As explained below, I spent the weekend at a small conference of people from ‘independent cultural centres’ from around Europe, in Maribor (a small city in Slovenia best known for skiing). After the conference I gave some friends a lift to the capital city Ljubljana. They were heading to visit an old friend, Marko Hren, who has been running the Metelkova (emphasis on ‘tel’) centre for about 20-25 years. A fascinating and colourful place.
They invited me along to the centre, and I was introduced to Marko, confident yet open, rugged, and every inch the committed activist and thinker. He was the leader/initiator of the Slovenian peace movement in more troubled times. We were having coffee, and I left the conversation for a couple of minutes.
When I returned, Marko was speaking passionately about the need for a paradigm shift in thinking about energy. He was saying that people will have to think about themselves as producers rather than consumers of energy. Everyone was going to have to get used to the notion of a decentralized system where people generated electricity in their own homes to sell it back to the grid. Not as a marginal part of the energy system, but as the main model of behaviour. Of course, he said, the energy suppliers wouldn’t like it, but they would just have to get with the programme. This was the way of the future, he said.
He was a joy to listen to. It all seemed like inspiring common sense, of the kind you often hear from environmental activists.
As we walked away from the centre, my friend Sandy informed me that Marko was a high-level consultant for the Slovenian ‘Ministry of Growth’, and that these weren’t just the ideas of an activist, but maybe the early stages of an innovative national energy policy. How exciting is that?
All being well, Marko will be turning up at my Ljubljana talks, so I hope to get a chance to speak to him more.
