The Strategy

The Yansa Group is focused simultaneously on building three key elements that are required for a community-driven transition to renewable energy:

• Partnerships with and between communities through our Foundation,
• Access to technology and know-how through our Community Interest Company, and
• Financing in favorable conditions through our Investment Funds.

Partnerships with and between Communities: The Foundation

The Foundation works with communities that want to make use of their renewable energy sources as a means to building strong and sustainable local economies. We facilitate community training, favoring the direct transfer of knowledge and skills between communities and bringing in external experts when needed. We will finance renewable energy projects and run them in partnership with communities. The profits from each project will be equally divided between the community and the Foundation. The part of the profits going to the Foundation will be used to finance further community projects elsewhere. The part of the profits going to community will be administered by a democratic, community-based entity, which will follow collectively decided priorities, in order to ensure that profits are devoted to strengthening the quality of life, economic opportunities and environmental sustainability of the community as a whole.

The Foundation is also active on the field of policy advocacy, and on the negotiation of contracts with utilities and public bodies. Our initial projects are based in Mexico, the model will be brought to other countries once its viability is proven.

Access to Technology and Know-How: The Community Interest Company

Yansa CIC develops technological expertise, undertake research and development on renewable energy, and manufacture and sell renewable energy equipment. Yansa CIC is developing an innovative wind turbine design, aimed at lowering maintenance costs and fostering the involvement of communities in the Operation and Maintenance of wind farms. This work involves teams in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the UK. We expect to obtain profits by selling turbines in the market, which will enable us to supply turbines to community projects in non-commercial terms. Any profits that remain will be donated to the Foundation. Yansa CIC is “owned” by its social objectives. It does not have shareholders, and will not distribute dividends or any other form of private profit. All its profits and assets will be devoted to fulfilling its aims.

Financing in Favorable Conditions: The Investment Funds

We are building a US-based investment platform to finance Yansa’s community projects and technological and productive capacities. The profile of our investors will be organizations and individuals that are interested in making a positive social and environmental impact through their investments, while obtaining a modest but safe return. This investment platform will consist of two funds: one for foundations and philanthropic organizations, and one for institutional investors (sustainability-oriented investment funds, pension funds, ethical banks, etc) and the public at large. Yansa’s funds will work as regular investment funds, with the difference that their main purpose will be to have a positive social and environmental impact. Investors will retain ownership and management rights in the fund where they invest, but not over the CIC or Foundation. The investment fund for foundations will be specifically designed to allow US-based foundations to count their investments as part of the amount that they are annually required to devote to social programs. Other investors will receive tax-deductible donation certificates for a portion of their investment. Over time, we expect the Yansa Foundation and CIC to build up sufficient assets to be able to play a major role in project financing.

The Yansa Foundation and Yansa CIC have no shareholders; all their profits and assets will be devoted to fulfilling their aims. Both organizations will have a broad membership composed of community organizations from all continents. The members will not receive any direct economic benefit from being members, but they will appoint (and have the right to recall) the boards of both organizations and therefore ensure that they fulfill the mission within the wider objectives of the Yansa Group. In turn, the boards will control the work of the executive structures of the Foundation and the CIC, and hold them accountable to their mandate.

Strategic Guidelines:

Our strategy is based on the following guidelines:

• Independence and Mutual Support
• Commons-Based Ownership
• Minimization of Risk
• Community Participation at All Levels
• Cross-Sector Alliances

Independence and Mutual Support

All projects of the Foundation and the Community Interest Company (CIC) stand on their own. The success of community wind farms undertaken by the Foundation in partnership with communities does not require the success of the technological development or manufacturing plans of the CIC, and vice-versa. However, the success of each organization will be mutually supportive.

A strong CIC with sound technology and efficient wind turbine manufacturing facilities will generate the means to allow good turbines to be available in non-commercial terms to Foundation projects. This will increase the economic and social potential of the community wind farms, which will allow the Foundations to expand their reach into more regions of the world.

A growth in the number of community wind farm projects will enable the CIC to reach better economies of scale in the production of wind turbines, and to widen its product portfolio with new models adapted to a diversity of wind conditions, which, in turn, will place the CIC in a better position to support Foundation projects.

The mutual support between the Foundation and the CIC makes the Yansa Group stronger and more independent. This is likely to result in an increase in the financing capacity of the Investment Funds, another key element for the self-reliance and resilience of the Group.

