We don't need a green new deal, we need a people's green deal!

So where do I start, well I guess by introducing myself. I'm a professional millennial, who over the past 8 years has worked on and off again in the Irish energy sector in everything from direct selling, yes, the annoying guy that knocks on your door when you're having dinner, all the way to the guy that takes your complaints after someone interrupts your dinner.???

That is enough about me. Like most reading this little article, or I guess rant, I have become embittered by the current course of direction the Irish and global energy markets has taken over the past 18 months, where it seems every couple of weeks there is another price rise or market exit by a utility provider, which I believe in Ireland to date is now coming close to forty price increases and 3 market exists to date. Looking at bills of today versus the bills of this time last year the standard unit rates of last year look more appealing than the quite sizable, discounted rates of today.

Alongside these sizable price hikes, we are hearing about great innovations in renewable energy with quite ambitious goals, such as build enough wind turbines of the coast of Ireland to generate up to double Ireland current energy need, and alongside this considerable investment into general green technology such as the EU’s and member states plan to invest hundreds of Billion between now and 2030. Examples of such being Germanys plan to invest €200 billion euros into “Green-friendly climate matters ” between 2020-2026. This all sounds great, and it is… But…

None of this addresses the core issues facing Irish households, in a recent report by ESRI found that 29% of Irish households are now experiencing energy poverty, the highest it's been since 1994/95. With the current trend of price hikes if we see a further 25% increase over the next few months, we will see north of 40% experiencing energy poverty. Even with the current investment into renewable energy and development of greener technology what's to stop prices staying high or going up further while the energy sector experiences “Greening Pains”.?This study was published prior to a recent price rise announced by several of Irelands larger energy provider which has impacted more than 1.5 million households or in terms of market share over 60% of households, so the 29% figure both sadly and most likely has already increased.

As I said in the title, we don't need a green new deal, we need a people's green deal!

This Article is not meant to be all doom and gloom, just a means to start a conversation and to generate new ideas and open the floor for discussion relating to existing solutions. So, as I am the author of this article or at this stage reasonable owner of this well written rant I will go first. To explain my idea of what a people's green deal would be, I'm going to tell the story of three brothers Tom, Dick and Harry.

So, we are going to start with Tom, he lives out in the countryside, owns his own house, and had roof to solar installed a few years back, which he has just recently started selling back to the grid with his provider A at a fair market rate. When installing his rooftop Solar, he benefited from all the grants at the time and now benefits from the fact that after selling his excess energy to the grid he effectively has no bill for several months of the year, moving him to energy self-sufficiency or close enough to it.

The current benefits for green energy for consumers would start and end with Tom as they focus on onsite solar installation for green energy generation.?The likes of Tom have also benefit from grants relating to new insulation, which can help reduce their corban footprint for heating alongside saving money, again these kinds of grants start and end with Toms consumer demographic.

So, what about Dick and Harry, well Dick lives in an Apartment which he rents, and Harry does not have available funds to invest, so the benefits of going green doesn't really apply to them.

How can we provide green energy solutions that provide financial benefits to both Dick and Harry???

As mentioned above Dick lives in an Apartment and he is a renter, so the viability, possibility, and practicability of rooftop solar is not there. If Dick can't get rooftop solar, let's provide him with the means to invest in off-sight green energy, which is already in practice in the UK via companies like Ripple Energy . It provides individuals the opportunity to invest in an offsite wind farm, which they partially own generating a green dividend, displayed as a credit on their electricity bill or money in the account.

Allowing individuals, the opportunity to invest in green energy projects such as offsite wind, solar and wave, would not just benefit the consumer, it would also provide a new source of capital investment for public and private companies developing green energy sources. According to the central bank of Ireland by the start of last year 2021, there was a total of €125 Billion in Irish bank and credit union account’s, even if 1% or €1.25 Billion ended up being used for green energy generation between now and 2030 on projects such as offshore wind farms, It would be a further 8.9% invested on top of the already Intended investment of roughly €14.0 Billion that energy companies intend to invest. Such as Energia Group’s plan to invest €4.0 Billion by 2030 itself.

In Harry's case he has limited financial capacity and is unable to invest in rooftop solar as Tom did, as it requires upfront payment and any grants he can receive would be after the fact, additionally he can't invest in offsite green energy projects like Dick. Both prior opportunities to benefit from green energy would still leave Harry in an undesirable financial situation. This proposed next step in providing genuine benefits for consumers in the further

energy market maybe a benefit to Harry but also Tom. It is my belief that we need to

consider and facilitate customer to customer energy sales. Although this would still need a supplier to be involved in the processes as I don't believe the CRU will start issuing people with supplier license, it does mean that Tom can either sell back to the grid or sell directly to another consumer, effectively transfer their spare/unused Kw hours from their account to someone else.?

So Tom is with supplier A and Harry is with supplier B, Tom can't directly sell to Harry as he does not have a supplier licence so they use supplier C, which has a service fee of €0.02 per a Kw hours, this means if Tom sold/transferred 1,000 Kw hours with no intention of charging them except for the service fee the total cost to Harry would be €20.00 compared to €190-380.00+ based on current supplier prices. The 1,000 Kw hours would then be accredited to Harry's account which means the next 1,000 units used would not be charged for on his utility bill.?

In my opinion the above would as I see it benefit consumers and provide them with genuine opportunity to benefit from an energy market going green. But these benefits don’t stop at the consumer benefits such as ; the influx of capital to green energy projects reduces barriers to development, provides energy companies that offer the service of “Renting out” there license to facilitate customer to customer energy sales create a new low-cost income, Whilst make an indent in are importation of fossil fuel improving are trade balance and most importantly relating to green energy help use reach are climate goals.

As mentioned above I have worked on and off in the energy industry, and I do want to say I am no expert in the matter of energy generation or going green any more than most people, but I believe solutions to the current Climate crises requires creative thinking. As the slogan for TED goes “Ideas worth spreading”, and in the case of this little article I do think there are a few ideas mentioned that are worth sharing and discussing.

If you have read this article and believe the ideas, I have put forward have merit spread the word on by liking and sharing this article. I would also very much encourage you to share your thoughts and ideas on what can and should be done to best work towards a green energy sector and what we can do to achieve our climate goals whilst curbing energy poverty.