Energy4commons designs, develops and implements off-grid rural and urban electrification programs using renewable energy. We provide our technical expertise and know-how to support developers, institutions, consultants and operators in all stages electricity.
Access to reliable, affordable and sustainable energy is prosperity and development every economy. It is part of the 17 sustainable development goals included in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations Member States in 2015. Despite the recent increase in electrification, access to modern energy continues to represent an urgent and real need for about 840 million people.
ABOUT US
Our Values
We are convinced that access to energy constitutes an important and necessary step in the fight against hunger, illiteracy, gender inequality and health diseases that kill millions of people over the world. Universal access to modern and sustainable energy contributes to the empowerment of the most vulnerable people, especially women and children, as off-grid systems contribute to the decentralization of the energy systems and thus, to the socialization and democratization of energy
We believe that a fundamental solution is to flip the shape of the energy sector from a top-to-bottom approach to a bottom-to-top approach. Those at the bottom of the pyramid must be empowered to drive and direct the growth of the energy systems. Within this new framework of decentralized access to energy, community-owned infrastructure and decentralized green-energy production should make the energy systems work in the interest of the wider public, with the profit motive giving way to social and environmental goals so energy becomes a “common good”.
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Advocacy
Energy4commons advocates for access to modern, reliable and affordable energy as a fundamental and inalienable right for all human beings. We develop a campaign addressed to the civil society, as well as to policy makers, investors and stakeholders in the energy industry in order to promote an understanding of the urgency of implementing efficient and credible actions to enable universal access to energy to more vulnerable communities.
Our Mission
Energy4commons is committed to closing the gap between those who can and those who cannot access affordable reliable and modern energy. We work to bring power to the powerless people of the world, offering comprehensive advice to public and private institutions, communities, cooperative and non-governmental organizations on how to implement off-grid energy solutions and to help scale up the delivery of energy products and services to more vulnerable social sectors.
* We desing and develop projects ranging from stand-alone systems to mini-grid life systems, including business and financial modeling, site selection, feasibility studies, community engagement, demand assessment, technical system design, fundraising, equipment procurement, construction, commissioning, and operation and maintenance.
* We help mini-grid operators to grow demand and offer business, technical and financial mentorship services in the field to small productive users of mini-grids.
* We pilot new micro and mini-grid business models, conduct feasibility studies on financial support schemes, and manage grant programs.
* We provide our technical knowledge to design efficiency and saving energy programs in order to insure an optimal level of energy consumption.
Our Vision
Energy4commons acts as a civic and independent organization working to ensure universal access to energy, as described in the horizon 2030 framework. We do so by contributing to bridging the socioeconomic gap between the global North and the global South, as well as to making these communities more resilient, autonomous and productive.
Energy4commons is a civic and independent organization striving to help realise the 7th Sustainable Development Goal of achieving universal access to energy by 2030. By doing so, we contribute to narrowing the socioeconomic gap between the global north and the global south, as well as helping communities to become more resilient, self-sufficient and productive.
Fields of Activities
● Off-grid energy systems: kit, hybrid power plants, mini-grids
● Territorial energy planning
● Renewable energy source systems
● Water supply and renewable irrigation system
● Utilization of rural electrification infrastructures
● Maximizing the value of productive uses of electricity
● Energy efficiency programs
PROJECTS
Revolusolar
A pilot project to build a solar cooperative in Rio de Janeiro's «favelas»
Context
Access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all is a basic requirement for the sustainable development of humanity . Currently, with an increasingly expensive grid energy prices and cheaper solar energy , this is already an economically advantageous option, especially in Rio . And because it is a renewable, decentralized source and a leader in generating local jobs, this new option has an important socio-environmental role.
To access solar energy in Brazil, initial capital or access to credit is still required. For this reason, only the wealthiest have benefited from this new solution. Low-income communities continue to have an expensive and low quality energy service.
Goals
The purpose of Revolusolar is to promote the sustainable development of low-income communities through solar energy. To this end, we seek to enable a new affordable and sustainable energy model that combines positive environmental, social and economic impacts. We want all houses, businesses and community institutions to be able to generate their own energy, through a model based on community autonomy and involvement.
Our vision for the future is for these communities to become poles of clean energy generation for the cities. Thus, using sustainable energy as a tool, the term « favela » will gain new meanings, and will become a reference in innovation, sustainability and entrepreneurship.
