A Place Where Green Ideas are Born

In the beginning, there was a dilapidated rubble dump in the middle of the community of Independencia, Chile. Local residents avoided the site because the unlit area attracted criminal activity. The local community, together with the Wuppertal Institute's WISIONS of Sustainability initiative, set up a project to transform the space into a green energy community center. External circumstances, especially the political unrest in Chile at the end of 2019 and the Corona pandemic, kept complicating the work. But the project team overcame all challenges: now the community center has been officially opened.

The residents of Independencia were involved in the project from the very beginning: They contributed their ideas and wishes for the center and participated in the realization. At their suggestion, for example, an urban garden with medicinal plants was created. The completely renovated community center generates its own electricity with a photovoltaic system and supplies itself with hot water using a biogas plant. This is how the WISIONS initiative demonstrates in practice what a green transformation of energy supply can look like. The new community center serves as an event location, for example for workshops and lectures on the topic of renewable energies. It offers residents a place to come together and develop new green ideas for their community.