Sergio Oceransky

Impoverished areas in southern Mexico, where indigenous tribes have been allowed to operate with considerable autonomy by the Mexican government, have become a current battleground for massive new wind farm investments. In order to change the course of these developments, Sergio is democratizing the future of the energy economy by making it possible for local and indigenous communities to participate in, and benefit from, their own grassroots renewable energy projects. Sergio’s primary focus is currently in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico, with communities that have rejected contracts from multinational energy companies. He has also begun to work with Maori communities in New Zealand, farmers' cooperatives in India and community electricity cooperatives in Europe and North America.

Most of the multi-million dollar wind farm projects around the world have been built and operated by a few private sector players, mainly from Europe and North America. In Denmark, Germany, Ontario and Minnesota, however, a different model exists in which the community owns or has a significant say in the wind farm investment and participates in the ongoing profits it generates.

Sergio’s organization, the Yansa Group, is working in partnership with indigenous peoples in Oaxaca to build and operate a community-owned model of wind farms. He has been working to ensure that the rules governing long-term contracts for renewable energy generation are adapted at the national level to promote social justice and democratize the distribution of wealth gained from energy.

To ensure that the profits from these wind farms will be transparent and controlled by the community, Sergio created a social business and philanthropic foundation to organize and finance project development. The technical work is undertaken by Yansa Community Interest Company (Yansa CIC), a non-profit-distributing social company incorporated in the U.K. The Yansa Foundation, a non-profit registered in the U.S., partners with communities to undertake the community wind farm projects and guarantee that the income derived is devoted to community development projects. Together, the entities of the Yansa Group are working to build up a process by which the renewable energy transition leads to a more just and democratic distribution of energy resources, not just for a few wind farms in southern Mexico but as an alternative business model for developing countries.

Contemporary renewable energy projects are creating tensions and discord, particularly in the global South. Conflicts stem from the allocation of three critical components of renewable energy production: Capital, technology, and territory. Indigenous communities and farmers own strategic territory, but only large energy companies have the finance and technology available to develop and profit from renewable energy projects. Consequently, land owners that wish to take advantage of their wind or solar resources must allow a large energy company to access their land to develop the project in return for a small cut of the profits, often under unfavorable contractual terms.

On the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Oaxaca, Mexico, international companies are facing increasing local resistance. The Isthmus is owned by various indigenous communities, whose collective land rights were recognized in the aftermath of Mexico’s democratic revolution. The Isthmus attracts international attention because the wind blowing across this narrow strip of land connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans represents one of the world’s most important wind resources. The Isthmus has an estimated potential of 15,000MW of power, roughly enough to serve 15 million European households.

European energy companies, especially those from Spain, have begun development of 2,500MW of wind energy production on the Isthmus. Indigenous communities that have made deals with these international electricity companies have been negatively impacted for three reasons. First, the communities are excluded or marginalized in the contract. In many cases, the government of Oaxaca negotiates directly with the international companies without allowing the communities to have a voice, even though the territory belongs to indigenous people. Then, the agreement eventually signed by the community is usually written in Spanish rather than the appropriate indigenous language, leading to misunderstanding about the contract terms. Second, the communities and the energy companies have unequal information about the value of unharnessed wind energy. The communities in many cases do not yet realize that the wind has value, or know how much a company should pay to use their wind. Complicating this lack of information, several international power companies have unofficially and illegally allocated the Isthmus’s land among themselves so as to generate territorial monopolies; the companies never make competitive offers against one another so the communities don’t know what the actual rental is worth. Later, when electric turbines are built and energy is produced on indigenous people’s land, the company is required to pay the community 1.5 percent of the energy value produced, but the production value is determined by the company without any third party verification. Thus, the communities often receive less than they should according to the contract. Third, the contracts restrict how indigenous peoples can use their land. Rental contracts extend up to 30 years, and can be renewed by the companies without the community’s agreement. During this time, the companies have effective territorial control and decide under which terms the community can make use of its own territory. For all of these reasons, requests for nullification of contracts have been voiced throughout the Isthmus region and lawsuits have been filed against companies and corrupt community representatives that signed contracts with international firms behind the back of the communities.

Despite these unfavorable terms, indigenous people of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec work with international energy companies because they lack alternatives. First, the legal framework for community-owned projects is precarious. A new law regulating renewable energy was recently approved by the Mexican Congress, making community benefit a legal requirement for large-scale projects. However, specific legislation on this regard has not yet been issued. Second, communities don’t have access to capital to invest in renewable energy projects. Even though wind energy projects could be tantamount to modern day oil fields, initial investment for a single wind turbine can cost up to US$5M and is therefore out of communities’ reach. Finally, large energy oligopolies have control over wind energy technology and training. Without sophisticated knowledge and equipment, it is impossible to plan a profitable wind energy project, let alone operate or perform maintenance on the turbines. Thus, it is essentially impossible for any group other than one of the world’s dominant energy companies to harvest the Isthmus’s wind energy resources.

Other organizations have attempted to help communities implement their own renewable energy projects, but the results have been on a very small scale, and communities at most produce energy for their own use. Still others have focused on improving the relationship between communities and big developers, but have only slightly changed the terms of engagement and have failed to allow indigenous communities to truly benefit from their renewable energy resources. The Yansa Group takes a different approach: keeping territorial control in the hands of the communities, and partnering with them to build large- scale projects in order to turn their valuable wind resource into a driver of sustainable and equitable development.

