I work for a tech startup that is focused on cooperatives and so have been learning about the cooperatives a lot lately. Cooperative have and still are playing a great role in things like energy and farming. Much of the grid in the US has been built by cooperative. But the legislation around them is outdated and also inter-cooperative support structures are lacking, for example the massive farming lending cooperatives will not lend to energy-related co-ops. Our founders moved to Colorado to start the company (which specialized in delivery cooperatives) because Colorado offers the Limited Cooperative Association entity [0]. (As an aside I have interviewed with a startup, that we are also in communications with, called React Network [1] that is specifically focused on co-cops that coordinate energy production and storage). I am honestly not sure what point I am trying to make except that I wish co-ops played a great part in the energy future.
Would you mind sharing the company you work for? Seems really interesting! I'm also hopeful about cooperatives, but don't actually know much about what they're up to in the energy space.
noshdelivery.co provides technology to local restaurants to operate their own delivery services (ordering app/driver management/etc). The restaurants that we partner with form a cooperative and get the software while we get a non-voting stake. I think it is quiet cool. The truth is that delivery companies are a scourge on the restaurants and restaurants will go to great length to avoid working with Grubhub, Doordash, etc. We are planning on expanding into a few more cities.
If you are interested in cooperatives the most prominent public thinker on the topic these days is Nathan Schneider, who is a professor at CU Boulder and one of our advisors. For example look up an interview with him on "Frontiers of Commoning" podcast - "Nathan Schneider on Cooperatives and Digital Governance". It is an excellent listen.
[0] https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/business/news/2012/20120402...
[1] https://www.reactnetwork.io/