I developed the PRE-Plan mentioned above, which, since I am an American, was targeted toward the U.S., yet it would likely fair better in Europe; especially in light of the global financial turmoil. For the most part Europe has higher energy costs than the U.S. and thus even greater incentive to move toward renewable energy. The plan allows ordinary individuals and businesses to invest relatively small amounts into large-scale renewable energy projects and to receive a share of the electricity as their return on investment. The plan reduces the cost of renewable energy since each consumer becomes the financiers, thus eliminating the interest payments which can double the cost of such capital intensive projects. Its more complicated than that, but you can find out more at Profitable Renewable Energy (see blogroll) or the book of the same name.

The world is faced with the same problems that existed in the 1970s, concerns about oil dependance, a call for renewable energy yet without any conviction behind such calls, and a world economy in recession. The first oil crisis hit in 1973 and now 35 years later we’ve done relatively little to solve problems that were considered dire back then, although Europe is moving faster than the U.S.

It has been easy to expect government to solve all our problems, but it seems clear that for the most part governments the world over simply lurch from one crisis to the next and can’t or won’t do whatever is needed to address the underlying problems. With the financial crisis threatening the financial stability of governments all over the world, it seems likely that renewable energy will be shoved to the back burner until energy again surfaces as a crisis of greater import than all others. The next energy crisis could very well undermine world economies worse than the current financial mess. The solution would be for individuals and businesses to directly invest in their own energy one way or another. It’s democratic and should nobody invest they’d have no one else to blame but themselves and each individual can invest in whatever types of project they wish. The fact that using this scheme actually saves consumers enormous sums is sort of a side benefit.

If it were possible for everyone to generate their own power on their rooftops or with a wind turbine in the back yard, that would be ideal; yet that isn’t feasible nor cost effective; although some might be able to do this. The alternative would be to allow individuals and businesses to own a slice of efficient generating capacity sited where the wind blows and the sun shines.