Zaanstad (NL)
Coöperatieve WeSpark Zaanstreek u.a. will be a living lab for Zaanstad. It is a cooperative that connects local energy producers to local energy consumers, households as well as businesses. Each participant is member of the cooperative. The buying and selling of sustainable energy is done by ourselves – without using a large energy company as ‘trading facilitator’. This means that:
- WeSpark can be very transparent about costs and benefits
- profits will be used to invest in new local sustainable energy projects – either for production or storage
- members of the cooperation have a vote in the choice of investments
- members will also benefit financially in the long run because the cooperation will generate its own power
- pricing of power from WeSpark will be competitive to make it available for all incomes
WeSpark will firstly focus on the ‘Zaanstreek’ as a part of the metropolitan region of Amsterdam.
The aim of WeSpark is to speed up the energy transition by encouraging ‘sharing energy locally’ and getting citizens more involved in the energy system. The more members join in, the more new energy projects they can realize. The municipality of Zaanstad is partner in this project and together they will work towards a climate neutral Zaanstreek.
More info on https://wespark.nl/