Amid the bucolic surroundings of Dartington Hall, Good Energy CEO and founder Juliet Davenport chaired a panel of innovators and inventors tasked to discuss whether local solutions can solve international problems. The sun was shining in Devon, and it’s clearly a hotspot for green technology and innovation too, with all three panel members based locally.

Nick Paggett, founder of Tradewind Turbines, stressed the importance of finding a product with commercial appeal. With his sailing-inspired mobile wind turbines, he’s aiming to take renewables to the people who need them. Rupert Sweet-Escott is a serial inventor, who recently won the Ideal Inventor of the year and survived the Dragon’s Den winning an investment in his new company, Smart Power. Rupert has invented a vertical axis wind turbine that looks like a chimney pot. He said that obstinence and persistence were the key to his success.

Peter Redstone founded Rocombe Farm organic ice cream and now runs a business called Barefoot Partnership which encourages creative thinking in large organisations. He argued that creativity exists everywhere and that the potential for collaborative and creative action from communities is tremendous. The consensus from the panel was that government is finding it difficult to understand what communities are and how to unlock their potential. This is a problem, because as Good Energy knows from working with our community of more than 2,000 independent generators, the local level is where change can really take place.

The audience asked Juliet and the panel a variety of demanding questions, from what motivates them in their work, to the virtues of touch typing, national park planning restrictions, and the benefits of microgeneration.

All three panel members agreed that there are serious barriers to innovation in the UK, with larger companies restricted by internal risk management structures, and small businesses by finance. It’s more important than ever to find ways around these barriers because innovation can help the UK break out of the current economic doldrums.

All the panel members are tackling problems with innovation – by swimming upstream and fighting convention. Which mirrors Good Energy’s philosophy: we want to turn the energy market upside down and offer people an alternative to the conventional electricity suppliers, using an innovative and local approach.