ABOUT POWER STATION
POWER STATION is a ‘show and do’ project building a solar POWER STATION across the rooftops (streets, schools, community buildings) of North East London via enacting a grassroots Green New Deal - working with art and infrastructure to tackle the interlinked climate/energy/cost of living crises.
It begins on one street as template and provocation literally building POWER and possibility from the ground up. Inspired by a core solar punk idea of infrastructure as resistance and power we take a leap of imagination and give ourselves the power of Government to unleash an arts led stimulus to address the big challenge of our time: printing money (our ‘Greenbacks’) to fund infrastructure and build community wealth.
In this public work of art and action we share the trials and tribulations of building the POWER STATION in a membership site that becomes community and call to action.
So far we have installed solar on 16 houses on this street and, in collaboration with Solar for Schools, on 5 local schools.
This is not just about technological infrastructure. It is about the social and imaginative infrastructural shifts needed now. We take to the rooftops. Grow thousands of sunflowers together. Sing. Collaborate and experiment. We even ran in the 2024 General Election to get the message of ‘Every Street A Power Station’ out there.
We film everything - highlighting and working through the complexities of taking action in the climate emergency—telling the stories of extractive processes, inequalities and injustice whilst attempting to tackle these as best we can on the ground.
This story will become an independent feature documentary film in the edit now for release in Spring 2025 - quite literally exposing power, and creating a vision of public potential based on social solidarity in a time of crisis. Irreverent, anarchic, and joyful, the film POWER STATION is an urgent call to action and manifesto for the democratisation of energy.
This is practical thinking through making—collaborating with people and photons to explore and expand our relationships with each other and the sun we all live under and challenge the power structures that tell us there is no alternative.