Jakarta Capital Environmental Blog: Crown Eco Management

Brittany villages blazing a trail in energy self-sufficiency

Self-sufficiency ... a local co-operative in Brittany, France, has backed schemes that create renewable energy and jobs

Photograph: Pete Turner/Getty

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/may/05/r enewable-energy-self-sufficient-local-brittany

Jacky Aignel, the leader of Saint Gouno council in Brittany, looks at the cranes hoisting blades to the top of a wind-mast: "We've been waiting so long for this," he sighs. The wind turbine is finally nearing completion, the result of a lengthy struggle by this small locality in Ctes d'Armor. The Enercon E53, with a rated capacity of 850kW and the first of a series of seven, is no ordinary beast. It is the result of a clever financial package that allows local residents to invest in the scheme and aims to invest the benefits in the local economy. The co-operative investment company Cigale was established in 2008, and there are now 127 individuals who collectively own a 30% share in the venture. But the participatory windfarm is just one aspect of the energy policy being deployed by Men district council, which represents Saint Gouno and six other nearby localities (overall population 6,500). In this largely rural area you can see a wood-fired boiler at Le Gouray, fed by nearby forests and powering a collective central-heating network, then the Geotexia methanisation plant at Saint Gilles du Men, followed by an oil mill and biofuel production unit at Saint Gouno, and finally a house fitted with solar panels at Plessala. All these facilities should help Saint Gouno towards its goal of being energy selfsufficient by 2025. To do so it needs to produce enough energy to cover its current consumption of 22,000 tonnes of oil equivalent (Toe), (slated to drop in the future, if the council's energy-saving policies deliver). Now that energy diversification is a topic of national debate in France, Le Men is increasingly cited for its mix of renewables and decentralised production, with policymakers from all over the country visiting to see how it is done.

It all started in 1999 when a group of pig farmers hatched a project to build a methanisation plant to digest their output of slurry, using a fermentation technique that turns pig manure into methane gas. This prompted broader debate on energy. "This is one of the poorest parts of Brittany," says Aignel. "As a farmer I try to be as self-sufficient as possible and I was well aware cheap energy wouldn't last for ever. Wider economic concerns also played a part. The local economy depends heavily on a large abattoir, operated by Kermen, a subsidiary of the Leclerc supermarket chain, which employs 2,500 people. Local policymakers began to wonder whether there might be scope for diversifying into energy. In 2005 they visited Gssling, an Austrian village that had been working on energy self-sufficiency for 15 years. "We came home convinced that with waste, biomass resources, wind and sun we could diversify the economy alongside Kermen, enabling us to create some qualified jobs," says Michel Fablet, the leader of Le Gouray town council. Together the council and residents joined forces, assisted by Marc Thry, the former CEO of a large company, and decided to launch 10 energy projects, which have gradually taken shape. But at times it was an upward struggle. "All the layers of local government made decision-making a very slow process," Aignel explains.Nor did the rules set by the Autorit des Marchs Financiers (France's investor-protection watchdog) facilitate the task of funding a co-operative wind farm. Agrofuel and fertiliser lobbies tried to prevent the oil mill and methanisation plant getting off the ground.

Another difficulty was bringing local residents on board. "We held meetings in each village," says Fablet, "but it wasn't really a crowd-puller. Other topics which concern everybody, like housing, work much better." Perhaps saving energy in the home will stir their interest. "But it's much more difficult to save 2,000 Toe on energy consumption than to build a windfarm," Thry says.

The economic climate is a further obstacle. "We aim to renovate 90 houses, to reduce consumption by a third," says Fablet. "Subsidies will pay for 60% of the outlay, the rest will be covered by interest-free loans, but many cannot even afford such loans. Progress has been made. "The best part is not all this gear, it's the human contact, all the new connections we've built," says Dominique Rocaboy, a pig farmer and head of the methanisation plant.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/may/05/renewable-energy-selfsufficient-local-brittany

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