A New Era: Citizens as Energy Producers
The global energy transition is about more than just replacing fossil fuels with renewables. It's about who controls the power — in every sense of the word.
For over a century, the generation and distribution of electricity were tightly controlled by centralized institutions: governments, utility monopolies, and fossil fuel conglomerates. Energy was something you bought, passively consumed, and paid for — often with little understanding of how or where it was produced.
But today, thanks to solar panels, wind turbines, battery storage, and digital tools, energy is undergoing a radical transformation. We are witnessing the rise of the prosumer — someone who both produces and consumes energy.
Technologies like solar and wind are not only clean — they are inherently democratic. Unlike coal mines, gas pipelines, or nuclear plants, they can be installed at home, pooled in neighborhoods, or governed by local cooperatives. They don’t require billion-dollar investments or geopolitical concessions. What they need is space, sunlight, wind — and people willing to act.
This shift enables something truly revolutionary:
Citizen ownership of energy infrastructure.
It means: - A farmer can lease land for a wind turbine and generate income while supplying local homes. - A neighborhood can crowdfund a solar roof on a school and split the savings. - A group of retirees can invest in a local energy cooperative and earn dividends from kilowatt-hours instead of stocks.
By decentralizing the means of production, renewable energy is breaking down long-standing hierarchies in the energy sector. Citizens are no longer passive recipients of energy — they are stakeholders, innovators, and decision-makers.
And that makes this energy transition not just technical, but deeply political: a shift in power from fossil fuel oligarchies to everyday people, from extractive systems to regenerative communities, and from dependence to self-determination.
From Consumers to Co-Owners
The energy revolution is not only technical — it's social. Across Europe and beyond, community members are coming together to reclaim control over their energy supply. What was once a system dominated by a handful of powerful companies is now being reshaped by thousands of local initiatives.
People are organizing to:
- Found energy cooperatives, where citizens pool resources to invest in wind turbines, solar installations, and energy infrastructure.
- Build shared solar rooftops on apartment buildings, public halls, schools, and businesses, allowing tenants and local stakeholders to benefit collectively.
- Invest in microgrids, battery storage systems, and district heating networks, often managed democratically and with strong local oversight.
These projects are more than just power producers — they are vehicles for economic resilience, social cohesion, and democratic engagement. When people co-own the infrastructure, they gain a voice in how it is run, how the profits are distributed, and how the energy is priced. The result is energy that is cheaper, cleaner, and more accountable.
Importantly, the economic value stays in the region. Revenues don’t flow to multinational investors or fossil fuel companies but are reinvested into the community — in the form of lower energy costs, dividends to members, or new local sustainability projects.
For example, in Belgium, cooperatives like Ecopower, BeauVent, and Courant d’Air have shown how this model works at scale.
Courant d’Air, which I’ve personally been a member of for years, operates wind and solar projects in the East Cantons and beyond. Their energy is not only 100% renewable — it's also 100% citizen-driven. Every member gets a say in decisions, and the cooperative actively supports local employment, education, and ecological awareness.
These kinds of projects are proof that energy democracy is not a dream — it's already happening. All over Europe, villages, towns, and cities are showing that energy can be locally owned, cooperatively managed, and socially just.
Decentralization = Democratization
The traditional energy model was centralized and top-down: a few large utilities or state-owned companies controlled the infrastructure, set the prices, and dictated the terms. Energy flowed in one direction — from the plant to the plug — and the profits flowed in the same direction: upward and outward.
With renewables, that monopoly breaks down. Solar panels can be placed on homes, barns, warehouses, or public buildings. Wind turbines can rise from cooperative-owned land. Batteries and smart meters allow communities to manage supply and demand locally. Suddenly, the tools of production are within reach of ordinary people.
This decentralization: - Enhances grid resilience, by diversifying sources and shortening supply chains - Enables local reinvestment, keeping energy profits circulating in regional economies - Builds community identity and climate solidarity, as people collaborate to reduce emissions and secure their own future
This shift is not just a technical upgrade — it’s a structural rebalancing of power. It moves control from central authorities and corporate boardrooms into neighborhoods, farms, cooperatives, and citizen assemblies.
As Karl Marx famously argued, the key to real freedom is ownership of the means of production.
