Community energy, just like ice cream, seems nice to everyone, but it comes in a number of flavours. Some people have their own favourite flavour, but some just don't seem to care. The Rt Hon Ed Davey recently blessed the ice cream counter that is community energy, declaring that he was a big fan, and then proceeded to give his views on his particular favourite flavour. He proposed a model whereby some local worthy running the local project collects all the locally produced electricity and then repackages it and sells it at a locally declared price. Maybe he does not realise that there are a number of options, or perhaps he does, and he believes that we would all like vanilla.
We were dismayed by his approach. Some of us actually like vanilla ice cream - that rich smooth creamy taste, with the exciting refreshing zest of the vanilla pod in it. What Mr Davey proposes is not even vanilla, it reminds us of school ice cream last century, made with non dairy vegetable fat and sprayed yellow to look authentic. We would name Mr Davey's flavour of community energy the local Stalin model. It is good for you, so do as you are told. We propose that if you generate your own power, you should sell it to whomever you choose, at whatever price you agree. What a flavour that would be - it could be clotted cream with raspberries, cherries and honeycomb. We call that a truly Local Energy Market.
If Mr Davey would like to contact us, we will gladly tell him how.
(Oh and by the way, local markets work. We like to know that ice cream is cheaper and better tasting in some shops than in others. For good ice cream see here.)
