Power from the People | Hard News

Power from the People

“HARD NEWS 4 October 08………..Geussing, a tiny Austrian town of less than 30,000 people……………..the entire renewable energy experiment took off and Geussing’s 27 different decentralised power plants became the talk of the towns elsewhere. Today, the energy turnover here is worth about 14 million euros, providing power to 1,500 households, schools and a hospital. The industrial and commercial sectors are heated by a biomass plant while 50 farmers are responsible for the distribution of fuel to different sectors in the city and electricity generation is a 150 per cent.Much of the profit is naturally invested back into more renewable energy projects. The town is famous now for using clean energy that is affordable. People are flooding back into the area where similar enterprises provide thousands of new job opportunities even as the place remains unaffected by the rising price of oil and gas elsewhere.Two decades ago, none would dream of associating an ill-lit Geussing with the glamorous world of tourism. Today, the region’s reputation as an eco-tourism destination is soaring.Nearly 30,000 visitors from all over the globe came here in 2007, mostly to find out how Geussing’s switch to solar power, biomass and bio-diesel could eventually help the entire country to meet more than 50 per cent of its energy needs from renewables by 2020.

Power from the People | Hard News

Tags: renewables

October 4, 2008 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | ENERGY