Transition Towns

I just discovered the "Transition Towns" movement, people dedicated to moving from fossil fuels to renewable energy one small place at a time. Like this project:

We have created the West Solent Solar Co-operative to generate renewable energy for, and by, the local community. The solar farm we are building will generate enough electricity for about 600 local households. It will produce in the region of 2.5 GWh each year and cost about £2.5 million to build. It will save Hampshire approximately 1,000 tonnes of CO2 each year.

The project started with an idea about a year ago. A search for a suitable site in the area identified a 12.65 acre field in Lower Pennington, Near Lymington and about half a mile from the sea, opposite the Isle of Wight. It has been recently restored after a decade of use, initially for gravel extraction and then for burying construction waste. A board member has purchased the field and leased it to the West Solent Solar Co-op for 25 years, with an option to extend it for another 10 years.

Six members of the board of West Solent Solar Co-op live in the New Forest area. There is a strong Transition influence with five directors being New Forest Transition members. There is significant Quaker input too. Between them, the directors have a broad range of skills and experience, including engineering, planning, new business creation, sustainability (including working for the London 2012 sustainability team), business management, film-making and legal. All these have been put to good use.

Google "transition towns" and you will stumble into a huge networks of newsletters, web sites, and forums. There are finance companies that specialize in raising money for these projects, and engineers who devote themselves to getting them built. More, there are millions of people who are tired of watching the world march in the wrong direction and determined to save at least one little piece of it. The "transition" movement began in Britain but has gone worldwide; in the United States it overlaps with the "Resilience" movement and similar groups.

This kind of thing warms my heart. Forget camping in Zucotti Park complaining that the world isn't a better place; get out and make it a better place. The technology is there; all it takes is the will.