Energy Transition

I was very honoured to be awarded a 2015 Churchill Fellowship, to study energy transitions through the lens of community energy. I traveled in May 2016 to

  • Japan - smart grids and the tension between centralised nuclear and decentralised solar
  • Germany - spearheading change with a positive policy environment for the transition "Energiewende"
  • Denmark - pioneers in the move toward community approaches to renewable and efficient energy generation
  • UK - community as a platform for delivering energy programs and Scottish island communities demonstrating micro-grids
  • USA - travelling to the mecca, the Rocky Mountain Institute - thought leaders in this space for 30 years.

You can read more about my ambition on my initial blog about 'community-energy-pathway-to-a-different-energy-future'

My full report and summary is available on the Churchill website and as a download. My Blog offers a range of summaries for different audiences, snapshots of the experience and resources from each place I visited.

I also recommend a number of community energy resources:

- The Coalition for Community Energy (C4CE) is providing a 'backbone' to help all community energy initiatives collaborate and drive for policy and regulatory changes. I serve on the board of C4CE and Citizens Own Renewable Energy Network Australia (CORENA). www.corenafund.org.au

I have written an explainer, 'what is community energy?' and I regularly blog about our changing energy landscape.

- One Step off the Grid and its sister publication RenewEconomy collect a great suite of daily news about the nature of our changing energy landscape.