Aspiravi started out twenty years ago with a single wind turbine. Today, the company operates 413 turbines across Belgium and offshore. With 94 cities and municipalities as shareholders and more than 13,000 citizen cooperators, Aspiravi has a distinctive, participatory structure that is firmly rooted at local level. “This makes us the largest energy producer, entirely in Belgian hands,” says Bert Deprest. “In many ways, we are one of Belgium’s best-kept secrets. Hardly anyone knows the brand, but once you’ve heard the story, you suddenly start seeing our turbines everywhere.”

Compared to the rest of Europe, Flanders has a relatively high density of installed wind energy per square kilometre. “People tend to think we’re already well advanced in the energy transition,” says Deprest. “There are now occasional moments in summer when the entire energy supply is covered by renewables and that’s a great achievement. But the transition is only going to accelerate from here.”

“I see us standing at a turning point today. This is the moment when the entire energy landscape is being reimagined. It’s a bit like where Henry Ford found himself when he moved from the traditional workshop model to the assembly line. A similar shift is now unfolding in the energy sector. We’re moving away from centralised production towards a digital – and above all local – energy economy. That’s the landscape we’re excited to keep pioneering in over the coming years.”

“That’s what makes prices so unclear and why non-experts switch off. Energy starts to feel unnecessarily complicated. Whereas if, as a business, you invest in your own generation and storage capacity, you’re no longer exposed to those kinds of peaks. Instead, you have a fixed investment cost that you depreciate over ten years. It’s clear and predictable. You generate your own energy, on your own or as part of a co-operative, use it locally, and store or sell whatever is left over. That’s where we’re headed: smart systems and smart communities that produce and consume locally.”

Aspiravi focuses largely on the business market. “We can fully unburden companies from production and supply to energy monitoring and dashboarding. Energy is automatically used when it’s most cost-effective. Many industrial players already have solar panels, which we can manage on their behalf. And when there’s a surplus, we make sure energy is stored. Just last week, we completed our first battery park. A major step in overcoming some of the remaining hurdles.”

So what is the biggest hurdle? Deprest doesn’t hesitate. “It’s the mindset shift. We need to stop seeing energy as a cost and start treating it as a business opportunity. We’re still stuck in a paradigm inherited from the industrial revolution, where energy is generated centrally and bought in. That’s something we need to move away from.
Every revolution is an evolution. Change is never easy, but we’ll get there.”

It’ll be about being smart

“In my view, this is a once-in-a-lifetime change. The entire energy system is being rethought. The next ten years will be hugely challenging, and we’re only just getting started. Moore’s law applies here too. Every two years, the efficiency of batteries, panels and turbines doubles. That’s exponential progress. In ten years’ time, you’ll be looking at technology that’s 32 times more efficient. That’s what gives me energy.”

When asked what this will mean for households, Deprest lights up. “Above all, it’ll be smart. Smart communities, smart homes, producing and consuming energy locally. I imagine a neighbourhood with its own turbine at a distance, a shared boiler house or central heat pump supplying all homes, and a central charging hub for cars.
The key will be digital energy management. The idea isn’t that well-meaning mums and dads suddenly turn into half-time energy geeks saying, ‘Now’s the moment to do the laundry because the wind’s picked up.’ That will all take care of itself.”

If you look beyond households, you can already see developments such as building materials with integrated solar cells, streets and roads that generate energy, and floating solar. It can still feel a bit like science fiction today. But in practice, these innovations will end up feeling entirely natural.

“Look, this is science fiction in action!” Deprest says, showing a video of a three-metre-high, horizontally rotating wind turbine on a car park. “I saw it just yesterday on an industrial estate I was visiting. You can charge your car with it. It’s that simple. Of course, people also talk about nuclear fusion. Impressive, but I tend to think: better one bird in the hand than ten in the air. Those fusion power plants are still a long way off. Renewable energy, on the other hand, already exists. Today. And in Belgium.”

“An organisation like The Shift brings together the frontrunners. That’s exactly where we want to tell the story of this mindset shift. Entrepreneurs need to stop viewing energy as a cost and start seeing it as an opportunity. An entrepreneur needs a dynamic mindset, so apply that to your energy bill as well. If you take the long-term view, you can come out ahead, financially as well as environmentally. In the long run, there’s no alternative to a sustainable economy, so you may as well get an early start.”