How to create a solidarity and renewable electricity system?
The climate crisis is already stifling. The next energy crisis could happen at any time. We feel helpless and vulnerable. But it doesn’t have to stay that way. Let’s take control of our electricity system! Let’s face the climate crisis and live better lives in the process!
Let’s make an energy revolution! Let’s make a change!
Our manifesto aims to bring this energy revolution to life. To imagine that the electricity system could be organised in a completely different way. To realise how electricity is all around our lives and determines our well-being. To realise that it is possible to formulate new principles. To see how we can make a difference.
The manifesto answers three questions.
Why should we change? We want an economy based on solidarity and cooperation. The electricity system should serve our basic social needs, not the logic of profit. We need to turn electricity supply into a bottom-up public service, not a market product. This requires democratic governance through participatory means.
What should we change? Our goal is a renewable electricity system. For 100% renewable generation, we need to change the electricity system. First and foremost, we need to radically reduce electricity use through a solidarity-based economic transformation that prioritises social needs beyond biological life support. System-wide flexibility must be made a basic principle for integrating intermittent renewable electricity generation.
How to make a difference? Making energy democracy a reality requires social change at many levels. Community energy initiatives can kick-start change, pioneering municipalities can amplify change, movement unions can transform energy companies from within, and ultimately democratic municipal and public utility companies can become the flagships of a solidarity-based economic electricity system.The aim of the manifesto is twofold: to provide guidance for the transformation of the electricity system for the solidarity economy and change agents, and to transform thinking about the future of the electricity system in the industry and beyond. The content of the manifesto is based on a related background study.