£1bn for community owned clean energy
The United Kingdom's new Local Power Plan commits £1 billion to community owned clean energy, the biggest public investment of its kind in British history. Community groups, councils and cooperatives can access funding to build their own wind and solar projects and, crucially, keep the profits: money earned from local sunshine and wind gets reinvested in insulating homes, funding sports clubs and topping up community halls rather than flowing to distant shareholders.
Community energy has a track record of punching above its weight: places that own their power tend to welcome more of it, because the returns stay local. It's a model with lessons for everyone, Australia included, where community energy groups from Denmark in WA to Hepburn in Victoria have long shown that power, in every sense of the word, works best when it's shared.
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