With energy bills reaching record highs across Europe, this week the Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo warned that the next 5-10 winters would be difficult for the bloc. Interestingly, in Belgium this has led to a spike in demand for renewable energy cooperatives. One thirty-year-old cooperative, Ecopower, supplies households with energy at production cost and says its customers are now facing annual energy bills of around €570, half the price of the cheapest commercial provider. Last year the firm’s wind and solar power produced 80 million kWh, enough to power 55,000 households.
About Ecopower - Dirk and fellow members of his community founded Ecopower. Its first renewable electricity sparked in the 1980s by converting an old watermill. Dirk still lives at this watermill, a beautiful place he still shares with his family and with friends. Slowly but surely, the project became an energy cooperative, with growing members helping it to install new wind turbines and solar panels. Today the cooperative powers more than 50,000 homes with 100% renewable energy. Ecopower brings people together who want to invest in renewable energy and energy efficiency. Its aim is to increase investments in renewable energy; to supply 100% green electricity to its members; and to promote energy savings and cooperatives. Being a cooperative means that it does not make a profit on its energy supply activities – rather, all surplus is reinvested in new renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. Ecopower’s cooperative members all share a personal interest in the development of a sustainable future. They can each buy up to a maximum of 20 shares, and each of the 58,000 members has one vote in the general assembly. If someone can’t financially afford a share, there are solutions offered to be able to join the cooperative. Today, the cooperative supplies roughly 1.64% of household electricity in Flanders – with 23 wind turbines, 3 small hydro power installations, 1 co-generation installation and 322 decentralised solar PV installations on the roofs of schools and houses.
Watch a video on Ecopower
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