Voices of Community Energy podcast Community Power Agency

Our second 'explainer' into blockchain technology - we travel to New York to hear Scott Kessler of LO3 talk about the trial of peer-to-peer energy trading currently underway in Brooklyn.

In this short 'explainer' episode we're joined by Jemma Green, CEO of Power Ledger, who explains what blockchain is, why it's important to energy and what her company is doing with the technology.

Salt Spring Island is a progressive community across the water from Vancouver. Simon Wheeler is from England but now lives in British Columbia where he spends half his time on the island.

We met in the centre of downtown Vancouver to hear Simon’s story and how this island community have rallied around a project to put solar on the local secondary school, creating an outcome that inspired the whole community.

http://saltspringcommunityenergy.com/

British Colombia is one of the most difficult places in the world to make solar photovoltaics stack up financially. The Canadian province has huge hydro energy dams, providing as much as 80% of the power on the grid at a very low price. Solar installations are relatively expensive and the amount of electricity they produce isn’t particularly great.

This didn’t stop Rob Baxter and a team of intrepid pioneers from forming VREC - a worker-owned co-operative who install solar on houses and businesses in the Vancouver area. They’ve been at this now for years and today employ three people full-time and bring in part time workers when needed for installations.

The Latrobe Valley has been the heart of coal fire power generation in Victoria for decades, but as power stations like Hazelwood shut down they leave towns without jobs or a longterm plan for what's next. The Valley has become central to a nationwide discussion around a just transition - how to transition away from coal in a way that is fair for everyone.
For this episode, Bean spent some time with people on the frontlines of the fight for a just transition away from coal - Wendy Farmer from Voices of the Valley and Dan Musil from Earthworker. While Voices of the Valley is focused more on community health and Earthworker is working on setting up a co-operatively owned solar hot water heater factory, they both are advocates of community ownership. We discuss the historical context of this transition, their current work, and the role that community energy can play in a just transition.
http://www.votv.org.au/
http://earthworkercooperative.com.au/eurekas-future/