WHAT MESSAGE SHOULD WE TAKE BACK TO THE UK?
As our time comes to an end in Germany, we meet with Herr Gerlach at the BCS College in Sohl to discuss what we have learnt. Each of our team has their chance to say what they feel their trip has meant to them and Herr Gerlach nods his head in agreement...James Wing is impressed that the local people and region have not hesitated and have made bold moves to solve the energy problem. Herr Gerlach from BCS explained the 1994 Felix Strategy aimed to decrease solar costs by 50% and alongside a strong national PR campaign the solar movement started - this empowered the people they saw change and felt the change.
Ollie Pendered feels that back in the UK, energy needs to become localised and that communities need to empower/encourage the local authorities to work together to develop local energy companies whose profits go back into the communities.
Nick Cheyne-Brown has seen that the people we have met respect the regions’ environment and that this needs to be communicated back in the UK.
Nick Rouse is very impressed by the German engineering and that the town councils and local governments are so involved with their energy. In the UK our Towns and Councils used to own and run a lot of the local infrastructure but not anymore. Our local community energy companies cannot raise the money required to develop decentralised energy but to achieve this our local councils need to buy into this idea.
Richard Watson is concerned about the 25million houses in the UK built to be heated by cheap heat. Our task to insulate our homes in the UK is difficult, it is estimated that there are 8000 excess winter deaths and 3.5 million children complain about cold homes. Richard would like to see a European programme that links up with the centre of excellence at BTZ Rohr and with BCS to help develop an effective UK insulation solution.
Jason Hannah: the standard of UK education is stretched and he was impressed at BTZ Rohr that local companies were investing in state of the art equipment with a ratio of one teacher for three students. Herr Gerlach explained that BTZ Rohr was started by requests and pressure from the community and bottom up he went on to remind us that everything needs a good foundation to build a strong future.
For further information on this visit go to www.communityenergysouth.org.uk or contact Ollie@ovesco.co.uk