Strasburg’s first energy community: a long exciting ride

In this episode we want to understand how a very young energy community in Strasburg, in the North-East of France, came into being. Where did it all begin with this cooperative called the Brasseurs d’Energie (which means Energy Brewers)? What role did the city council play? And how challenging was the cooperation between citizens and the administration?

Jacqui Cullen, an Irish-born cooperative member and Gerard Pol Gili, a Spaniard who heads the renewables department of Strasburg City and Metropolitan area tell us their story: the first contact between cooperative and local administration, the business development and collective learning process, their personal excitement and the remaining administrative procedures. The success of their efforts and their big enthusiasm are very encourgaging!

Gerard and Jaqui took part in the ECF Collaboration Lab on October 2020 together with delegates from Pamplona and Modena.

The European Climate Foundation (ECF) is an international non-profit organization whose aims are to promote climate and energy policies that reduce Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions and help Europe play a stronger international leadership role in mitigating climate change.

This episode was recorded via internet. It is part of “City Stories” which is brought to you by the EU project mPower. mPower explores how cities and citizens can manage the energy transition together – in a fair, clean and democratic way. Participation can happen at various stages: from involving citizens, local NGOs or businesses in the policy design to any stage of the energy value chain: for example as shareholders or even prosumers. The mPower project gets funding from the European Horizon 2020 programme.