Count On It: Adding Numbers will Add Heft to First City-Utility Clean Energy Work Plan

Date: 2 Jun 2015 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

In late May, the nation’s first clean energy partnership between a city and its utilities released its first two-year work plan. It holds true to the notion that the city and utilities can work across a broad swath of energy initiatives in pursuit of increasing energy efficiency and renewable energy. And with some solid metrics, it … Read More

Lancaster: The Leading Solar City? – Episode 23B of Local Energy Rules Podcast

Date: 1 Jun 2015 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States, Podcast | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Jason Caudle, city manager with the City of Lancaster, talked with John Farrell in April 2015 about his city’s solar boom. With more than 118 MW of solar, both private and public, operating within city limits, Lancaster is well on its way to producing or procuring 530 MW of clean energy by 2020. Hitting that target … Read More

Report: Public Rooftop Revolution

Date: 1 Jun 2015 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

There are a lot of stories on residential rooftop solar but few if any on what cities are doing to make themselves energy self-reliant by using their own buildings and lands to generate power. In Public Rooftop Revolution, ILSR estimates that mid-sized cities could install as much as 5,000 megawatts of solar—as much as one-quarter of … Read More

The Hole in Brian Potts’ WSJ Critique of the “Solar-Panel Craze.”

Date: 26 May 2015 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

In his Sunday Wall Street Journal commentary on May 17, Brian Potts suggests that cost is the bottom line in the electric customer shift to solar, and that rooftop solar costs too much. But his defense of the utility’s view of energy costs leaves a big hole in the big picture: the value of solar energy … Read More

Why Democratic Energy Offers Faster Approach to Clean Energy

Date: 22 May 2015 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

There are many organizations in the energy space, and ILSR’s climate and energy advocacy overlaps substantially with the many other players who care about a cleaner energy system. But our approach isn’t the same. Rather, our vision is that communities enrich their local economies by being masters of the transition to 100% renewable energy. This approach … Read More

A Lesson in Solar from a Northern Neighbor

Date: 8 May 2015 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Based on population, Ontario would be the 5th largest state if it were part of the U.S., but its installed solar capacity, 1,500 MW would rank it 3rd. The province has also shut down all its coal-fired power plants. How does a northern province become a solar and climate leader, despite one of the poorest solar … Read More

Watch: Somebody Wants Something – Getting the Most from a Proposed Takeover of Hawaiian Electric Company

Date: 30 Apr 2015 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

If your electricity—generated from imported oil—is the most expensive in the country and your solar resource is terrific, you’d expect your electric company to be making great strides toward renewable energy. On Hawai’i, the progress toward clean energy is in limbo, because island’s largest electric utility—largely owned by islanders—is likely to be acquired by mainland utility … Read More

Why (Else) is Xcel Energy Trying to Axe Minnesota’s Community Solar program?

Date: 29 Apr 2015 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

In a filing Tuesday (April 28), Minnesota’s largest electric utility announced unilateral action within the next 30 days to reduce development under the state’s community solar gardens program by 80%, from nearly 560 MW to 80. It’s the latest in a series of attempts to slow the program, including efforts to cap the program and impose … Read More

Can Other Cities Match Georgetown’s Low-Cost Switch to 100% Wind and Sun?

Date: 14 Apr 2015 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

This is probably not the first place you’ve read about Georgetown, TX, the town of 55,000 that will be getting the equivalent of 100% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2017. But few articles hit upon the two key reasons Georgetown was able to make this move when so many other cities with abundant renewable … Read More

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