Energy is changing in the UK. Mainly due to climate change, the UK and Scottish governments are trying to decarbonise our energy systems. For houses, this means air source heat pumps, but for dense urban areas with lots of tenements, this means heat networks. Find out more here. 

At the same time the 40-year experiment of privatisation is starting to be questioned, with natural monopolies like water and rail returning to state ownership. The only problem with this is that after nearly twenty years of austerity our local authorities no longer see themselves as custodians and our governments are disconnected from what individual communities need and lacking resources to take on new tasks.

This only leaves communities themselves to step up and take on the ownership and management of these new systems if they are to be fair and run for people rather than dividends.

The City of Edinburgh Council are now running feasibility studies into heat networks for Leith but have not spoken to community groups. Leith Energy seeks to bring interested people together to give the City Council someone to talk to.

Of course, a whole new energy system will take years if not decades to set up. In the mean time we must find ways to group co-located people to help them come together and set up the social infrastructure needed to engage with the new systems and to start a revolution in community organisation. Tenements and streets are the perfect size to start with, so we aim to bring people together around local energy production and building maintenance. 

The big idea