SCCALE episode about public acceptance in energy community projects

City Stories by Energy Cities

No risk, no fun. No risk, no failure… This is what experienced somme energy community pioneers 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 managing 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 a project, co-funded by the EU, never happened. 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).