Finance Monthly - March 2022

of health workers – crises are traumatic, but they unite. Take the power back It’s easy to see how citizens might mobilise in response to COVID – delivering essentials to quarantining neighbours, staffing a vaccine centre, or just being conscientious when it comes to handwashing and mask-wearing. But the issues at hand require more thought. What can people do in response to soaring energy prices and inflation? The answer might lie in the rise of a consumer-centric energy market. We are currently seeing the first phase of this with a year-on-year increase in solar panel installations. There is room for growth, as of 2020, 970,000 UK homes are using them, according to government figures – that’s only 3.3% of the country. Further along, it’s possible that citizens will tire of paying huge prices to huge companies and opt for creating energy themselves. This could see the birth of localised power co-operatives, where energy is produced peer-topeer. New, low-cost and easy to use technologies will be key to making this revolution happen in the coming years. In the short term, the UK is staring down the worst set of circumstances since the financial crash of 2008. But if government inaction and industry stagnation lead to an era when people are more conscious of their own collective power for social change, the twenties might roar at last. “It’s possible that citizens will tire of paying huge prices to huge companies and opt for creating energy themselves. This could see the birth of localised power co-operatives, where energy is produced peerto-peer.” Finance Monthly. Bus i ne s s & Economy 23

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