Another essential ingredient in the success of this model is the fact that each community project will devote 50% of its profit margin towards supporting future projects in other communities. Therefore, community projects will also be independent, but will support each other, and thus create a strong dynamic that will drive the whole network of Yansa community projects forward.

Commons-Based Ownership

The Foundation and the CIC are non-profit-distributing, shareholder-free entities: all their profits will be devoted to the construction of commons-based equal and sustainable local economies, using the transition to renewable energies as a historic opportunity to advance towards this goal.

The creation of commons through the work of the Yansa Group will take place on both a local and global level. Half of the profits generated by Foundation projects will constitute a “local commons”, collectively administered by transparent and democratic local structures to foster the sustainable and equitable development of the community. The other half of the profits generated by Foundation projects, as well as all the assets of the CIC, will be devoted to the promotion of further projects in other communities.

The membership of the CIC and the Foundation will be composed of community-based organizations that share the same objectives, values and desires with regards to grassroots, democratic social change. The assets built by the activity of the Foundation and the CIC will therefore constitute a “global commons” held jointly by communities from all continents. They will choose (and hold accountable) the governance bodies of the two organizations, and determine their priorities and lines of action.

Minimization of Risk

We see risk-minimization as an ethical imperative, since we will be working with vulnerable communities. We will therefore work towards a minimum, almost non-existent, level of risk for community-based renewable energy projects. We will only start projects on the basis of solid contractual arrangements that fix the price that the community projects receive for the electricity they produce over their lifetime. Speculative market-based contracts might yield higher profits, but they also carry higher risk, and we will therefore avoid them.

In Mexico, where the Foundation is starting its operation, there is a form of contract that ensures a safe and stable contractual framework between community projects and the state utility. This form of contract fixes the price that will be paid for the electricity produced by the community wind farm, month by month, for a 20-year period. All other risks can be covered through insurance policies.

In countries where such contractual arrangements are not common, we will work together with communities, utilities and policy-makers with the objective of giving shape to a specific policy framework for community-based renewable energy projects. The special character of these projects, which serve the common interest by providing a basis for the sustainable and equitable development of historically disadvantaged communities, justifies such a specific framework.

A safe contractual basis will enable us to obtain financing in good conditions for the projects, which will in turn maximize the margin that can be devoted to sustainable and equitable community development.

The Investment Funds will therefore provide investors with a safe, modest financial return, and a very high social and environmental return.

We will also work towards obtaining a maximum level of public funding for technology Research and Development and wind turbine production facilities. We will only expand production capacity on the basis of secured demand.

Community Participation at All Levels

The success and growth of the Yansa Group will require the development of a strong basis of expertise and experience. We expect to build this together with communities, in order to maximize the participation of community members in the work of the Yansa Group at all levels.

The membership and board of the Foundation and the CIC will be composed of community organizations from all continents. The members will choose the boards and keep them accountable, and the boards will oversee the work of executive structures composed by qualified and experienced staff. Our objective is, over time, for these executive structures to also be comprised of community members.

The Foundation will design special training programs to facilitate a maximum level of participation in all aspects of project planning and implementation by community members.  It will work with communities that have already developed projects to establish training centers focused on the transfer of knowledge and experience between communities.

In addition, all communities will be encouraged to devote a fraction of the common resources created by renewable energy projects to provide access to higher technical education to their young members who want to specialize in this area, with a special focus on women. We will favor the employment of qualified community members in the CIC, both in wind turbine production facilities, and also in Research and Development activities.

Cross-Sector Alliances

The vision of the Yansa Group can only be realized through the support of a strong network of allies from diverse sectors: community and social organizations, ethical investors, experienced professionals from the renewable energy sector, environmental and development NGOs, academics and researchers, opinion-makers, etc. We will therefore cultivate a global network of allies, opening specific information channels to foster exchanges and enable the active participation of different actors in evolution of Yansa.

There is a vast potential for a mutual support in this cross-sector alliance. The Yansa Group will require external support from like-minded allies, particularly in the initial stages, before this innovative model of economic and social change has gathered sufficient energy to keep moving on its own momentum. On the other side of the equation, as the Yansa Group gathers experience, it will be able to offer valuable lessons in the construction of commons-based models for sustainable and equitable development.