The watermill in Rotselaar provided electricity for public lighting from 1907. The mill is now owned by the cooperation Ecopower.
FROM ACTIVE WOOD GATHERER TO PASSIVE ELECTRICITY CONSUMER
Until the start of industrialisation at the end of the 18th century, the people of Europe had to rely largely on biomass – on wood – for their energy at home. Wood was used to cook, to bake, to heat. It was gathered or felled in hedgerows and forests: forests that often were commons, that belonged to all. As the population swelled and urbanisation progressed in the wake of industrialisation, the active role of most citizens in providing energy was reduced to that of passive consumer: first of wood, later of coal, gas, oil, and ultimately also of electricity. When electricity achieved its breakthrough at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, it was mainly used for lighting. In Spain they still speak of ‘luz’ (light) when talking about electricity. Its generation took place locally, close to the consumer. There was as yet no grid to move electricity long distances. Often electricity production was started in existing hydropower plants or in companies with a steam engine.
The energy transition to energy democracy, Dirk Vansintjan, REScoop, 02015, p. 15.