Sergio has developed a multifaceted strategy to provide indigenous communities with the legal framework, finance, and technology required for large-scale wind energy projects. The first component involves negotiations with government officials to establish a legal basis for community-owned energy projects. While a number of U.S. states and European countries have laws that support community-owned energy projects, regulations in Latin America favor large multinational companies. To influence Mexican authorities, Yansa Group is working with Oaxacan communities, the Mexican national university, human rights organizations, environmentalists, and various branches of local and federal government. Sergio has established a favorable relationship with Mexico’s Secretary of Energy who is committed to establish a favorable framework to make community energy projects viable. Sergio is also negotiating with the Federal Electricity Commission to obtain a contract to sell renewable energy from community projects at a pre-established rate. This particular policy would be instrumental in allowing communities to produce energy beyond their own consumption, which is the key for renewable energy-based community development. In summary, the legislative goal of Yansa Group is to set the grounds for community-owned renewable energy projects in Mexico, while establishing a precedent for the rest of Latin America.

The Yansa Foundation is now working with indigenous communities in Oaxaca to plan and build community wind farms. These projects will be carried out on communally owned land, using a grassroots approach to generate community participation and collective decision-making. The foundation will allow access to technology from the first stages, helping the community identify appropriate sites, and providing training on the operation and maintenance of wind energy equipment, to maximize community participation.

The community wind farms will be financed through debt, through a subordinated loan provided by an ad-hoc Special Purpose Vehicle set up by the Yansa Foundation, complemented with a bank loan. Profits remaining after debt servicing will be divided on a 50 percent basis between local social community-based development, and the promotion of further wind farm projects under the same scheme in other communities. The foundation advises the communities on the use of earnings from wind energy sales, with a view to empower the community to build-up long-term assets that remain after the end of the project.

The primary focus of the foundation is currently in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, working in partnership with communities that have rejected contracts from multinational energy companies. Yansa Foundation has also begun to work with communities in Yucatán, Baja California and the USA.

The provision of technical and project management knowledge for these projects will take place through an innovative Community Interest Company (CIC), called Yansa CIC. The CIC is based in London where British law now allows social businesses the flexibility to operate a business at any scale with features that guarantee its adherence to its social mission. A CIC has no shareholders and cannot distribute profits. Yansa CIC’s assets belong to its social purpose and all profits must be directed toward that cause.

Sergio claims that many of the world’s best experts in wind energy technology are disillusioned by the way renewable energy projects are carried out today. Sergio has assembled a team of pioneer technology centers and leading consultants and engineers in Denmark, Spain, Mexico, Germany, and the U.K. who are eager to work with a company that promotes both social and environmental goals.

Together, Yansa Group entities will work to change the terms of the debate for the future development of renewable energy by providing indigenous communities with the legal terms, technology, and finance necessary to carry out their own projects.

Sergio’s passion for social and environmental justice began when he was a child. His parents separated and his mother, a Mexican Jew, found herself living in Spain, in which divorce and Judaism were prohibited and where women had very few rights and protection under Franco’s laws. However, his mother continued to fight a very long and difficult child-custody battle. A dedicated social activist ever since, Sergio’s mother opened Spain’s first refuge house for abused women and advocated for immigrant rights. Sergio was deeply influenced by his mother’s work and by the age of 14 he was involved in a number of social justice organizations. In his second year of high school, Sergio co-founded a student group for social justice. He has continuously pursued social and environmental justice since that time.

Sergio also had a variety of experiences during his upbringing that cultivated his interest in grassroots and community organization. As a teenager, he used money he had won from a Spanish national peace prize to live in Israel for four months. He lived on a kibbutz, and learned about that model of self-organization of rural communities. While in Israel, the first grassroots Palestine uprising took place, nurturing Sergio’s commitment to defending the rights of oppressed communities. While Sergio lived though a violent experience in Israel, he was also captivated by the community-organized collective action.

Sergio attended University of Aachen in Germany to study development economics. He became disillusioned as the program taught students how European businesses could gain wealth by taking advantage of the global South. Sergio joined the student union and devoted himself to anti-globalization activism within a network that eventually grew to encompass 200 universities. After graduating, Sergio spent four years developing a network of grassroots organizations around the globe. He had no permanent residence and travelled constantly meeting with indigenous and peasant leaders and organizing seminars, protests, and forums. From this experience he learned to work with complex systems and communicate with people at different levels.

Sergio’s life-work took a turn in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September, 2001 when he began reflecting on the urgency of solving social and economic problems and decided to change his approach from launching protests to offering proposals. He focused on renewable energy because he saw the transition from fossil fuels as a historic opportunity to promote social justice.

Sergio gained technical expertise and many valuable connections in the wind energy field while working as Coordinator of the World Wind Energy Institute (WWEI). WWEI is a network of universities and technology centers dedicated to democratizing access to information and training related to wind energy, which currently is in the hands of a few powerful companies that dominate the sector. From this experience, Sergio has established excellent contacts within the energy sectors. He served on the board of directors for the European International Network for Sustainable Energy and also the European Renewable Energy Federation. He was frustrated that WWEI trained leaders in renewable energy but could not offer financial support to start community energy projects. In response, Sergio founded Yansa to carry out major community-owned wind farm projects in the developing world, working with indigenous groups in Mexico and other countries in a manner which will allow local communities to participate in and control much of the benefits of these projects.