[This is an EXCERPT: read the whole article here. For more about Freiamt's local energy production, see this recent article. -Ed.]

Freiamt is a cluster of villages of 4,300 people in the Black Forest. Its economy is dominated by farming, tourism and small-scale forestry. For the burghers of Freiamt, questions of "the environment" come down to how to ensure that the soil, forests, water, air and natural beauty of the region are preserved and yet still harnessed to maximize economic and social benefit.

The same converging forces threatening towns and cities globally (shrinking natural resources, peaking supplies of oil and uranium, climate change and tightening competition for all of these as a result of population growth), make Freiamt as potentially vulnerable as any other community. But vulnerable is not in the vocabulary of the people of Freiamt.

Proving that "small is beautiful," Freiamt generates so much power from its small-scale renewable sources that it is turning an annual profit. It did so by adding four wind turbines and 800 rooftop photovoltaic systems to its existing small-scale hydro and biomass installations. Freiamt now generates 13 million kilowatt hours of power. Since it only consumes 10 million locally, the surplus three million are sold to other parts of Germany via the national grid, generating income for residents and businesses.

The Freiamt story is as much about "power" as energy. Although much of the technical expertise and all of the equipment comes from outside Freiamt, the citizens were adamant that they wanted to own their future, by owning and controlling the turbines and the rooftop photovoltaic (PV) and solar thermal installations. The wind turbines are jointly owned, as are many of the solar panel arrays on buildings such as the soccer clubhouse. Other PV systems are privately owned and installed on homes, barns and garages.

Photo credit: Stephan Mosel