What is the best way to give shape to locally owned energy production and -usage? This question is researched by the energy sectors’ pioneers, in collaboration with the Economy Transformers, within the Peer Governance-project. This two-year project started in 2021, soon bringing forth their own podcast. With this podcast, the participants aim to inspire and involve other energy pioneers in their search - and enthuse them for peer governance at the same time.
“Peer governance simply entails organizing things yourself - working our way up instead of down,” Damaris Matthijsen, founder of the Economy Transformers, explains. They have subscribed to researching how to shape a new economy.
Land, labor and funds
According to Damaris, people are well capable to coordinate their needs themselves. She says: “We ourselves can come up with what land is needed for food, what land we would want to cultivate and how we would want to generate energy. Within, we can make choices together. The reason we don’t make those ourselves is because we are stuck in a place between market laws and government.”
“The many crises we have gone through lately are a great example. You can tell how much it angers and frustrates people - it’s because they experience a loss of ownership. It leads to lots of people feeling that both our society and economy needs to radically change. But they don’t know how.” Damaris states that big changes will only occur when changing our views on land, labor and funds: the means of production for an economy’s businesses.
Deciding together
She explains: “The main problem of our current economy is that land, labor and funds have their own financial value. This way, it’s no wonder people have and keep their financial interests. Only when we lose those values, space grows to think about how to use the available production means.” Damaris calls this the ‘way of the commons’: communities that decide together on these issues.
The Peer Governance project started on the instructions of RVO, requested by the MVI-E (Maatschappelijk Verantwoord Innoveren Energie, or Societal Justified Innovation Energy, red.) program of Topsector Energie and TKI Urban Energy. In this project, Damaris works together with 12 energy sector pioneers. This group of practitioners comes together for 6 days of the year, alongside 6 online meetings. In these meetings, Damaris contributes theories as well as brings pioneer cases from practice.
A ‘financial thing’
Liesbeth Hanekroot is part of the group of practitioners. She is a board member and project leader at Kennemer Energie, which realizes collective energy production via solar power rooftops.
“Healthcare institutions, schools, sport clubs, unions, local governments and other companies and institutions provide their rooftops for this matter,” she says, “Neighbors join together to own these solar plants - sometimes construction owners use a share of the produced energy themselves.” Liesbet has been enthusiastic about peer governance.
“Energy has increasingly become more of a ‘financial thing’,” she explains. In her vision, this leads to unexplainable choices being made. “It’s not uncommon for people to invest € 10.000 or more in a new bathroom, or a car - things that don’t really have any financial gain to them. Funnily enough, they would only invest in solar power when there is something to gain financially.” Liesbet thinks this way of thinking has got to change. “Peer governance is not exclusively about personal financial benefits, but also about collective and communal importance and interest. And to invest in society, and the future.”
Group egoism
According to Damaris, a partnership is a solid organizational form for energy production. “Local energy cooperations can also go back to becoming small businesses with a profit motive. And it’s not uncommon for boards to lose contact with their members. That’s a place where group egoism can form, and we should look out for that,” she warms. “A partnership needs to be dispossessed, and financial results must flow back to the community. To community work, to education, science and music - so that everyone can profit. Otherwise, assets only stack up with certain people, resulting in new powerful financial interests.”
Fear to stand still
During their meetings, participants of the practitioners group do different exercises considering property, ownership, and sharing. “One of those exercises was about where you came across fear in today’s energy sector,” Damaris shares, “It yielded quite some interesting conversations: participants were sharing their fear of standing still, or their initiative being claimed by the government. An energy pioneers’ fear of standing out is also recognizable.”
Liesbet recognizes fear at large energy companies, also. “Just like with banks or governments, in energy companies a culture of risk management reigns,” she says, “And that makes perfect sense, since their position is being threatened. They are under pressure to change, but prefer to continue doing what they have always been doing. It makes me quite despondent, actually.” Damaris also sees this culture: “It can make you feel uneasy, especially since we’re all in different crises momentarily. It feels like change simply cannot wait. It has to be done - now!”
Actually changing the system
Change takes time, however, Damaris states. “We tend to want to cut and paste in the existing system for quick solutions. Peer governance, however, is not a quick fix. We actually have to change the system as a whole.” Liesbet complements: “Peer governance is about realizing you no longer wish to wait until big parties start to organize things for you. You can actually start moving towards something yourself - and one’s influence is greater than one might think. When this consciousness arises, space for peer government grows.”
‘Where do we want to go, and are we able to get there?’ is the question Liesbet decided to ask within Kennemer Energie. “And I have no fitting answer to that question,” she admits honestly, “Simply because this is not about technical or juridical matters, but personal incentives. And I hope we will be able to take a next step by having an open and honest conversation and investigating this together. Even when we haven’t exactly figured out how to do it. Because that’s okay, too.”
Podcast ‘Onze Energie’
Only recently, recordings for the new Peer Governance-podcast ‘Onze Energie’ (Our Energy, red.) started. With this podcast, the group of practitioners aims to involve others in their search for peer governance in the energy transition. “It’s going to be great,” Damaris enthusiastically says, “Almost all participants take their turn. They talk about how they themselves moved within the energy transition and the things they ran into. In what way the peer governance theory and experiences from others from the group helped them take action. My role in this is to clarify and enlighten certain issues - and to sketch the framework within which we research peer government and want to realize for the energy transition.”
Liesbet is also looking forward to her contribution to the podcast: “This project is filled with very special learning moments, which I am looking forward to share with others.”