Empowering the People: A Grassroots Clean Energy Boom
As I walked through the mountain town of Adjuntas, Puerto Rico, I was struck by the sight of solar panels adorning the roofs of most homes and businesses. These affordable, reliable, and resilient systems have spearheaded a grassroots, decentralized clean energy boom throughout a region that has been pummeled by extreme weather events, repeatedly collapsing the island’s centralized, fossil-fueled electric grid.
This community-led effort was borne out of necessity. The government continues to invest billions propping up its failed fossil-fueled system, rather than meet its legal mandate to rapidly decarbonize by next year. In the absence of political leadership, Puerto Rico’s civil society groups have stepped up to make rooftop solar and battery storage systems accessible to everyone, empowering low-to-moderate income residents and local business owners to achieve energy security, independence, and peace of mind in the wake of the next storm.
As an advocate for community groups in court, I’m amazed by what I’m witnessing. Communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis are embracing clean energy to reclaim their power, both literally and figuratively, from the shackles of fossil fuel dependency. So why hasn’t this translated into mass adoption of clean energy technology nationwide?
Overcoming Industry Narratives and Pop Culture Barriers
Well, despite all the buzz surrounding historic climate legislation, American pop culture still overwhelmingly reinforces messaging put out by the fossil fuel industry that tells us society just isn’t ready to say goodbye to oil and gas. Culture change always precedes policy change, and for decades, industry has successfully framed zero-emission technology as unrealistic and elitist compared to the “working man’s old faithful” oil and gas.
This narrative has become increasingly difficult to maintain as global price shocks and extreme weather events shut down fossil fuel-dependent systems, saddle customers with enormous utility bills, and send food and fuel prices soaring. Despite this, the industry continues to be effective at prolonging its chokehold over our energy system because of its multi-million dollar greenwashing ad campaigns and enormous financial influence over elected officials and news media.
Fortunately, the millions of us whose health, homes, and safety have been upended by the fossil fuel industry have a powerful, cost-effective tool to push back: our lived experiences. That’s why, to win the clean energy economy we deserve, we need to lean into storytelling as a vehicle for systems change.
Harnessing the Power of Pop Culture and Narrative
My home state of California is perfectly suited to make this happen. Among the hardest hit by the climate crisis, the Golden State is a global epicenter for both the entertainment industry and clean energy innovation. Integrating climate narratives into pop culture has immense power to change hearts and minds – there’s data to back this up.
According to the Good Energy Climate Playbook, the belief that others are already engaging in climate action is the greatest predictor of what will inspire individual action, far more than political affiliation or concern about climate change. It’s cliché to say, but representation matters. TV shows, movies, music, and cultural events that normalize working-class communities adopting affordable zero-emission technology will empower audiences to make these changes in their own lives.
On April 11, San Juan, Puerto Rico, hosted the Concert for Energy Independence, a celebration that brought together artists from all over the world, united in the fight to demand a clean energy system that is accessible to all. Cultural moments like this, which champion the perspectives of working-class people, are how we take back the narrative around the clean energy transition away from industry-engineered false solutions.
Solving the climate crisis using artistry and storytelling might seem like a strange approach to a scientist or political staffer, but pop culture has always been fundamental to realizing transformative change. As an artist who grew up in Oakland in the 80s and 90s, I witnessed my community be torn apart by the catastrophic war on drugs that unjustly vilified and incarcerated people of color. Never mind that this scheme did nothing to address the real drivers of drug abuse – it was simply a cover for politicians to justify the intensified criminalization of Black people whose imprint over American pop culture posed an existential threat to the political status quo.
In much the same way, a grassroots clean energy transition that prioritizes the working class threatens the oil and gas industry’s entire business model – that’s why it has spent decades trying to convince us that such a transition is nothing more than a fever dream. Our best defense against this propaganda is our lived experience. It’s time that we reflect that experience through the stories that we tell.
Community-Driven Renewable Energy Solutions
Across Latin America, countless communities are building energy alternatives that pave the way for real transformation. These efforts go beyond technological change, rethinking our entire energy model so that it strengthens community control, minimizes waste, increases access to healthy food and clean water, and regenerates our environment.
