Local Futures

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Store
  • Contact
  • Sign up
  • Donate

The Economics of Happiness

Menu
  • About us
    • Local Futures
    • Our team
    • Founder, Helena Norberg-Hodge
    • Get involved
    • Media room
    • Our history
    • Close
  • Projects
    • Connect globally and locally
      • World Localization Day
      • Voices from the Field
      • Localization Action Guide
      • International Alliance for Localization
        • Join the IAL
        • IAL members
          • IAL member organizations
          • IAL Listserv
      • Ladakh Project
        • 40 Years in Ladakh
      • Planet Local
        • Artisanal Production
        • Built Environment
        • Culture
        • Eco Communities
        • Ecology
        • Health
        • Local Business & Finance
        • Local Energy
        • Local Food, Farming & Fisheries
        • Local Policy & Community Rights
        • Place-based Education
        • Sharing & Repairing
    • Gain a big picture perspective
      • Blog
      • Local Futures Podcast
        • Alnoor Ladha – Courageous optimism
        • Iain McGilchrist – Rediscovering Wisdom in a World Gone Mad
        • Charles Eisenstein – Towards a New and Ancient Culture
        • Vandana Shiva – The Power of People
        • Mental Health in the Global Economy with Gabor Maté
        • Jeremy Lent: Shifting Paradigms
        • COP, carbon and high-tech: who is setting the agenda?
        • Beyond Conspiracy: Framing Meaningful Activism
        • Unpacking Global Empire from an Indigenous Perspective
        • More than Just the Vegetables
        • Food Sovereignty in the Global Economy
        • Transition, Tradition, and Trade
        • Not-for-Profit Businesses
        • Love, Values, and Wellbeing Economies
        • Growing a Farmers Market from the Ground Up
        • Beautiful Places: A Conversation with Wendell Berry
        • Creating the Framework for a New Economy
        • From GDP to GNH
        • Rebuilding Healthy Communities: The Growing Ecovillage Movement
        • Seeds of Resilience, Seeds of Sovereignty
        • Why Local Ownership Matters
        • Local Alternatives to Globalized Development: A View from India
        • How to Feed the World? A Political Agroecological Approach
        • Helena Norberg-Hodge on how corporate ‘free trade’ deals threaten local communities and economies worldwide
      • Webinars
        • Sacred Activism in a Post-Trump World Webinar
        • Talking Climate Webinar
        • People Power: Democracy and the Economy Webinar
        • Beyond Trump: The Path to Real Change Webinar
        • Bringing the Food Economy Home Webinar
        • A World Without ‘Free’ Trade: What it would look like and how to get there
        • Beyond ‘Free Trade’ – Alternatives to Corporate Rule
        • Education: Promises, Myths & Realities Webinar
        • Debt and Speculation in the Global Economy Webinar
        • A New Activism Webinar
        • Climate Change or System Change Webinar
        • Going Local Webinar
      • Powerful talks
      • Films and short videos
      • Books and reports
    • Close
  • Events
    • Upcoming events
    • Planet Local Summit Bristol 2023
    • World Localization Day
    • Economics of Happiness conferences
    • Other past events
    • Close
  • Action resources
    • Getting the facts
      • Globalization – drivers and impacts
      • Localization – a solution-multiplier
      • Big Picture Activism – rethinking basic assumptions
    • Action tools
      • Localization Action Guide
      • Covid-19 response: let’s localize like never before
      • Maps of alternatives
      • Organizations for change
      • Independent media sources
      • Films for change
      • Recommended readings
    • Close
  • Books, reports & videos
    • Books and reports
      • Life After Progress
      • Local is Our Future
      • Ancient Futures
      • Free reads
      • Translated resources
      • Annual report
    • Films and short videos
      • PLANET LOCAL : A Quiet Revolution
      • LOCAL: A Story of Hope
      • Local Food Can Save The World
      • Going Local: the solution-multiplier
      • Insane Trade!
      • The Economics of Happiness
      • Ancient Futures
    • Close
You are here: Home / Projects / Global to Local / Planet Local / Local Energy / Planet Local Initiatives

Our Hamburg, Our Grid

Germany

Hamburg

Photo by baden03, ‘Hamburg Rathaus’ (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

In September 2013, residents of Hamburg, Germany – the country’s second largest city – decided that their local electric utility should be run as a public service, rather than as a source of corporate profits. In an historic referendum, they voted to reclaim local control and ownership of their power system from the Swedish energy giant, Vattenfall, enabling the City to undertake a more ambitious transition towards local renewable energy. The grassroots campaign that spearheaded the successful referendum, ‘Our Hamburg, Our Grid’, was supported by an alliance of over 50 groups.

This broad coalition emerged out of mounting frustration with Vattenfall for failing to make investment decisions that acknowledged the urgency of climate change, the dangers of nuclear power, and public support for decentralized renewable energy. (Vattenfall owns two nuclear reactors near Hamburg, as well as two of the dirtiest coal plants in Europe).

Rather than waiting for the giant multinational to act responsibly, Our Hamburg, Our Grid decided to bring decision-making power back to the community where it belonged. The campaigners argued that creating a local power utility would enable the City to provide greener, more reliable and potentially less expensive energy, with greater accountability. And while large corporate utilities such as Vattenfall allocate much of their profit to absentee shareholders, the revenue generated by the new municipal utility could be reinvested in the community.

Hamburg’s decision to re-municipalize its grid is part of a growing local power movement – one that is starting to reverse the privatization trend that began in the 1980s.

To learn more, visit Our Hamburg, Our Grid, and watch this short video about a similar successful campaign in Boulder, Colorado (USA). Note that the campaign was successfully completed and is no longer active.

Related


Our Hamburg, Our Grid

Category: Local Energy

Related

Local Futures logo

About us
Contact
Blog
Store
Annual report
Privacy policy

Sign up to our newsletter

Donate

Local Futures © Copyright 2023 | site by digiflip
 

Loading Comments...