“Turn your street into a hub powered by renewable energy and fuelled by poetic imagination”. Who wouldn’t want to be a Power Station?
We reported two years ago on the artists and filmmakers Hilary Powell and Dan Edelstyn, who were trying to make every house in their Walthamstow street a solar-led power station. (They created a community-based bank before that).
They’ve had some success, and now they want to make it a membership and subscription-driven movement. (And they’re asking for money support!)
Their opening blurb is direct:
Tired of Government Inaction on the Climate & Cost of Living Crises?
Sign up to our Street by Street membership to turn your street into a POWER STATION - taking action for climate justice, building civic power and potentially saving thousands on solar through group organising and buying.
What we've all been living through!
In 2022, wholesale gas prices rose 763%, and wholesale electricity rose 430%¹. 15% of UK homes are said to be in "fuel poverty" and UK residents are said to be paying up to 38% higher bills than our counterparts in Europe. People have to choose between eating and heating and meanwhile fire and flood ravage our world as the climate crisis worsens.
Hope and action
We need to take massive collective action and it's clear that our government are unwilling to act. It's easy to feel powerless and despondent. If you're not willing to slow march and get arrested do you just lump it and despair?
As artists we want to challenge that. We want to imagine and build a just world in which we all feel empowered to take action. So far we've raised £150,000 funding the installation of solar panels for our street, neighbourhood schools and more. We believe in people coming up with solutions at a neighbourhood scale and so we share a greenprint for action.
Their means of doing this is a paid membership system, the first benefit of which is a four stage online course, showing how they’ve done it in their their residential street in Walthamstow. As they promote it:
This is where we help you turn your street into a hub powered by renewable energy & fuelled by poetic imagination.
In this digital membership platform we have a mini course with 4 modules, designed to help a street solar organiser overcome hurdles they will encounter to achieve a bulk install and activate a community pulling together for change and action.
Week 1: Understanding the Street by Street System – How it works - building resilience in the face of a political system which is mis-firing. Taking action on a neighbourhood scale on sustainable heat, energy and even local food systems.
Week 2: Coming Out & Mass Recruitment sharing your plans and building your street team. Finding allies and enemies. Learning the lay of the land. How to maintain positivity in the face of a few setbacks. Writing & delivering your flyers – signing up your first 20 houses.
Week 3: Taking Stock – working with your core team to assess where you are, chase people up, give a clear deadline. Setting up your street database, so you know where you are, consolidating all your info.
Week 4: Getting Quotes From Multiple Solar Companies and deciding which ones to take. The exact email and phone call frame work so they know to give you their best leveraged price for bulk and not harass you for a decision.
The outcome: Members will be working towards getting at least 20 houses on their street into the Power Station Street-by-Street system.
More here. Part of the funding goes towards making a film that promotes this activity. Since we last reported this, there’s been an Observer piece on their progress - available here.