Report: Hawaiian Sunblock – Solar Facing Unexpected Barriers Despite Low Cost

Date: 26 Jul 2012 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 6 Facebooktwitterredditmail

First in the U.S., Hawaii residents and businesses can install solar power – without incentives – for less than the cost of grid electricity.  But as local Earthjustice lawyer Isaac Moriwake notes, “the gates of heaven do not open just because solar is cheap.”  Instead, a number of unexpected barriers have kept the solar market from … Read More

U.S. Wind Project Size

Date: 24 Jul 2012 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Big dreams for renewable energy often goad people into imagining big wind projects, with hundreds of turbines.  But lots of smaller projects are just as likely to add up to big numbers. Counting wind projects from 1999-2010 (based on data from LBNL’s excellent Wind Technologies Market report) the average size of an American wind project is … Read More

Average Size of U.S. Solar Installations: Small

Date: 23 Jul 2012 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 3 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Big dreams for renewable energy often goad people into imagining big solar projects, with acres of panels.  But lots of smaller projects are just as likely to add up to big numbers. Counting solar projects from California and New Jersey (which together make up half the U.S. solar market), the average size of an American solar … Read More

Local Energy Choice with Community Choice Aggregation

Date: 17 Jul 2012 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Local Energy Choice with Community Choice Aggregation from John Farrell   A presentation by ILSR Senior Researcher John Farrell to the National Strategy Meeting of the Local Energy Aggregation Network (February 2012) on the potential for community choice aggregation policy to increase local clean energy development.  For more on this policy, you may also like our … Read More

Why We Pay Double for Solar in America (But Won’t Forever)

Date: 10 Jul 2012 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 7 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Update 12/21/12: Corrected chart.  Overhead and Sales Tax had been switched in the German data column. I often get flak when I publish research on the cost trajectory for solar (e.g. my Rooftop Revolution report estimates 100 million Americans reaching grid parity by 2021).  About half think I’m too conservative, and half think I’m too overconfident … Read More

Energy Independence or Clean Energy Self-Reliance?

Date: 4 Jul 2012 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 3 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Update August 7, 2012: I’d like to this this qualifies as Friedman’s response to this column. In Thomas Friedman’s latest column, he praises Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts because he “took one for the country.”  Friedman sees that “America today is poised for a great renewal” if only it can get some “big, centrist, statesmanlike … Read More

U.S. CLEAN Explanation and Update

Date: 2 Jul 2012 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

This short presentation distills the definition and status of U.S. CLEAN (“feed-in tariff”) programs given in our full report.  Click below to watch the slideshow. U.S. CLEAN Programs – 1.21 Gigawatts! from John Farrell You can also read the full report in PDF, or get it for Kindle, Nook, or your Apple iDevice.

Four Charts Provide Distributed Solar Lessons from California

Date: 27 Jun 2012 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 1 Facebooktwitterredditmail

A new study for the California Public Utilities Commission explores the “Technical Potential for Local Distributed Photovoltaics in California.”  Basically, it’s one of the more in-depth analyses of local solar power in the country, suggesting that California has the capacity to add 15 gigawatts (GW) of local solar (20 megawatts and smaller) to its grid by … Read More

Crowdfunding for Community Power?

Date: 19 Jun 2012 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 3 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Back in April, President Obama signed the JOBS Act and one of the most-heralded elements was so-called crowdfunding. The law sought to solve a major problem: it’s hard to finance small-scale business ventures.  Wall Street only cares about multi-million dollar plays and securities regulations make small-dollar projects rather difficult (and costly) to jointly fund. The Act … Read More

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