General description:
Ecopower cvba was founded in 1992 as a cooperative under Belgian law. The organization has three main goals: Invest in renewable energy; Supply 100% green electricity to our cooperative members; Promote rational use of energy (and renewable energy and the cooperative business model in general). By the end of 2017 Ecopower was a cooperative with 52.937 cooperative members, 207.694 shares and 43.662 customers. The latter corresponds to about 1,5% of the Flemish household market. Ecopower has private equity (capital) of 58,62 million euro (31/12/2017) and a balance total (assets) of 77,80 million euro (31/12/2017). The annual turnover was 38 million euro (31/12/2017) and the staff composes of 38,5 FTE (31/12/2017).
To invest in renewable energy, Ecopower gathers financial resources from as many cooperative members (shareholders) as possible and uses these funds to invest in renewable energy projects. In an ideal scenario, the decisions about these investments (and the cooperative in general) involve as many people as possible.
Ecopower is a Renewable Energy Sources Cooperative (REScoop). A REScoop is an autonomous organization with people who unite voluntarily in order to produce, distribute or supply renewable energy or engage in energy efficiency. REScoops respect 7 basic principles that were defined by the International Cooperative
Alliance (ICA):
1. Voluntary and open membership;
2. Democratic control by members;
3. Economic participation;
4. Autonomy and independence;
5. Education, training, and information;
6. Cooperation amongst cooperatives;
7. Concern for community.
Role in the project:
ECOPOWER will contribute to the identification of skills and training needs and will pilot the educational programs created on demand with the learners of the company. Furthermore, ECOPOWER will help to promote ASSET programs to the industry.