For nearly a century, it’s been considered conventional wisdom that larger-scale power generation means lower-cost electricity. This wisdom is built on two basic theories of economies of scale.
This report summarises the discussions and outcomes from an international workshop on energy democracy held in Amsterdam in February 2016. The workshop was organised by the Transnational Institute, in partnership with Global Justice Now, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Brussels Office, Platform London, Switched on London, Berlin Energy Roundtable, the Alternative Information and Development Centre, Public Services International, and the Trade Unions for Energy Democracy initiative.
Since its emergence within the German climate justice movement around the turn of the decade, the concept of “energy democracy” has begun to offer the seeds of a new political agenda for a progressive energy politics.
Already today, the energy transition in Europe is supplanting nuclear and coal power plants and will, at some point, be able to completely replace them. As Hermann Sheer incessantly emphasizes, this transition could also have positive social and political side effects.
An energy transition can only occur if there is a decisive shift in power towards workers, communities and the public energy democracy.