Navigating public perception on renewable energy projects

No risk, no fun. But we all know that risk may mean failure… This is what some energy community pioneers experienced on the Aland islands, an archipelago between Finland and Sweden. In the municipality of Kökar an energy community around solar, urban wind and storage was meant to bring new flexibility to the island’s energy system. You will hear that this has turned into a bad adventure with 1 or 2 strong and loud opponents who managed to sabotage the project.

I’ve spoken about navigating public perception of local energy projects with Niclas Karlsson who is Municipal Director of Kökar, one of the small municipalities of Aland (300 inhabitants) and Jonas Holmstrom who is working for the energy company Flexens. The energy community planned in the framework of the LocalRes project, co-funded by the EU, never came to light. What can developers and local governments do when they have a renewable energy project but are running into public resistance? How to make people understand that there is more to gain than to lose?

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.