Power to the People: Promoting Micro-Investment in Distributed Generation in the European Union

Working with the client Notre Europe, this project focused on promoting community-owned and small-scale distributed generation (DG) for the European Union energy policy. DG is the generation of decentralized, small-scale electricity that is connected to the larger grid but owned by communities or individuals. Currently, the energy industry is dominated by centralized electricity markets using large scale generation which is carbon dioxide intensive. With DG, energy is scalable, flexible, stable and renewable, and is developed using cleaner technologies. The team examined several case studies of already existing DG projects including a wind turbine in the United Kingdom and biomass in Germany, identifying the benefits of this technology and methods to improve its implementation. They concluded that this technology would result in a reduction of carbon dioxide, new sources of revenue, and pollution control. Challenges include the cost of implementation, access to funding, and inconsistent existing policies.