Money is power – Siward Zomer about the role of citizens in the energy transition

My name is Siward Zomer, I am the chairman of a Dutch citizen’s windco-op De Windvogel. In addition I am a board member of the European Federation of groups and cooperatives of citizens for renewable energy in Europe. As you might understand I am a great advocate of citizen’s power in the energy transition. And in my view this is what the Citizen Energy project is about. Giving citizens more power.

The energy transition is not solely a technical transition from centralised fossil production techniques to decentralised renewable energy techniques. It mostly is a social and political transition in energy market with much broader implications. Everywhere I travel in Europe I see pro-active citizens working in the energy transition. Their arguments are the same in every country. “If we don’t do it nobody else will.” People feel that in a globalised world power does not exclusively lies with their representative governments, they see that governmental power is too much influenced by big international business, ignoring often the will of the people. The energy transition will democratise the energy transition, make it more transparent and more equitable when executed by citizens that organise themselves on a local level.

Then we come to the point of money. Money has been a source of power in Europe since the Middle Ages. We all remember the Templers, but few remember they have been exterminated by Philip the Fair to get a hold of the money streams they controlled. This is an extreme example, but it states the point. Those who are in power want to control where money is going. Where it is invested and what is done with it. This is the most effective way of controlling how your society will look like in the future.

When we as citizens of Europe fight for more power and control in the energy transition, then it is a logical step to look at the money streams of citizens. Until recently citizens have been passive consumers of financial products with banks as intermediates. The intermediates had one specific goal; please their shareholders. In other words, they would invest there where most money was to be made, regardless whether it destroyed our environment.

With the Citizen Energy platform we give the power of money directly to citizens. Now in two ways citizens can take power and control. One locally they can start their own renewable energy production, own it and decide democratically on the revenues. And second they can control the flow of their money into the energy transition.