by Les May
I have been an enthusiastic supporter of using wind turbines
to generate electricity for many years and shown I was ready to, 'put my money
where my mouth is', by buying shares in the Baywind Energy Co-operative. I have
a friend who tells me that anarchists support wind powered generators provided
they are 'local'. We have never quite got round to talking about what this
actually means.
In the early 1960s I did come across one very local scheme in
the Mendip hills. It used a windmill, as we called it then, to drive a car
dynamo to charge a couple of car batteries. My recollection is that we spent a
lot of time using candles.
So what do you need to make a 'local' scheme viable?
Robin Hood Energy set up by Nottingham city council is the
first local authority owned energy company run on a not-for-profit basis since
the market was nationalised in 1948.
The minimum pre-requisites for a viable local scheme seem to
be; standardisation of supply voltages and gas pressures etc, a single contact
point for emergencies caused by gas leakage etc and a market economy to ensure
continuity of supply.
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