Uni-vert solaire

Name of the Project

Uni-vert solaire

Country, City, Neighbourhood

Belgium, Brussels, Evere

Website or social media of the project

Who is developing the project?

Christian Bansenga, local resident and member of the cooperative of local resident brought together about a dozen tenants of the social housing estate. The cooperative adopted the project and managed to gain support from the Regional Social Housing Service and from the Regional government.

Brief description

The project started with a petition for tenants to obtain the right to benefit from solar panels on their roof. (“Paying rent instead of owning property should not deprive us from the free energy of the sun” was their tag line). The project was introduced into a Sustainable Neighbourhood development programme, and was welcomed by the minister of Housing and Environment, after which it got stuck in red tape for several years. Only in 2019, 4 years after the start of the project, was the order of PV panels finally agreed. Meanwhile the project explored avenues in social economy and alternative currencies.

Objectives of the Project

Give tenants access to solar energy, first in the social housing estate Destrier in Evere, and use that as a model for other estates.

Tools and Methods

  • awareness raising through the petition
  • fund raising
  • collective management of venture
  • technical expertise for social housing estates

What methodologies does the project use?

  • participatory processes
  • digital tools
  • cultural heritage
  • collective mappings (open cartographies)
  • social innovation toolsdesign thinking
  • others: giving access to cheaper energy, reduce CO2 emission

General context

Tenants, and particularly in social housing estates, are often already financially less well off. Depriving them of Access to solar energy puts them at the back foot both economically and financially

Selected tags about the project

  • green energy
  • participation and co-creation
  • social innovation
  • social exclusion
  • social economy

How does it develop in time?

In 2019 the solar panels are being installed on the roofs of the hosuing estates.

Beneficiary

Reisdents of the social housing estate

Results

Reduction in CO2 emission, cutting of bills for local residents

How is it evaluated?

Monitoring of electricity meters.