Lynmouth Road appears unremarkable. It consists largely of redbrick Victorian terraces. There are similar streets throughout the area, in Walthamstow, northeast London. Some houses are pebble-dashed. Some have doors painted in contemporary grey. There are wind chimes, geraniums in boxes, wheelie bins and the occasional cat sitting on a gate post. The only unusual feature is the number of windows displaying an A4 poster with the words "Power Station" printed in the font used by polling stations.

Power, in the sense of the energy, is at the forefront of everyone's mind. Energy bills have reached record highs and are still rising, with the war in Ukraine highlighting how fragile energy supplies can be. This year's Cop27 climate conference promised money to poorer countries to assist with damage caused by climate change, yet no agreement was reached on phasing out fossil fuels. The idea of cleaner power, generated closer to home, should feel like an obvious goal. But, at the moment, there are no large-scale programmes dedicated to making it happen. Instead, there are people like Dan Edelstyn and Hilary Powell.

These two are on the roof of their house, sitting on a bed they have just assembled. It is made up with a knitted blanket, bright sheets and a cheap foam mattress that is plastic-wrapped against the elements. Facing one way you can see their narrow back garden that ends when it hits the railway embankment. Turn around and you look down into their street, Lynmouth Road, which Dan and Hilary want to turn into a solar power station. They are living on their roof as a crowdfunder for the project. "I think it will be fine," says Hilary, who has been scanning both the sky and the weather forecast. "I only get scared when the children say they want to come up, then I turn to jelly."

The couple are artists and filmmakers. They live in the middle of the street, with their children, Esmé, 12, and George, 10, and the family's two dogs. "It is a street that has a sense of community," says Hilary, down from the roof and sitting at their kitchen table. "That became apparent with the Covid mutual aid group that was set up." And it was during lockdown that a sentence from economist Ann Pettifor's book, The Case for the Green New Deal, which makes a strong argument for total decarbonisation and a financial system based on fairness, struck both of them. The phrase was: "Every building a power station." "We clung on to that," says Hilary.