Community assembly puts spotlight on vision for publicly owned energy company in the Highlands
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A community assembly was held in Inverness to discuss the possibility of a publicly owned energy company in the Highlands.
Hosted by Extinction Rebellion Highlands and Islands and run by external facilitators Grassroots to Global, the assembly attracted a turnout of 30 people to the Spectrum Centre in Inverness, with a further 10 people connecting online.
Some of those attending had come from locations as far as Orkney and Lochinver.
The assembly gathered to explore the question – "How can we provide affordable energy in ways that care for all people in the Highlands as well as the natural environment?"
The event featured a panel of inspirational speakers, each experts in various aspects of publicly owned energy.
Jennifer Pride, head of energy delivery for the Welsh Government spoke to the assembly on how her government is setting up a Welsh Renewable Energy Company for the benefit of the Welsh people.
Dr Craig Dalzell from the Common Weal outlined the various frameworks for public energy companies.
He informed the crowd that although Scotland, like Wales has devolved power, under the Scotland Act the Scottish Government is prevented from generating and owning electricity, although ‘heat’ is devolved.
He also highlighted the crucial fact that the Scotland Act doesn’t bar local councils from setting up energy generation companies. Meaning they could generate electricity in the Highlands, also stating there could be the possibility that a consortium of local council energy companies that could bid for larger offshore wind projects like ScotWind.
Flick Monk from Platform (Injustice and Climate Breakdown Campaign group) spoke passionately about some of the next steps that local authorities could take, looking at heat networks, retrofitting, ownership stakes in wind and solar etc.
She gave examples of how councils in Germany had formed consortiums and developed large offshore wind farms in UK waters. Flick also outlined the work of the Our Power just transition report by Friends of the Earth and Platform, especially the section on public energy.
Highland Greens councillor, Chris Ballance, gave an informative account of Highland Council’s green energy plans, which are restricted by limited financial budgets, and how this can affect how the council operates.
Ryan Morrison, Just Transition officer of the STUC highlighted the fact that while electricity generation was the most profitable industry there had been a steady decline in jobs in the energy sector.
He emphasised the need to retrain workers to transition to green local jobs while creating additional new jobs which would be best achieved through publicly owned energy companies.
Mr Morrison gave the example of Stirling Council having the highest number of installations of Solar PVs and Heat pumps whereby they have reduced emissions, built up the supply chain and increased jobs.
The repeating theme mentioned by all of the independent speakers highlighted the fact that energy generation here in Scotland is mostly owned by foreign public and private bodies.
After the presentations, there was an opportunity for groups to discuss the information heard and to draw a consensus opinion.
The assemble agreed on the following:
- Strong endorsement the idea of having a new approach to energy supply in the Highlands, looking at multiple streams of energy generation, based on public ownership and community benefit and including a strong ecological focus.
- The potential benefits of generating funds investment for addressing fuel poverty and improving public services and infrastructure.
- A need for concerted efforts to achieve diverse and inclusive public engagement, through the arts, social media, local outreach and national outreach to groups interested in collaborating with the Highlands.
- A systematic exploration of the advantages and disadvantages for the Highlands of both publicly owned and joint ventures, including potential financing options.
- Concern of the risk that Highland Council may not be able deliver what we envisage of a publicly owned energy company.
It was agreed by the community assembly to set up a working group and collaborate with relevant organisations to formulate a strategy to establish a publicly owned energy company for the Highlands.
A meeting would then be held in a month's time, to which all the people who were at the assembly would be invited.
The group say they hope that the strategy could be formulated in time to be included in Highland Council's action plan for their net zero strategy, which is due out at the end of this year.
Gary Jack, Extinction Rebellion, Highlands and Islands said: "We have all the natural resources in the Highlands to have a highly profitable public energy company. As one of the assembly speakers said, Highland Council region should be the richest council area in the UK.
"Instead we have private or foreign publicly owned companies making profit margins of between 30 - 40 per cent with a minor amount given to our local areas in 'community benefit'.
"Meanwhile studies show that Scottish community owned energy schemes deliver 34 times more benefit to the community than commercially owned energy.
"If Wales can form a public energy company for the benefit of its people why can’t the Highlands as it is 20 per cent bigger than Wales and has more wind and rain for the generation of renewable energy."
