We The Power: How Community Energy Can Free People & Help The Planet
Originally published on The Beam.
By Emanuela Barbiroglio
Born and raised in the German city of Schönau, Sebastian Sladek learned the meaning of the word “community” quite soon. Words like “energy,” “power,” and “rebellion” immediately followed.
“Our city was small and traditionally conservative, a rural area in the middle of the Black Forest. My parents too were conservative people, always believing in what politicians say and never engaging,” he recalls. “Then Chernobyl switched something in their brains.”
“When the tragedy happened, we were deeply impacted and yet the administration didn’t have a plan. This opened my parents’ eyes.”
At his dining room table at home, Sladek witnessed endless meetings between his parents and their comrades-in-arms. They were taking over the Schönau power grid and founding their own as a civil society. In 1994, Elektrizitätswerke Schönau (EWS) was founded: finally a green-electricity supplier.
That might be the reason why Sebastian grew up with the firm belief that his studies would have brought him as far as possible from all of this. So he chose archaeology and, after, started his first excavation experiences.
Despite his efforts to find another path, a passion for the “community” drew him more intensely back to Schönau. In 2011, Sladek returned to the place that made his childhood so peculiar and became a member of EWS’ executive board. “I switched from history to the future,” he laughs.
Now EWS is different from the past, but the Schönauer Gefühl (the spirit of Schönau) remains and the basic idea never changed: together we can make a radical difference. As a cooperative company, the board communicates with members, who in turn help shape the company as partners. In addition, they involve many other stakeholders, including local municipalities, environmental protection organizations and cooperatives to promote climate protection.
By opting for EWS’ green electricity, customers direct the cash flow towards achieving a higher target. The product becomes part of the solution to climate change and, at the same time, the customer becomes part of the community working for a better world.
The true story of Sladek’s parents, the original Schönau “power rebels,” still inspires EWS’ goal of preserving the planet as a place worth living.
“There are always times when people feel depressed and powerless, until they meet a group that helps them come back to power. Being a group has always been my family’s solution, my siblings and I knew how it feels to be representative of a minority’s opinion and how to win.”
Participation is key. “You need to know that you can make a difference and you have to do it, but facing challenges is only possible through solidarity.”
Of course, Sladek’s family and friends had the privilege of not being afraid of repression “but that’s why we have the responsibility to both fight for future generations and defend others’ rights together with ours.”
Movements such as Fridays for Future send a message of hope, by allowing people to be actors in the process. “Taking part in an anti-nuclear protest with 215,000 people gives you a real strong feeling.”
Pioneers from the ‘90s had a long way in front of them, and yet after almost 70 years since the first reactor started operations in 1955, Germany is going to phase out nuclear power. By the end of 2022, it will be a memory.
“It took us years, but we made it.” While years are precisely what we are missing and, Sladek admits, his greatest fear is that we are wasting time.
That’s why even more communities have to take action. The good news is that it is already happening.
A new project by Patagonia is significantly called “We the Power” and includes a feature-length documentary shining a light on the citizen-led renewable community energy movement across Europe. Directed by David Garrett Byars, from the multi-award winning Patagonia film Public Trust, it will be screened at virtual and in-person events across Europe in combination with live presentations featuring local pioneers, from April 2021.
EWS Schönau is part of the film, alongside three other stories from the UK, Spain, and the European federation of citizens energy cooperatives (REScoop.eu).
“All these initiatives are led by very brave visionaries and very persistent people,” says Birgit Grossmann, enviro and marketing manager for Patagonia Germany.
The film will demonstrate the benefits that energy communities bring, both to locals and to the health of our home planet. It will also show people how they can get involved with the movement – or start their own – in their local area.
Indeed, the campaign dreams big: inspiring a citizen-led movement towards energy democracy across Europe, while educating on the crucial role that we can play in the transition from an economy based on fossil fuels to one based on renewable energy sources.
Grossmann is absolutely sure about this: “Citizens have to watch carefully what renewables are according to corporations.”
Meanwhile, Patagonia wants to help groups like EWS promote, legislate, or organize around renewable energy community solutions and their transcription into country-level law.
Patagonia believes that the predominant model of big energy companies and fossil fuel production must be changed, if Europe is to have any chance of getting to the net zero CO2 emissions level required by 2050 and stabilise global warming at 1.5°C.
“If we want to be serious about the Paris agreement, this is definitely necessary,” Grossmann adds. “But energy democracy has other advantages, like the possibility for local communities to make their own choices and see where their electricity is coming from, rather than blindly accepting what companies give to them. It also prepares the way for spreading renewables because acceptance is key. Finally, from an economic point of view it stimulates local employment and boosts it with money that would normally go to big external investors.
Today, one million European citizens are part of the movement. By 2050, more than 260 million people could be involved, generating 45% of the EU’s electricity demand.
So how does it work? It’s easy. All citizens have the right to join an energy community through becoming a member or co-owner. Every person who joins gets a share of the profits and is usually given the opportunity to buy energy at a fair price. As active participants in this growing movement, they are included in decisions such as where to invest and how to set prices.
