power - APRIL 2022

While the world braces itself for whatever Putin does next (and looks on in horror as he blasts civilians in Ukraine), I'm hoping that this short film and story might just make you feel a tiny bit less anxious..

This is written in the spirit of wanting peace for all the "normal" people in the world, the men, women and children whose sole ambition is to live as humbly and peacefully as they possibly can ..

It seems like no time since my partner Hilary and me had the crazy idea of turning our street in London into a Renewable Power Station.

We just got tired of waiting for the government to take action and responsibility for the crisis which is threatening life itself.. and the bills shooting up!

We felt they weren’t taking the future of the planet seriously – and even though we could see how amazing Extinction Rebellion was doing, it had suddenly dawned on us: if we keep waiting for the politicians to actually do something, it’s just going to get too late – we’ll go beyond the tipping point the experts are warning against..

And we saw too that the energy markets had gone totally crazy – and according to the government themselves, there were 27% of people in our own borough of London who were in “energy poverty”

This has shot up too - since we started..

– And it's 1 in every 5 across Britain – and with bills about to go up massively – the problem will only get worse…

Like a lot of people, we were hoping that there would be a turning point, a political sea change, a wakening up –

We hoped Extinction Rebellion and Greta Thunberg might be the turning point –

But actually they were just largely ignored by the political establishment - and they weren't creating new systems or structures, rather they were just critiquing the existing ones –

plus they were demonized even by a press owned by billionaires who want to keep reality firmly out of the news, and focus on telling us how wonderful Brexit was, or that coronavirus was under control and we should all be back at the grind.

So I think that’s what caused us to just say to ourselves –

“If not us, then who? And if not now, then when?”

So we decided we would set about building a renewable Power Station on our street – and follow the advice and ideas set out by economist and author Ann Pettifor –

“Every Building a Power Station.”

We know it’s not enough, but it’s a start – and it’s a beacon – a symbol of hope and of rebellion.. and all movements must start somewhere. And if it spreads - it could genuinely change something systemic.

So with no real knowledge of how solar panels or insulation work, we just said..

“Let’s get solar panels onto every house of one London street – and then when we’ve done that, let’s insulate all the houses that want to be in on it –

Let's get a zero-carbon street!

And let’s declare ourselves as a sort of mini government .

– the type of government we would want, if we had a genuine choice..

A government of artists and visionaries rather than the fusty and corrupt types who currently rule over us

And if we can do it – then why can’t the real government?

And if the “real government” really wanted to protect the citizens it’s supposed to be serving, wouldn’t it be doing this very thing?

After all, when you start to bulk-buy solar panels, the cost falls massively from the retail price. We've got a deal with our supplier that's 50% cheaper for doing this in bulk

We have done some calculations –

There are 22,260,856 houses in the UK.

Installing solar panels on every house in the UK would provide 60.52% of our total domestic electricity consumption.

Between April and September, solar generation would exceed all domestic electricity consumption.

How much would it cost to fit every house in the UK with solar panels and battery storage?

The average retail price including VAT for a 3.16kW system with 5.12kWh battery storage is currently £6000.

£6000 x 22,260,856 = £133.56bn. Or roughly 3.59 track and trace systems.

Our friends at NEF are telling us that in their view, every UK home could be retrofitted for the same price as the renovations in the House of Commons and the Lords.

Meeting a significant amount of our electricity needs with cheaper domestic energy production would reduce our reliance on international energy markets, which can be volatile and raise prices significantly for consumers.

Just look at the energy markets now…it’s a nightmare – and who’s pulling the strings? Vladimir Putin?!

He's using the money he gets from selling his oil to Europe to fund his crazy war.

I don't know about you - but I'd much rather do business with artists than him - any day!

Does this sound a bit Utopian? Do we sound like crackpots?

 Find out for yourself! Get a totally free stream of our Bank Job film and six short POWER episodes by visiting this page:

https://freestreams.power.film/totallyfreestream

very best wishes,

Dan Edelstyn

Filmmaker and Power Station operator

London 2022