What is an energy citizen? How can we become one?

The current energy and cost of living crisis leaves no doubt: we need to create a worldwide movement of citizens who produce, store and manage their own energy. Active energy citizenship can be one way to navigate the complexity of our world. How can we make change happen together, not only as individuals but as team players?

Today’s guests will explore this question on how we can create a culture of energy citizenship. I sit together with two inspiring women: Dr BinBin Pearce who is researcher at TU Delft and Margot Vingerhoedt who is Head of communications, marketing and press for the Belgian cooperative Ecopower. While BinBin has been looking into the sociological dimension of collaboration using inputs from environmental science, Margot spends her everyday job life convincing Mr and Mrs Smith to plug themselves into the renewable energy cooperative and to play their part in the energy transition. Let’s see whether, together, we can map paths into a future where the individual and “the system” do interact much more.

This episode was produced with support from SCCALE 20-30-50. SCCALE is an EU project (Horizon 2020 programme) which makes collaboration happen to get many more energy communities up and running. The people behind SCCALE203050 work on a methodology and toolkit for citizens, cities and policy makers. If you, too, want to see more local energy communities across Europe, check out the toolkit and explore all of the project’s resources at the website sccale203050.eu.