Cooperativism and green energy
Cooperativism and green energy
I have finally contracted my electricity with them. I didn't even know much about their story, but it's a nice example of cooperative success and EU-wide support among cooperatives.
Also, it looks like PT is fully renewable now anyways, no more coal!
I think what needs to be done now is evaluate the impact that each of these technologies have on the landscape.
Some people seem to have problems with the wind turbine noise and vibration, but as the turbines are placed on top of the hills not many people are affected. All turbines are placed by large corporations, as far as I know. This seems to be a little different in Germany if I remember well, anyone knows any details?
Hydro power has a large impact on the landscape, whole villages have been flooded an the people relocated, ancient common lands expropriated. But the remaining villages all have electricity now. There's irrigation water to grow many crops. Built by the state (nowadays, half-private state-adjacent corporations).
Solar panels can be used for smaller citizen investments like the above mentioned coopernico cooperative. But solar is not necessarily the best technology for everywhere - solar panels are high tech devices for a start, that I cannot produce or repair at home.
Whereas a hydro or wind generator will be based on simpler technology. I have, for example, a stream running through my land that could provide power during 9 month of the year. I'd have to go back into a lot of DIY, engineering, experimenting with no guarantee for success if I wanted to tap into it.
I'd say Portugal in general is on a good way, with a lot of room for improvement. I would want to see more microgeneration, and more citizen initiatives, I'm sure we can work on that!
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What surprised me was how little solar had been in Portugal and Spain. Most renewable growth had been wind. But that has been drastically changing in very recent years. This is a good thing in terms of citizen participation and cooperative ownerships, since solar is the easiest technology for ordinary people to possess and fully control. In terms of tech level, unless compared with diy small hydro or wind turbine, it is also the simplest among all the options for people who are not trying to build everything from scratch.
I like that Portugal finally starts to use energy that makes sense for its climate, but I've also seen the growth of solar and am not too sure I like the common way it's being done: buy the cheapest of lands in rural areas, and then plaster it with panels at 100% density. It looks awful, the whole landscape turns into a desert. So my approach would be to space the panels out more and use the shade they produce as shade for certain plants. I've seen both high density solar and artificial shade on blueberry plants constructed within the same town last year. I see herds suffering in full sun and workers with machines clean beneath panels. It's a bit insane and I will definitely inquire why that happens and how it could be changed.
If small-scale turbines for wind or hydro existed as a more normalized concept, you'd probably be able to repair them at your local tractor workshop. Solar panels can't really be repaired. I really wish we could get some people to produce more small scale hydro and wind harvesting devices, and that to become a thing.