Invest in green energy production
Som Energia’s first pillar is to supply renewable energy to its members. The cooperative’s second pillar is its investment into green power plants. So far, the cooperative has financed six solar parks, a biogas plant and a hydroelectric power station with a capacity of close to 4,5MW. Spain’s first citizens’ wind turbine is still in the process of construction. The aim is to be able to supply renewable energy produced by their own power plants to all their members. Because of the fast growth and the difficulties of finding adequate projects, the cooperative can currently only cover a 3% of the electricity needs of their members by their own power plants. To overcome this the cooperative provides the following innovative ideas for financing their power plants.
Share capital
On the one side members can invest in share capital. The first time investment in shared capital was offered, members already lend 800.000€ to Som Energia to finance projects of energy generation. In October 2017 the period for investment in share capital opened again and within 7 days about 1.500 members invested 5 Million Euros. With this money more PV-Installations will be financed by the beginning of 2018. The lowest contribution is 100€, the highest contribution during the first week is 5.000€ and after the first week 100.000€. With the limit during the first week Som Energia is making sure that also small investments can be done. The interest rate is 1,75%. This investment allows the cooperative to be independent from bank loans. Instead, they invest their members’ money directly in new generation projects.
Generation kWh
On the other hand, money can be invested in the project “Generation kWh”, a success story for collective self-consumption. The aim is to produce electricity and invest in renewables as a collective. Som Energia started the project Generation kWh in 2015, after the Rajoy administration cut the Feed in Tariffs [1], which shows that self-consumption is still possible even without these governmental funding schemes.
Generation kWh works in the following way: Energy shares, which are 100€ each, can be purchased by each member to (partially) offset their specific annual consumption. To provide an example: A typical household with an average annual electricity consumption of 2400 kilowatt hours needs to invest 900€ to cover 70% of its energy demand for 25 years. Every 100€ contribution is equivalent to 170-200 kwh per year which is going to be discounted from the energy bill with Som Energia. After 25 years the initial investment is to be returned. In the meantime, the investor had savings on his energy bill for 25 years. The project bore fruit in May 2016, as the first collectively owned solar field started to provide energy to about 1.300 households. More than 2.700 people participated in this fundraising action and together they collected more than 2.5 Million Euros which will be invested in even more community owned power plants [2].
How does Som Eneria operate?
The cooperative consists of sections and local groups. Each local group is independent to act, attract new members and organise information campaigns. The local groups are listed in this map. Because the local groups constitute the cooperative from below, they can create their own statutes and procedures and are not obliged to implement centrally decided rules. The organisational structure therefore runs from bottom to top and not the other way around. While in Barcelona the emphasis lay on member training, other groups have focused on expanding energy supply capacities or creating links to other cooperatives outside of the energy sector.
Grupo Motor drives participation
In autumn 2016 the so called “Grupo Motor” started and guided a long-term strategy to develop and deepen a participatory process for Som Energia. The results were presented in the local groups meeting in Spring 2017. The “Grupo Motor”, formed by board members, members of local groups and members of the technical team, met various times around Spain. They came up with 7 strategic lines for the cooperative and the idea to form GTTs (temporary working groups) in which members can voluntarily work together to find solutions for specific problems like self-consumption.
Som Energia as a platform for other movements
Som Energia is embedded within a broader movement in which many Spaniards seek and support practical alternatives to the capitalist logic of exploitation. Som Energia promotes non-discriminating language with generally feminised subjects, which is far from what is usual in Spain. Furthermore, wherever possible, Som Energia seeks out ethical and ecological banks as partners.
Som Energia also wishes to act as a platform for various ecological movements, such as those against fracking and nuclear energy. This is achieved mainly by supporting existing organisations, such as creating new spaces for discussion. The organisation’s website is commendable for its transparency of documents and the involvement of workgroups. In Spring 2017 Som Energia, together with the ethical bank Coop57, organized a contest called “Germinador Social”. The objective of the contest was to provide a platform for new and innovative projects which will push forward the energy transition in Spain and which are closely intertwined with the social economy [2].
Car sharing – A cooperation with Som Mobilitat and Ecotxe
Two contest participants were the car sharing cooperative Ecotxe with its scope of action in Mallorca and Som Mobilitat which was funded in summer 2016 in Mataró, close to Barcelona. The objective of Som Mobilitat is to decrease the number of vehicles in the cities providing a sustainable solution for transportation. Som Mobilitat concentrates on designing, producing and financing new services and technological products and to collaborate with a network of cooperatives [3]. For instance, they invest in electrical cars and collaborate with Som Energia and other cooperatives.
Both car sharing cooperatives are widely supported by members of Som Energia. Som Energia collaborates which these car sharing projects, as mobility -together with electricity and heating- has a significant impact on the environment. 40% of the primary energy in Spain is used for transportation and 80% of these 40% are used for transportation on streets and highways [4].
The digital general assembly
The high number of decentralized, autonomous local groups – some of which are even outside of the Iberian Peninsula – complicates voting and elections. Therefore Som Energia makes seminal use of online participation. Local groups participate in the annual general assembly via a live stream. In the general assembly of 2017 they could even vote through an online voting system on multiple issues, such as the election of the board, contracting new staff members and the collaboration with another company. 11% of the members of Som Energia used the online voting system and gave their opinion in 2017. Groups meet and jointly follow the live stream of the assembly. In 2017, only 79 people actually physically took part in the Asamblea General, but in total 323 members participated remotely through their local groups in 20 different cities.
Initially, the option of local groups sending delegates was discussed, because the groups who were located further away in particular feared that they would be disadvantaged. But rapid growth meant a sports stadium would have been required to accommodate all members in a traditional general assembly. Finally, the idea of delegates was dropped and instead a form of direct democracy through online participation and voting was maintained.
Using the internet solved two problems: the problem of distance and the problem of numbers. Test runs before the actual assembly ensured that the elderly and less internet-savvy members also knew how to take part.