Energy cooperatives of consumers to producers of electricity. 862 there is in Germany. The industry relies on solar power and hopes for a recovery.
Weather permitting, Martina Pfaff rises on the flat roof of your new house. From the top you can see in the distance the peaks of the towers of the Cologne Cathedral. Pfaff and the other members of the housing cooperative have planted the roof for the bees. In addition to the Green, several rows of solar modules for the energy transition. The photovoltaic system (PV) is also part of a cooperative: “The energy winner EC” from Cologne. It operates a nationwide, primarily photovoltaic systems, but it also has some wind turbines and even a small water power plant. Anyone who wants to can become a member. Most of the solar modules of the “energy winner” in schools and gymnasiums. The idea is that even city residents to allow for the generation of electricity, which have no own or a suitable roof.
Read more: self-energy from the roof is the Trend
Billion for the energy transition
Three persons are sufficient to form a cooperative. With a few Hundred Euro is doing and has a say in everything. Each member has only one vote, no matter how much money it has put into it. Cooperatives have a long Tradition in Germany. The oldest citizens of mergers in the energy sector have already led to 90 years ago, the supply in remote areas.
The reactor accidents in Chernobyl and Fukushima have brought many people to look for an Alternative to nuclear power. The fixed long-term feed-in tariffs for green electricity made it all predictable. 855 energy cooperatives were founded between 2006 and 2017, according to information from the German cooperative Association (DGRV) to 95 percent of individuals. The over 180,000 members have invested since 2006, 2.5 billion Euro in energy from the sun, Wind, and biomass.
Martina Pfaff attaches importance to the cooperative thoughts: “What can not cope with the Individual, the group.”
“Make everything better”
Solar installer Kay Voßhenrich and sales specialist Ramon Kempt wanted an “energy co-operative, which makes everything better than Before”. You don’t want to bring them up on a volunteer basis, as do most, but professionally. It was not a question of financing the investments and to operate, but to plan it yourself and install it. With their spouses and friends, even children, were the ten people that bought in 2010, the first shares. Meanwhile, there are more than 600 members. A professional Team is implementing the plans, including, more recently, Eco-heat and E-Carsharing.
The cost of membership for people 50 Euro. In addition, it buys into one or several community projects: Where and how much, each person decides for themselves. “If I purchase a solar module, am I automatically connected with this specific project and with no one else,” says Kempt. You get annually its share of the income generated by the investment selected. The cost for the maintenance and insurance carrier community.
Wash and rinse with own power
Martina Pfaff became a member, purchased with her husband a year or two of the solar panels and use the electricity from the roof by yourself. “I realize that I’m two Times to think, if I’m running a dishwasher or washing machine overnight, or rather in the morning start,” she says. Whether you are saving money, can’t you tell. A small fee would be okay. It is important to beat the big energy companies is a trick, “so that not everything ends up in them. Because we have routes, the Problem of power and storage capacity. Of such problems has been much less – in my view anyway – if you go to the small local distribution”. Much value she places on the Cooperative idea, an intangible world cultural heritage by the way: “What can not cope with the Individual can reach the group”.
The Board of Directors of the energy winner: Ramon Kempt, Kay Voßhenrich, Frank Schillig (v. l.)
The direct wire
“Cooperatives have the benefit of the doubt to the people who want to invest money because we can not be of a grasshopper bought out,” stresses Voßhenrich. “We are also not a large company. Many come and talk with us before investing higher amounts.” Then the hand is still a solid product that You know where your own investment is that you can watch, and even generate Electricity. That is why many invest with preference in the own Region. But this is not a Must, at least, not in the “energy winners”.
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They have also built plants in Luxembourg and France. As the feed-in tariffs has been reduced, and the EEG levy increases, has many projects in Germany and is uneconomical, so Kempt. After a steep growth curve at the beginning of the decade, the establishment of energy cooperatives is stagnant overall, since 2014. However, photovoltaic panels are now much cheaper, and from the new EU-Directive, the industry expects a huge boost for the citizens energy.
Read more: slowdown for France’s wind energy
Own electricity without solar control
“I think she’s really good, because it tackles a very crucial point: the tax on self-power!”, so Voßhenrich. Plant operators that consume their own electricity themselves, do not have to pay the EEG levy, if you only have a few panels on the roof of the own house. Now, however, the EU release of the self-power up to 30 KW of this “sun tax,” says the owners: “there is no difference, whether I’m driving, plant operators, tenants, homeowners, or commercial of am. The Directive goes even further: the buildings in the immediate vicinity can also be tax-free with power supplies. And that will trigger, in my opinion, in an urban environment, a solar boom.”
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