Best Practices in Community Owned Alternative Energy

This paper is an outgrowth of the People, Power, and Planet Research Project which is a Canadian research project examining best practices in Community Energy in Canada and the world. The paper brings three streams of the... [ view full abstract ]

This paper is an outgrowth of the People, Power, and Planet Research Project which is a Canadian research project examining best practices in Community Energy in Canada and the world. The paper brings three streams of the research together for a snapshot of our latest research to highlight best practices in community energy in finance, policy and models, and in community economic development. Since the reach of community owned alternative energy is emerging at a local, regional, and global scale, this research topic has implications for the study of scaling up of social enterprises. Further, the paper enters into the emerging debate around how of social enterprise participate in the process of state deregulation, energy transition, and local, regional, and national development projects

The first stream of research examines the financial models used to fund community energy in different policy jurisdictions. We have examined both government and private sources of funding, and critically examine the discourses of social finance compared to the actual practices of social finance. Specifically we examine ideas of crowdsourcing, community bonds, and the role of credit unions in alternative energy development.

The second stream of research that this paper develops is a models map of types and policy frameworks of community energy. One of the fundamental findings of our research is that the linkage between policy frameworks and models of community owned energy is strong. It is important therefore to outline the types of community owned energy that emerge as a result of particular policies both to identify the limits and potential of policy frameworks, which this paper does. Part of this section is also an examination of how the technology employed by community energy are also important to the success of particular models of community energy under particular policy regimes. Four technologies in particular are examined: solar, wind, biomass and micro-hydro.

The third stream of research focuses on the ways in which community energy is being used to develop Aboriginal communities in Ontario, Canada. While the community needs and challenges in Aboriginal communities are not necessarily transferable to other depleted communities, the successes and failures of the Green Energy Act in these communities is a useful reminder of the potential of community owned alternative energy in creating positive development results. Our research therefore points towards the ways in which alternative energy policy can be instrumental in fostering truly transformational social enterprise.