What are the high level aims for the organisation?
I: We have three main goals: increasing energy literacy, reducing energy demand and making renewable energy more accessible.
M: We wrote those four years ago and obviously, in that time, you change your assessment of what you’re doing and what’s useful, but I still think those headline aims are pretty much what we set out to do.
In the DNA of a transition to renewables is the potential for a new kind of energy system because it totally rewires the way in which energy is procured, generated, distributed and used. Putting solar panels on your roof means you are producing electricity and thus taking a huge chunk out of what your utility can sell you. So there is a big opportunity for localising energy systems and creating local energy markets.
There is this inherent challenge to the status quo in rooftop and local renewables. In theory we could end up in a situation where people are much closer to, and have a much greater stake in where their energy comes from and how it benefits them and their community. However, companies are waking up and smelling the coffee and starting to shift their business models. The chance for people to take more control may get lost, with that in mind I think a key aim for us is in unpacking the subject for people who might not have had a chance to engage with it.
There is a really interesting book I’ve been reading about the history of the ‘Energiewende’ [German for ‘Energy transition’]. It’s now a central tenet of German Government policy and grew out of anti nuclear sentiment in the 70’s and 80’s. One of the principles that was established in 1990 was the right of German citizens to sell electricity back to the grid.
I: I think it’s something that more and more people are going to be introduced to. If you go back five to ten years, solar power was very rare but nowadays it’s becoming more common. If you look at off-grid systems, five years ago the only people who would really consider that would be people who wanted to live in the middle of nowhere, but now there is more and more emphasis being put on things like micro-grids, hybrid energy systems and grid scale storage. So I think the stuff we’re doing is becoming more and more relevant.
What motivates you?
I: When the financial crash happened the company I was working for had to lay off 10% of their workforce. I knew there would be lots of people out there in the same position, all trying to go after whatever jobs were left, so I decided to try something different instead. I started by doing a bit of travelling and getting involved in campaigning and activism, so that’s essentially where I have come from to end up in this organisation.
Personally I really enjoy designing and making things. The work that DEE does essentially brings together a lot of things that I have been interested in for a long time and have been doing in isolation. This is the only time I have been able to do all of those things together in the same place. There are several related elements: the practical element of getting to design and make things; the campaigning element of focusing on an issue which I think is absolutely crucial; and the community engagement element.
M: What originally motivated me was just the idea of building a solar panel. I did a year of physics at university, then I changed course to do politics and philosophy so I quite enjoyed dusting off my physics knowledge and getting to grips with that side of things again. I have always been an environmentalist first and foremost so I had a strong motivation to learn more about energy.
I think the other thing I find refreshing is how much I enjoy doing the workshops. Watching the satisfaction people get from starting with nothing to seeing their phone charge from something they made is just inherently gratifying. When you’re with people and you’re doing practical stuff, it’s such a great antidote to digitalised modern life.
I am not naive about climate change or about the scale of the problem. However, I think if we can keep getting people to do something practical that relates to the problem, and if just 1% of those people get inspired and make it a bigger part of who they are and what they care about, then we have done our work. Sometimes that’s the most you can do.
I: I was just thinking about that because we are coming up on our 200th workshop. That means there are a few thousand people that have learned how they can generate their own clean energy, and those people have come from all over the world. A couple of weeks ago I did a workshop with a group based in Africa. They had all, individually, come up with the idea of doing small scale solar projects. I thought, why not get them together and flesh things out a bit more? They’re probably not all going to start something up, but I know that there will be people who have come to our workshops who will go away and do really amazing things.