We envision a world where communities create and control diverse systems for meeting needs without extractive energy.

From 2013 to 2021, Sustainable Economies Law Center focused on legal support and policies to build democratic community-owned renewable energy projects. In 2022, we decided to expand the scope of this work after taking time to reflect, write, and make videos, along with our close collaborators at People Power Solar Cooperative. Our prior work sought to build pockets of energy democracy within a field dominated by investor-owned utilities and profit-extracting energy companies. Now we're going beyond the narrow strategy of developing cooperative solar projects, and we're exploring bigger possibilities for climate and economic justice. 

We invite you to learn more by watching these videos:

1. Fields of Energy Democracy grapples with what “energy democracy” means and describe four fields where we can cultivate meaningful democracy. 
2. Land Return as Energy Justice describes how our insights led the Law Center to center a lot of our work on land return to Black and Indigenous people and on cultivating deeply participatory organizations. 

Here are two long-form essays offering perspectives on this work. Neither necessarily represent the views of the Law Center or People Power, but they tell parts of the story and offer perspectives of some who were involved:

1. Essential Connections for Energy Democracy, telling more of the story of Sustainable Economies Law Center's energy work from 2013 to 2022, by Janelle Orsi
2. Thoughts on People Power Solar Cooperative and Energy Democracy, telling the story of People Power and its various projects from 2018 to 2022, by Grayson Flood
   

People Power Solar Cooperative has also been putting together videos, articles, and events to engage communities to re-imagine their work. You can find these materials on their website here: Resources from People Power Solar Cooperative.

And click the blocks below to learn even more about our past policy advocacy and to find many more videos and blogs about our work:

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