The RESTOR Hydro days and cooperative workshop were organised within a bigger event: the « Forum des Moulins Producteurs » (productive mills forum), which took place on the 2nd May 2015 in Brittany (Bain de Bretagne). Over 1000 visitors were invited to discover the RESTOR Hydro project, through a conference (held in front of over 80 persons), a project information stand and the projection of the RESTOR Hydro film on a huge screen.
At the conference, where citizen hydro cooperative projects were explained and participants’ questions answered, members of the public requesting further information were invited to participate to the all-day RESTOR Hydro workshop stand. Visitors discovered how SHP cooperatives work and were advised on how to undertake the creation of a citizen hydro cooperative. Three computers allowed interested persons to consult the RESTOR Hydro map, where 7000 sites in France have been completed with detailed information on their location and potential. Contacts with a number of interested public and private watermill owners were made.
On the 7th May, two open public meetings were held in the South of France, with the collaboration of the two local mayors, around the pilot sites (Roquebrun and Prémian) and the RESTOR Hydro pilot cooperative, “Moulins d’Oc”. Local and regional elected representatives and renewable energy developers were invited alongside the 7 Moulins d’Oc founders, to explain the energy transition objectives and how shp cooperatives could play a major role locally. Enercoop, a public interest cooperative who buy and sell electricity from renewable sources, representatives of the Languedoc Roussillon Region (Nicolas Trillaud) and the Natural Regional Park of Haut Languedoc (Michel Castan, vice president and Frédérique Pereira) illustrated their remarks with PowerPoint presentations. The RESTOR Hydro film was projected and the Moulins d’Oc project detailed by Bridget Petit (FHE/FDMF) and Philippe Gonzalez, President of Moulins d’Oc. Orchis Eaulogy, the technical engineers for Moulins d’Oc, detailed the technical project. Guided visits of the three Moulins d’Oc mills allowed participants to discover their local “hidden” heritage and were invited to invest in their future local shp cooperative.
A local network of renewable energy cooperative projects was created by Enercoop and the Languedoc Roussillon Region (Réseau reganel / EC’LR) to assist with the future development of RES projects. Moulins d’Oc is an active member of this network and will continue to promote shp citizen cooperatives.
Link to the original RESTOR Hydro days French article: http://www.restor-hydro.eu/fr/actualites-et-evenements/les-journees-restor-hydro/
RESTOR Hydro subtitled video on YouTube :
Une belle initiative qui montre que les moulins ont de l’avenir