In Sladek’s words, “the power of citizens is the power of mass.”
Kia’s electric SUVs are taking over. The EV3 is the best-selling retail EV in the UK this year, giving Kia its strongest sales start since it arrived 34 years ago. And it’s not just in the UK. Kia just had its best first quarter globally since it started selling cars in 1962.
Kia EV3 is the best-selling EV in the UK through March
In March, Kia sold a record nearly 20,000 vehicles in the UK, making it the fourth best-selling brand. It was also the second top-seller of electrified vehicles (EVs, PHEVs, and HEVs), accounting for over 55% of sales.
The EV3 remained the best-selling retail EV in the UK last month. Including the EV6, three-row EV9, and Niro EV, electric vehicles represented 21% of Kia’s UK sales in March.
Kia said the EV3 “started with a bang” in January, darting out as the UK’s most popular EV in retail sales. Through March, Kia’s electric SUV has held on to the crown. With the EV3 rolling out, Kia sold over 7,000 electric cars through March, nearly 50% more than in Q1 2024.
The EV3 was the best-selling retail EV in the UK in the first quarter and the fourth best-selling EV overall, including commercial vehicles.
Starting at £33,005 ($42,500), Kia said it’s the “brand’s most affordable EV yet.” It’s available with two battery packs, 58.3 kWh or 81.48 kWh, good for 430 km (270 miles) and 599 km (375 miles) of WLTP range, respectively.
With new EVs on the way, this could be just the start. Kia is launching several new EVs in the UK this year, including the EV4 sedan (and hatchback) and EV5 SUV. It also confirmed that the first PV5 electric vans will be delivered to customers by the end of the year.
Electrek’s Take
Globally, Kia sold a record 772,351 vehicles in the first quarter, its best since it started selling cars in 1962. With the new EV4, the brand’s first electric sedan and hatchback, launching this year, Kia looks to build on its momentum in 2025.
Kia has also made it very clear that it wants to be a global leader in the electric van market with its new Platform Beyond Vehicle (PBV) business, starting with the PV5 later this year.
Earlier today, we learned Kia’s midsize electric SUV, the EV5, is the fourth best-selling EV in Australia through March, outselling every BYD vehicle (at least for now). The EV5 is rolling out to new markets this year, including Canada, the UK, South Korea, and Mexico. However, it will not arrive in the US.
For those in the US, there are still a few Kia EVs to look forward to. Kia is launching the EV4 globally, including in the US, later this year. Although no date has been set, Kia confirmed the EV3 is also coming. It’s expected to arrive in mid-2026.
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Environment
Podcast: Tesla’s disastrous deliveries, more Trump tariffs, EV delivery numbers, and more
In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss Tesla’s disastrous deliveries, more Trump tariffs, EV delivery numbers, and more.
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Charging your EV in freezing weather could soon become dramatically faster, thanks to a big breakthrough from the University of Michigan engineers.
Neil Dasgupta, U-M associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and engineering and corresponding author of a study published in Joule, and his team have developed an innovative battery structure and coating that can boost lithium-ion EV battery charging speeds by a whopping 500%, even at frigid temperatures as low as 14F (-10C). “Charging an EV battery takes 30 to 40 minutes even for aggressive fast charging, and that time increases to over an hour in the winter,” Dasgupta explained. “This is the pain point we want to address.”
Freezing weather has traditionally been harsh on EV batteries because it slows down the movement of lithium ions, resulting in slower charging speeds and reduced battery life. Automakers have tried thickening battery electrodes to extend driving range, but this makes some of the lithium hard to access, making charging even slower.
Previously, Dasgupta’s group sped up battery charging using lasers to carve pathways around 40 microns in size into the graphite anode. This allowed lithium ions to reach deeper into the battery more quickly. However, cold-weather performance still lagged because a chemical layer formed on the electrodes, blocking the ions. Dasgupta compares this barrier to “trying to cut cold butter,” making charging inefficient.
To solve this, the team coated the battery with a thin, glassy material made of lithium borate-carbonate—only 20 nanometers thick—which prevented the problematic chemical layer from forming. Combined with the microscopic channels, the results were groundbreaking: the modified batteries retained 97% of their capacity even after 100 fast-charging cycles in freezing temperatures.
“We envision this approach as something that EV battery manufacturers could adopt without major changes to existing factories,” Dasgupta noted. “For the first time, we’ve shown a pathway to simultaneously achieve extreme fast charging at low temperatures, without sacrificing the energy density of the lithium-ion battery.”
This innovation could tackle one of the biggest concerns holding potential EV buyers back.
The new battery tech is moving closer to commercialization, supported by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s Michigan Translational Research and Commercialization (MTRAC) Advanced Transportation Innovation Hub. The research devices were built at U-M’s Battery Lab and studied with help from the Michigan Center for Materials Characterization.
U-M Innovation Partnerships assisted the team in applying for patents, and Arbor Battery Innovations has licensed the technology for market deployment. Dasgupta and the University of Michigan hold financial stakes in Arbor Battery Innovations.
Read more: California now has nearly 50% more EV chargers than gas nozzles
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