From around the world: Ecopower in Belgium produces and sells 100% green energy

Wind turbines stand near the town of Eeklo, with a population of around 20,000, in eastern Belgium. They do not belong to large energy companies, but to the Ecopower cooperative. This means that they belong to local citizens who have a stake in the cooperative—on average, 3,000 households own one turbine.

Ecopower is now one of the largest energy communities in Europe, with over 70,000 citizens in 2024. Not only do locals have a stake in wind turbines and other green energy technologies, they also use the energy they produce themselves. In 2023 alone, this saved over 63,000 tons of CO₂.

Green energy from people for people
Ecopower produces energy from renewable sources and also buys it from other cooperatives and citizens who have small sources such as photovoltaic panels on their roofs. It then sells this electricity to its members at a discount – prices are sometimes up to 40% lower than those of traditional suppliers.

Locals can join Ecopower as energy consumers or simply invest in a share – the price is around EUR 250, which is about CZK 6,000, and the maximum is 20 shares per person. The shares retain their value and, in addition, citizens receive dividends of up to 6% per year on profits. The rest of the profit is then invested by the cooperative in new green energy projects, so the money stays in the local area.

If someone cannot afford to buy a share, Ecopower finds a solution for them. For example, it provides people in energy poverty with pre-financed shares in the cooperative, allowing them to use cheaper electricity and reduce their energy bills.

Photovoltaics, wind turbines and a water mill
The Ecopower cooperative started small in 1991. Dirk Vansintjan, a long-time activist, decided that instead of protesting against nuclear energy, he would focus on finding solutions. Together with a few locals, he founded the initially inconspicuous Ecopower project, which started with the conversion of an old water mill, where they began to produce green energy.

Today, the cooperative is many times larger in terms of both membership and production resources. To give you an idea, in 2020, the energy production infrastructure looked like this:

• 23 wind turbines,
• 3 small hydroelectric power plants,
• 1 cogeneration plant
• and 322 photovoltaic power plants on the roofs of schools and houses.

REScoop: bringing community energy projects together
One of Ecopower's goals is to promote a model of cooperation that has primarily social and economic impact. That is one of the reasons why Dirk Vansintjan helped found the REScoop federation in 2013, which brings together other community energy projects in Europe.

Vansintjan says that not so long ago, Ecopower was the only cooperative of its kind in Belgium, and he thought it was the only one in the world. But then he came across similar groups in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany, and they put their heads together and founded a joint federation.

The REScoop network is constantly growing, and in 2024 it included over 2,500 communities supplying energy to around 2 million people. The aim is to participate in the creation of legislation, share know-how and inspire each other.