Abstract
In this presentation we are going to present Enercoop, which is a new French co-operative that operates in energy market and provides 'green' electricity. The particularity of the French electricity market is that since the 1st of July of this year it has been opened for competition. In other words, all producers can enter the market and the consumers can now choose their provider of electricity. Indeed, in France before this date, the electricity market was run by the state. But in the European context, the energy market tends to be privatized because of the welfare state crisis. In the last few decades, the demand has continuously increased but the public sphere cannot satisfy it anymore due to the high costs of energy. In France, the electricity market is characterized by the fact that 88% of the electricity provided comes from nuclear resources, whereas only 12% is provided by renewable energy production. Although the French market can fulfil the global demand of electricity, the renewable energy sector is not fully developed. However, this field seems to open new opportunities in the context of environmental issues, such as global warming or the exhaustion of fossil resources.
