An Idea - Energy Co-op

Submitted by James Purser on Sun, 22/03/2009 - 07:53

Just a random thought.

Around the country there are coops for everything. From market gardens, to insurance, banking and more. However, there doesn't seem to be too many energy co-ops.

I wonder what it would take to set one up. I'm thinking it would take the following form (warning this is coming off the top of my head, and hence is most likely to be wrong).

  • Each member must be producing enough energy to meet their own needs and be able to contribute to the collective store
  • There should be a way to be able to store the energy that each member contributes
  • Members should be able to purchase energy from the co-op.
  • The co-op might be able to onsell the energy (excess to requirements) to the wider grid.

Setting up an energy co-op would take a lot of work, however I think it might be interesting to chase down what would be required.

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Green Tech

Comments

Submitted by gurrier on Mon, 23/03/2009 - 08:45.

Actually, storage is by far the most difficult part of this.

Power storage is not terribly efficient so you really need to produce to meet current demand (this is a key factor in the Australian NEM on a rolling 5 minute target).

A "co-op" like this could just employ two-way meters and get some reduction in their overall usage by effectively pushing the meter backwards.  That would be the simplest approach once an actual source of power could be identified.

I suspect that when the technology is readily available and cost effective, the major generators or retailers would offer packages and have the energy source installed at your home on an annual contract.