Summary In the midst of a seemingly rich Germany, numerous towns, villages and rural districts are broke. The pathway to insolvency typically includes the following steps. Over the course of ten to twenty years, a community heaps up debt because revenue is permanently too low. To raise funds, towns then sell assets and establish public-private…
Summary The energy transition in Scotland profits from a land reform that has inverted historic property relations. Historically, Scotland is viewed as one of the most important examples for the enclosure of the commons.[1] Up until the 19th century, large estates in Scotland were still being commodified [2] and sold. More often than not, the…
Ungersheim, a former mining town in the Alsace region, has successfully implemented a local socio-ecological transition strategy. Their success was based on the town autonomously designing its transition pathway, instead of following French government guidelines.[1] As the mayor, François Mensch, tells us, there are three dimensions to Ungersheim’s autonomy. The first two obvious dimensions are…
In 2003, Machynlleth, a small town in central Wales with 2,200 inhabitants and a small tourism industry, erected Wales’ first community-owned wind turbine. The path there was stony and only crowned by success thanks to the commitment of long-term volunteers.
Background The project Retenergie developed in the region of Piedmont in 2007. A group of friends and activists from various ecology movements decided to initiate a project and jointly invest in a set of PV panels. At first they called this project simply Solare Collettivo, solar collective. The commercial PV project “adopt one kilowatt hour” …