Fighting for Local Power: how a UK Bill seeks to support local energy producers

Register today for the third SONNET online seminar! The event will dive into campaigning on local renewable energy, exploring the example of the (currently being debated) "Local Electricity Bill" in the UK, which aims at enabling local energy producers to directly sell their energy and thus create a market for decentralised renewable energy systems.

Community-scale renewable energy has great potential to help decarbonise local economies, while benefiting local communities. Unfortunately, this potential is too often blocked by high supply costs and a lack of opportunities to sell generated energy directly to local people.

During this online seminar, we will explore what the Local Electricity Bill is all about and what the chances are of making it the law in the UK. We will learn more about the campaigning process, with a presentation from Steve Shaw, Director of "Power for People" and initiator of the Bill.

David Gray – Energy Supply Programme Manager at the City of Bristol – will speak about the Bill from a local government perspective. Bristol is considering conducting a trial of a local version of this model, in which people generating wind and solar close to the city can sell their energy directly to consumers through the grid network.

Finally, the discussion will be enriched with contributions from Cyrill Burch, founder and manager of Zevvy, a start-up working on peer-to-peer residential photovoltaic (PV) solar energy trading. Cyrill will bring in a Swiss perspective, as Switzerland is far ahead when it comes to supporting local renewable energy. We will discuss the opportunities andrisks of adapting the Swiss model to the British context.

Click here to register today!