This article originally was published on Yale Environment 360.
In the old medieval market town of Heilbronn, perched on the Neckar River in southwestern Germany, the zeal of the city’s award-winning renewable energy cooperative is on display just about everywhere. In this city of 126,000, solar panels adorn the roofs of homes, kindergartens and schools, municipal buildings and factory halls. The co-op, founded by 46 anti-nuclear energy activists in 2010, today boasts 1,150 members who collectively own two wind turbines and 48 solar farms, large and small, that spill out across city limits into surrounding towns and villages. The combined output of the co-op and other collectively owned, clean energy sources supplies the electricity for about a third of Heilbronn’s households.
Environmental News Network - As Big Energy Gains, Can Europe s Community Renewables Compete? enn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from enn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
As Big Energy Gains, Can Europe’s Community Renewables Compete?
Local wind and solar cooperatives have been instrumental in fostering Europe’s renewable energy growth. Now, as multinational corporations play an ever-larger role in efforts to decarbonize Europe’s economy, the EU is looking to bolster these grassroots clean-energy initiatives.
By Paul Hockenos
January 10, 2021
Re-Powering intern and an estate resident with the solar photo voltaic panels on the roof of Hackney council estate Bannister House, the first community solar installation on an estate in Hackney, London, United Kingdom. Credit: Andrew Aitchison/In pictures via Getty Images
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This article was originally published by Yale Environment 360. Read the original story here.