Actions
Revolusolar aims to make photovoltaic technology accessible to low-income communities, through:
- Solar installations, which contribute to reduce energy costs and empower the consumer;
- Professional training for this market, which generates quality local jobs for the new low-carbon economy and gives the community a leading role;
- Children's workshops on sustainability and energy, which raise the awareness of the new generation and promote community engagement;
- Research, events and advocacy, to generate and disseminate knowledge on the subject, and to represent the « favela »'s interests in the energy sector.
If you want to know more about this project, please click here
Voisins d’énergie
A living lab to boost the resilience capacity of the energy communities in the city of Brussels
Context
The 'energy saving' policies implemented over the past 40 years have shown their limits. In particular, because there is a close link between energy consumption and GDP. The dominant approach to the energy question is a technical-economic base, settled on individual consumers who must be convinced to buy more 'efficient' equipment and who must 'be educated', so in that way, they will change their 'behavior'. In Voisins d'énergie, we take the problem from the other end: the constitution of energy communities that organize themselves collectively to produce their energy, self-consume it, and reduce it.
Thus, we are banking on the development of collective management of the common good that is energy, of which the energy communities are a possible way. Collective discussions around energy are the most direct way to transform the social norms that are the basis of energy consumption. It is about reversing the logic of the energy system in which until now, demand drives supply and learning to adapt social practices to available energy. From this perspective, energy communities are a possible way of this essential transformation of society towards greater resilience.
Goals
The initial objective of the project was to constitute a network of energy communities in the Brussels Region, that would act as a resource center to welcome new communities and which would be sustainable after the end of the project. The ideal end situation we envision is a territory covered with 'energy communities'. While this goal has faded as we understand the complexity of forming energy communities, it remains a critical horizon for us. On the other hand, we have kept the idea of actively contributing to transforming the energy landscape of the Brussels region through the sharing of learning and exchanges between citizens.
Actions
Revolusolar aims to make photovoltaic technology accessible to low-income communities, through:
- Discussion workshops (explorers' meetings) to define transversal experiments. Imagine an experiment that would be meta / transversal or similar experiments carried out in parallel.
- Experiment with an energy community without meters, because meters (simple or "smarts") can represent a difficulty for people in economic precariousness, and some explorers refuse the installation of smarts meters from the distribution network manager.
- Experiment with an energy community where costs are collectivized in a united manner and individual bills abandoned. Steps: (1) measure the consumption in the various dwellings of the Energy Community, (2) constitute a common pot and take the measurements at the level of the low voltage cabin, (3) design collective invoicing according to a distribution key to be co-created by the inhabitants (consumption history, economic levels, the energy performance of buildings, etc.).
- School, training, apprenticeship, and their role in social cohesion.
If you want to know more about this project, please click here
Past Projects
ElectriEfficiency
A community project to fight the energy poverty in the social housing of Brussels
Context
ElectriEfficiency is a project resulting from a participatory and citizen initiative launched between 2019 and 2021. It has been supported by Bruxelles Environnement and Energy4commons as part of the Inspirons le quartier program.
Without good insulation, an efficient and economical boiler, without high-performance household appliances, households pay too much without knowing the well-being they deserve. Thus, they fall into the trap of fuel poverty.
Goals
ElectriEfficiency sought to optimize the energy consumption of homes in the Vandeuren / Volta district of Ixelles (South Brussels). To do this, ElectriEfficiency has identified and assessed the socio-economic, technical and institutional factors that increase the budget of the households concerned.
Thus, the project sought in particular:
- Develop an energy consumption profile of participating households by collecting data such as: How and how much energy do they consume? How much of the household's general budget represents energy expenditure?
- Evaluate what collective and technical measures can be put in place to reduce household energy consumption expenditure.
- Establish a participatory project to complete the recommended collective solutions and measures.
- Implement and evaluate the solutions realized, in order to obtain experience feedback that allows us to reproduce the project on a municipal and then regional scale.
Actions
To achieve these objectives we have implemented:
- The Volta barometer. A sociological survey to establish the socio-economic and energy profile of the inhabitants of the Boondael district. You can download this study (only in French) here
- Workshops on the theme of energy. These workshops aim to answer our questions about energy and to further increase our mastery of all aspects of energy in our daily lives. The subjects are chosen together according to the requests and interests of the participants.
- The Volta Bike. A bicycle that generates electricity from the recycling and reuse of old materials. The Volta Bike is made up of 70% of recovered elements, including the battery with which we store the electricity produced by the pedal.
If you want to know more about this project, please click here
SUPPORT US
VOLONTEERS
Are you interested in offering your skills to help Energy4Commons? We are currently looking for volunteers with a lot of enthusiastic will and several knowledges and experiences to help us further expand our opportunities and techniques. If you would like to apply or have additional questions, please contact us to info@energy4commons.org