Looking for signs of hope at a time of economic difficulty? Ed Mayo, Secretary General of Co-operatives UK cites, “Three unlimited sources of wealth – people, ingenuity and renewable energy”
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jan/06/communities-renewable-energy).
Communities are coming together to embrace renewable energy and develop their own, sometimes self-funded, energy projects. In addition to the 43 co-perative based groups starting projects, 82 community groups have been awarded £4 million through the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s first phase of Local Energy Assessment Funds.
With spending cuts, financial instability and disappointing unemployment figures perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that the bulldog spirit is rising to meet the challenge.