16 June 2016
View Webinar Content
Presentation—Introduction to the webinar and panelists
Presentation—Christine Lins: Renewables 2016 Global Status Report
Presentation—Dirk Vansintjan: The Energy Transition to Energy Democracy: Ecopower and REScoop.eu
Transcript—Webinar audio transcript
The Clean Energy Solutions Center, in partnership with the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21), hosted this webinar on community renewable energy and citizens' involvement in the energy transition.
This webinar begins with an overview of REN21’s newly released Renewables 2016 Global Status Report and will then look at the role of renewables in communities. As REN21’s 2016 report shows, community energy initiatives are increasingly becoming a least-cost option for power supply for households and small businesses, and particularly in rural, off-grid locales. Webinar participants discuss what is needed to support community energy initiatives to realize their full potential.
The presentations will be followed by an interactive question and answer session with the audience.
Panelists
Christine Lins, Executive Secretary, Renewable Energy Policy Network of the 21st Century (REN21)
Ms. Lins was appointed Executive Secretary of the Renewable Energy Policy Network of the 21st Century (REN21) in July 2011. REN21 is a global, public-private multi-stakeholder network on renewable energy that convenes international organisations, governments, industry associations, science and academia as well as NGOs working in the field of renewable energy. REN21 has its headquarters at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Paris, France. Ms. Lins has more than 18 years of working experience in the field of renewable energy sources.
Dirk Vansintjan, President, REScoop.eu
Dirk is the co-founder of various co-housing projects and one of the largest energy co-operatives in Europe: Ecopower (1991). He also co-founded the umbrella organisation for renewable energy in Flanders: Organisatie voor Duurzame Energie Vlaanderen (ODE-Vlaanderen) in 1996 and the Belgian federation REScoop.be (2010). He is currently president of REScoop.eu (2013), the European federation of groups and co-operatives of citizens for Renewable Energy. Ecopower now has 50,000 members and supplies 1.5% of the Flemish households with green electricity. REScoop.eu is now an associate-member of Cooperatives Europe.