Twenty years ago, the electricity market opened up to competition. Activists from all backgrounds took this opportunity to enable everyone to get involved, to reclaim the issues related to energy production and consumption, and to make it a common good. They also demonstrated that an alternative path is possible to the all-nuclear approach by developing renewable energy production.
Enercoop was born. A collective interest cooperative that, when you become a customer, allows you to invest 100% in renewable energies such as photovoltaics, wind, hydropower, and a bit of biomass, by purchasing energy directly from renewable energy producers in France, from over 500 production cycles, as much as possible under local governance.
A collective interest cooperative means that all stakeholders are involved in the project: employees, producers, customers, partners…
“We don’t just ask people to invest their money,” explains Béatrice Delpech. “We offer them the chance to become members, which means in a way becoming owners. They can get involved in governance, participate in general meetings, and think about strategic directions.”
“We are a popular education project. We were created because people were dispossessed of energy issues even though we are very dependent on energy. So this allows us to give power back to the people, but also to say that there is at least one operator that does not belong to shareholders and is not there to maximize profits but is indeed there for a public interest purpose, which is to advance the transition.”
Enercoop is also committed to fighting energy poverty, both in France and worldwide.
