Four Spanish SSE organisations Ecooo, Som Energia, Fiare et le Marché Social de Madrid have joined forces to create the Mes Solar (Solar Month), a project to socialise photovoltaic installation in a new economic platform based on values.
Social solidarity economy is a new economic paradigm. […] One of the characteristics of this new economy is that it’s built from small scale projects that are started in an organic way and are capable to transform the values as they develop. [..] But what does it mean to socialise photovoltaic installations? It allows people, regardless of their economic capacity, to become producers of their own electricity while participating in collective installations. During this period more than 1800 persons became producers of electricity with investments starting at 100 euro and a return of 5%.
But MES Solar is much more. Behind the project there is a financial entity, Fiare Banca Etica, which is a credit cooperative bank with more than 5200 members in Spain. Fiare has decided to promote the project amongst its members and to also help the Social Market in Madrid: 5% of the revenues from Mes Solar will go to the cooperative managing the Social Market. And finally the last part of the project involves SOM Energia, a green energy cooperative with more than 26000 members who sells energy in the SSE circuits. Thanks to Mes Solar, they will have new certified clean energy sources.
So while transitioning to an energetic system that consumes much less and in a sustainable way, it’s also about building a financial system that channels money towards initiatives that are not destructive.
[Translation by Jason Nardi of the article Energia limpia al rescate de la economia]
