the community where the work is based?’
There were many different answers given across many different contexts, but a few motifs emerged… Well constructed projects entail:
Community engagement and participation - from the design of a project → implementation → ongoing maintenance and education on why it’s important.
Community Ownership - Community members actually own the assets of the project - Not always possible apparently depending on the context.
Keeping resources in the local community rather than extracting them.
Intro to Egni and Awel Amen Tawe
Thinking through the above criteria, I encountered what I believe are two important case studies based in Swansea, Wales - Egni Co-op and Awel Aman Tawe (AAT). While two different project names, they operate under the stewardship of the same team and charity umbrella organization, so you’ll sometimes see reference to them here as one entity.
Dan McCallum started Amel Awen Tawe with his partner, Emily, back in 2002 with the hope of generating a wind turbine in their local community. Passionate about sustainability and persistent in their pursuit, it took 14 years to actually get through all of the political and financial barriers, finally getting the turbine project approved in 2016 and commissioned (constructed and producing energy) by 2017. 3 Million pounds was fundraised from the community to support this project!
Egni quickly followed, adding a focus on solar PV panel energy generation - their current share offering (see more details below) aims to install up to 5MW of rooftop solar, the largest rollout of solar in Welsh history. They have raised 4.7 Million Pounds for Egni, closing in on their goal of 4.8 Million!
Egni and AAT have created fantastically unique partnerships with community organizations across the South of Wales. We heard about one such partnership briefly in our last conversation with Rob Davies at Merthyr Town FC. This case study today will get into some of the specifics of how they create partnerships, the unique organization structure they’ve been able to leverage, and why this might be a model that we can all learn from whether you’re starting a new organization from scratch or hoping to redefine an existing organization in pursuit of community energy and justice.
How it Works
The ‘Cooperative’ model and process for Egni is simple but profound:
Egni promotes ‘share offers’ to local community members, organizations, charities, trusts, and social enterprises. This allows all different types of people to become ‘Members’ of the project and invest in the development of a new solar panel, wind turbine, or ground source heat pump. Egni also sometimes donates shares to organizations, like schools, hoping to teach the local community about the ‘Cooperative’ model by including them as a Member.
Egni partners with a group like Merthyr Town FC, a school or a business to install the solar panels on their roofs.
‘Feed in Tariffs’ pay Egni back when they produce energy for the grid. They are then able to reliably offer a 4% return to community investors, repaid annually to Members as interest on the original initial investment. Partners who allow Egni to install solar on their property can buy the energy at a discount.
While the shares are mostly advertised to the community where the work is being done, Dan gave me the go-ahead to share this opportunity with the Brym network… So, if you’re interested in investing and joining this program, their current share offer is available now! HERE is some more info on how it all works and you can invest HERE. The share offer is still open through February 2022 but closing soon. The minimum investment is only 50 pounds and the maximum is 100k. For context, Dan says they’ve received an average investment of ~2-5k from ~1,200 total members.
A Social Enterprise Partnership: Merthyr Town FC <> Egni Cooperative
The partnership between Egni and Merthyr Town FC is a big win-win for both groups and serving as a great example for how we can re-imagine our energy system. These two social enterprises, both from the South of Wales, are working together to keep resources in the community, generate clean energy, and provide an income to local residents all at the same time.
Enabled by an Onsite Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) between the two parties, Egni designed and installed Solar Panels directly on Merthyr Town FC’s stadium. The football club then purchases energy from these panels at a fixed rate (20% lower than the alternative grid pricing from their existing supplier). Then, Egni, because of the Feed in Tarrifs mentioned above, are able to receive additional financial support back to pay their members their annual 4% return. Seems like a no-brainer…
However, it’s not all smooth sailing. While structuring share offers seems like a really successful community engagement and fundraising tool, Dan and his team still run into consistent challenges gaining council approvals from the local governing bodies. For example, as we heard from Rob at Merthyr Town FC, it took a year to complete the solar panel installation project on the roof of their stadium. However, only 3 weeks of that year were spent installing the panels. The other 11+ months were spent adapting their ‘lease agreement’ to accommodate the installation and then gaining approval from Merthyr Town Council.
In working with schools, retirement homes, and other more rural community organizations, Egni also frequently comes up against the technical challenge of plugging their power into the grid system… a barrier faced by many decentralized, micro-grid schemes.
However, one way or another, they are positioning the win-win components of these partnerships to navigate through governing bodies, achieving their goal of creating localized clean energy.
The Future of Energy is Community-Owned and Democratic
Big utilities are powerful. They control a lot of the energy produced in our world today along with the profits associated with that energy. But when I asked Dan what he thought the future of energy looked like, he spoke about the oncoming decentralization and democratization developing in our energy system. He mentioned some great examples from community owned solar, wind and ground sourced energy… to decentralized clean transportation in rural areas.
But the example he mentioned that most stuck out to me is unfolding as we speak in Berlin, Germany. The city government has ‘bought the grid’ out of the hands of big private utilities, the main company actually from Sweden. The goal of the city is to build an intricate distributed energy infrastructure over 35,000 square kilometers. There is a growing clean energy and mobility start-up environment in Berlin as well that the city is excited to partner with to re-design the new smart grid system. Maybe a few cooperatives will rise to the challenge to re-imagine what’s possible…
Thanks for reading! If you’re interested in getting in touch with Dan, let us know and we can make that happen. And if you’re thinking about starting a new idea, definitely consult the below ‘References’ section for different resources on how to think through that process.
