Glasgow School of Art and Outside the Box

Back in May Fi from our north team was working with REAP, organising events together to raise awareness of renewable energy and fuel poverty.

They put her in touch with a GSA Environmental Design Student called Aarya Kunte who was looking for people and organisations to talk to about rural communities in Moray and a shared renewable energy network. She wanted to talk to OTB about using Community Engagement and place-based thinking to design to promote hyperlocal community energy.  

Aarya was investigating the barriers to installing renewables and found that one barrier was that people who are part of a community energy project don’t directly benefit from them. She wanted to design a system where people could share the costs and the benefits of installing renewable energy.  

This would include those who couldn’t afford to put up their own, but they could be part of a shared energy network. This would empower local people and form more resilient communities. For us it was really useful to see the work of Zero Carbon Moray through her lens and the design concept she came up with to promote the concept was fascinating. Have a look for yourself!  

The details of her work can be seen on the GSA website: 

Aarya Kunte – GSA Postgraduate Degree Show 2023 (gsapostgradshowcase.net) 

Feedback from Aarya  

“My name is Aarya Kunte, a postgraduate student at the Glasgow School of Art. I had the pleasure to meet Fi on an online call to discuss about the status of energy supply in Moray as a part of my postgraduate dissertation project “Hyperlocal Community Energy”. My project aimed to empower rural communities of Scotland by promoting hyperlocal community energy through a shared renewable energy network and promoting place-based thinking practice.  

Fi was helpful and provided honest unbiased opinions for all my questions. She is passionate about environmental and social development and helped me connect to people in Moray. Her networking proved to be very useful for me to get a clear understanding of the problems of users and reach a wider audience. She has been supportive throughout my research work and cooperated with me at various stages of my project, right from the initial interview to testing my idea and getting user feedback”