<aside> 🏢 Organization A team of legal and energy policy experts at Sustainable Economies Law Center received financial support to launch California’s first solar energy co-operative.
People Power Solar Co-operative uses the business structure of the co-operative to ensure equitable and democratic governance of solar energy assets in the community. The co-operative replaces banks and traditional lending firms (who customers typically engage with), with everyday people in the community who pool together their money to own a part of our collective energy future.
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<aside> ⚙️ Project Incubate the culture and facilitate the operations of a newly founded co-operative.
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<aside> 🏁 Objectives Facilitate and steward a group of community leaders creating a cooperatively-owned solar project, while figuring out how to make the experience fun or meaningful.
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<aside> <img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/3be610b1-9157-4697-bade-627947f71184/jh-logo-green.png" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/3be610b1-9157-4697-bade-627947f71184/jh-logo-green.png" width="40px" /> My Role Design Lead
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<aside> 👩👩👦👦 Crystal Huang Community Organizer Subin DeVar Energy Policy Yassi Eskandari-Qajar Law Center Staff Grayson Flood Technology — Jessica T Local Clean Energy Alliance Franki B YaVette H Bay Area Organization of Black-owned Businesses Angela Communities for a Better Environment California Vivian H Asian Pacific Environmental Network
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| Activity | Outcomes |
|---|---|
| Facilitate meetings with cohort of community energy activists. | Developed a shared understanding of the co-operative business model. |
| Create stimulus, including flyers, websites, email campaigns, and a solar slug chatbot. | Received feedback on the organizational design, operational model and cultural tenets. |
| Organize and coordinate activities of the cohort. | Agreed upon an initial pilot site, generated a collective design and governance structure that included communities and their needs, and prototyped the business activities of the fully launched business. |
| Design and implement the People Power website on NationBuilder. | Developed concise value proposition, evolved content hierarchy, and coded front-end templates. |
| Participate in CalSEED business incubator. |
All participants were paid for their participation in design research activities, for vibing out, and for helping steward the co-operative.