One shining example is the Community Light in the Zona Reina project in Guatemala, where several Mayan communities in the department of Quiché promote energy autonomy through the use of community turbines. These turbines emerged in communities displaced during the armed conflict from the late 1950s and particularly in the 1980s. The first initiative faced many difficulties as they defied the corporate hydroelectric model that dispossesses communities of their lands and natural assets. However, the idea of community-run electricity spread to other communities, and with the support of the Madreselva Ecological Collective, more than 60 have adopted this initiative.
The turbines generate considerable benefits for the local community, and the fees managed by local authorities are affordable. They have also implemented community-based forest protection programmes and agroecological farming practices. Young trainees maintain the infrastructure, and the Collective continues to support projects and promote autonomy and a dignified life, even in the face of extractivist models.
Another example is the use of biomass to generate energy through the Colombian Network of Biomass Energy, RedBioCol, a member of the Biolac Network. This initiative uses waste in biodigesters to reduce pressure on forests and jungles, generate energy, and reduce the costs of energy supply and fertilizers. It thus defies the energy and agri-food system that makes families dependent on expensive energy inputs and costs. The generation of gas from waste has strengthened local economies by adding value to their products and strengthening their energy autonomy.
These community-based energy systems recognize and integrate multiple energy flows, ranging from the sun, food, and human energy to various production processes. They are designed to respond to various community needs and regard relationships as ongoing mutual exchanges among different elements of nature, rather than simply market transactions.
Women’s Pivotal Role in Sustainable Energy Transitions
Women play a crucial role in developing and sustaining these initiatives, contributing to projects whose main objective is to build a dignified life, ensure their permanence in the territories, and promote good living for their families and communities. Often without thinking of themselves as feminists, the women engage in anti-patriarchal, anti-capitalist, and anti-extractivist practices, and promote an alternative cosmovision that focuses on eco-dependence and interdependence, the fight against the commodification of water, land, and energy, and the defence of territorial autonomy.
The experience of the Mujeres de Roble Greenhouse in the Valle del Cauca, Colombia, is a noteworthy example. These Afro-descendant women have installed cisterns and a rainwater-harvesting system, meaning they no longer need to travel long distances to fetch water. Furthermore, the greenhouse is now equipped with solar panels that enable them to harvest solar energy for various activities, allowing them to spend more time with their co-workers. The greenhouse has also become a source of income as it is where they grow and transform medicinal plants into health products, contributing to their economic autonomy and strengthening their community role in recuperating ancestral knowledge.
Another example is the efficient wood-burning stoves and wood gardens for community-based forest conservation and good living, which help reduce deforestation and improve women’s health by reducing the respiratory problems caused by traditional wood stoves. These initiatives demonstrate how community-driven renewable energy solutions can address multiple facets of sustainable development, from energy access and environmental conservation to gender equality and cultural preservation.
Overcoming Challenges and Fostering Equitable Transition
To meet the urgent need to transform the energy system in the context of socio-ecological transitions, a profound sociocultural transformation of the existing approach to production, management, ownership, and consumption is required. This involves reconfiguring the hegemonic energy model marked by the concentration of large private corporations that control the generation and distribution of energy.
We must move towards an alternative approach that grants local initiatives a central role, democratizes energy production and generation, and promotes these proposals based on a cross-sectoral approach driven by organizations, communities, cooperatives, and other forms of community organization. Institutions should offer tax incentives and financing to strengthen, develop, and implement this kind of experience, alongside a favourable regulatory framework that recognizes and promotes such initiatives.
Access to the public power grid should facilitate the integration of power generated at the community level, establish mechanisms for fair payment of surplus energy contributed to the grid, and permit its commercialization among neighbours. Furthermore, it is essential to ensure the participation and involvement of these experiences in decision-making processes for the energy system, as well as the defence and vision of the territory – one that regards food, energy, and water not as separate, but develops more integrated views, pathways, and policies.
The just energy transition will progress the more we take control of energy, how it is produced, and how we choose to use it. Strengthening community energies means putting the reproduction of life at the centre, empowering people to reclaim their power and shape a more sustainable, equitable, and resilient energy future.
Firewinder is proud to support the community-driven renewable energy revolution, providing innovative solutions to help people and communities take control of their energy needs. Together, we can build a cleaner, more inclusive energy landscape that serves the people, not the profits of big corporations.