Investing sustainably with a good, green feeling? It can be done by investing in local energy, says Hennie Luten. And it has to be done, she adds.

'It also feels really good'

To generate more electricity, local initiatives are needed. Solar parks, wind turbines and floating solar panels are almost tumbling over each other. Hennie Luten, who works at Local Energy Initiatives Promotion, believes in 'local ownership' in such projects. From the Gebiedscoöperatie Zuidwest-Drenthe (GCZWD), she and colleague Jan van Goor mediate between project developers, municipalities and energy cooperatives to keep the profits from local power generation in their own area. Local investment as well as profit is made. "Moreover, it is an investment in the future, so it also feels really good."

Targets have been agreed from the government to generate energy from natural sources; this is called the Regional Energy Strategy, the RES. Each municipality can find that solution itself, as long as they generate all energy locally by 2050. "But municipalities are not going to manage that," Luten expects. "In terms of permit applications, everything should be applied for next year. Everyone is doing their best, but it's not enough."

'We shouldn't want that as citizens, should we?'

The danger is that provinces take on the task and ask (foreign) developers. Luten: "Then you have the burdens locally, but not the joys. Then we all look at the windmills, but the profits go to commercial investors, often abroad. As citizens, we shouldn't want that, should we?"

Local ownership ensures that the local area benefits from the proceeds of energy generation. But moreover, it ensures that initiatives like a solar farm are socially accepted. "Abroad looks very strangely at our 'local ownership'. In Germany there is also opposition, but they just build on. In the Netherlands, we are allowed to say something about everything and we do. Social acceptance of renewable energy is low. How do you make it bigger? By making it a piece of yourself. If you see a wind turbine and you think 'k-ching', then it feels slightly different from only your neighbour benefiting from it."

'Sometimes it's 100 per cent, sometimes 0'

Local ownership offers the region an opportunity to invest as much as possible itself in local renewable energy. A regional energy cooperative owns a limited liability company. That ownership can be shared with a developer, but the cooperative itself can also arrange where it buys the panels. "If you are an owner, then you have something to say," says Luten. "That will mainly be about how you deal with the proceeds: do you invest in a battery? Do you do something for the nearby sports park? Or do you invest in a new local initiative?"

The GCZWD is committed to the widest and widest participation possible. Businesses, neighbours, entrepreneurs and landowners invest in a local project. "If there is not enough money, then the gate can be opened to others," says Luten. "The desire is 50 per cent local ownership. But sometimes it is 100 per cent and sometimes it is close to 0. That is the case in solar farm in Wanneperveen, where all profits disappear outside the border."

'You can join as early as 250 euros'

How much money you get in for depends on the form of investment. "You can often join with as little as 250 euros," he says. Sometimes this is in shares, where profits depend on the energy price. Sometimes in bond loans, where the amount invested plús fixed interest is repaid over a longer period of time. "You can also say: we all go for 6 per cent return and the rest we use for other plans."

And does that make you rich? A cooperative in Limburg started a local project just before the war between Russia and Ukraine and saw gas prices skyrocket. "With such a tremendously high price, a year with 40 per cent profit could be possible," calculates Luten, who calls investing in energy a safe investment. "The government covers the lower limit capped by the SDE, the renewable energy subsidy scheme. So you know your minimum return, not your maximum."

'We don't want wind turbines, but we do want four TVs'

Luten gets fed up with criticism. Enters discussions on whether wind farms or solar panels are the solution. "Transition means change and change is the hardest thing for people. We don't want windmills, but neither do we want high-voltage cables or a big building in our view. Ideally, we want to keep it how it is. But at the same time, we want four TVs in the house and a charger for every device. What we have to do now is a consequence of our own behaviour. And it is unstoppable. Or rather, we won't let it stop us. Or do you think there will be birth control?"

The change is underway, but far from complete. Luten: "Wind turbines and solar panels are temporary. Soon we will say: get rid of them, we have now developed something that generates energy faster, cleaner and more effectively. The transition will continue, but differently. If we no longer get what we want, investments will be made. But there has to be pain first. Then the problem will solve itself. Have wireless power or something. Are cables no longer needed."

Source: Harm Vonk Dagblad van het Noorden
Photo: Rens Hooyenga