For the first time in modern energy history, that vision is within reach — not through revolution, but through rooftop PV, smart inverters, and citizen cooperation.
This is a quiet revolution with profound consequences:
Energy as a common good, not a corporate asset. Power as participation, not subjugation.
Energy as a Commons
More and more energy projects are moving beyond just selling electricity to passive consumers. Instead, they’re embracing models like peer-to-peer energy trading, collective self-consumption, energy sharing, and even blockchain-based microgrids. These approaches rethink electricity not as a tradable commodity, but as a commons — a vital resource that should be managed collectively, transparently, and locally.
The idea of the commons comes from land, water, and other shared resources — things we all depend on and must steward together. In the 21st century, clean, accessible energy is just as essential, and just as deserving of public governance.
The result?
- More transparency, as communities know where their energy comes from and how it is priced
- More public participation, as people are invited to co-own, co-manage, and co-benefit
- More equitable access to clean energy, especially in rural or low-income areas that are often left behind by market-driven approaches
Example: In Belgium, the pilot project "Sharepair" in Leuven and initiatives supported by REScoop.be are exploring models of energy sharing among citizens.
Meanwhile, the “Energy Communities” model supported by the EU’s Clean Energy Package is being translated into national legislation, allowing Belgian citizens to formally organize as energy communities that produce, store, and distribute their own power — and share it legally among participants.
These developments mark a new frontier in the energy transition: one where clean power is not just installed — but democratized, shared, and kept in the public realm.
As we rethink our grids, markets, and institutions, the commons perspective reminds us that energy is not just about electrons. It's about how we live together, how we govern resources, and how we care for the future.
Policy Matters
This democratic energy future doesn't happen by accident. It doesn’t emerge purely from grassroots enthusiasm or market forces. It needs clear, supportive, and intentional policy frameworks that recognize citizens not just as ratepayers, but as active participants in the energy system.
To unlock the full potential of community energy, we need:
- Supportive regulation that makes it easy for citizen-led projects to connect to the grid, get permits, and operate at scale without excessive bureaucracy.
- Fair access to markets and subsidies, ensuring that energy cooperatives and prosumers aren’t crowded out by large incumbents with better legal and financial leverage.
- Political will to prioritize decentralization over corporate lobbying — including laws that favor energy communities, local balancing markets, and fair grid tariffs.
The European Union has taken major steps through the Clean Energy for All Europeans package, which formally recognizes the rights of citizen energy communities and renewable energy communities. These legal entities are entitled to generate, consume, store, and sell renewable energy — individually or collectively.
But implementation remains uneven across member states.
In Belgium, for example, the Flemish, Walloon, and Brussels regions are each developing their own interpretations of EU energy community laws — some faster and more ambitiously than others.
The progress is real, but the challenges are just as tangible: outdated grid codes, limited financing for small actors, legal uncertainty, and resistance from entrenched energy interests.
If governments are serious about a just and inclusive energy transition, they must do more than fund solar panels. They must create space for public ownership, democratic governance, and local innovation — not just in rhetoric, but in law.
Energy democracy is a political project. And like all political projects, it succeeds or fails depending on the rules we write and the voices we listen to.
Why It Matters
Energy isn't just about watts and wires. It’s about power — in every sense of the word:
- Who owns the infrastructure
- Who sets the prices
- Who decides how the system works
- And who benefits from it
For most of modern history, that power has been concentrated in the hands of a few — utilities, corporations, and governments. Ordinary people were left to pay the bills, with little say over how their energy was produced, where it came from, or what environmental and social costs it carried.
But with solar and wind, the dynamic changes. These technologies enable widespread participation — not only in consumption, but in production, ownership, and governance. They allow citizens to organize, to cooperate, and to take back control over one of the most fundamental systems in their lives.
This is more than energy policy — it’s democratic renewal.
It’s about shifting power — literally and figuratively — from fossil fuel elites to local communities.
This is not just green energy.
It’s people-powered energy.
It’s power to the people.
When energy becomes a commons, a shared project, and a democratic practice, it ceases to be just a commodity. It becomes a platform for self-determination, economic justice, and climate action from below.
This is energy as democracy in action.