Two weeks ago, Minnesota’s Public Utilities Commission ratified the first-ever statewide policy for setting a fair and transparent price on solar energy. This week, a coalition of companies that provide leasing contracts for solar to home and business customers declared war on this “value of solar” policy, and pretty much every financial model for compensating solar … Read More
In March 2014, Minnesota became the first state to adopt a “value of solar” policy. It may fundamentally change the financial relationship between electric utilities and their energy-producing customers. It may also serve as a precedent for setting a transparent, market-based price for solar energy. This report explains the origins of value of solar, the compromises … Read More
A recent report from the World Wildlife Fund (and others) touts how city energy aggregation is “unleashing” renewable energy in Illinois. Buying electricity on behalf of their residential and small business customers, nearly 100 Midwestern cities have purchased renewable energy credits (RECs) along with their energy supply, giving their electrons a questionable aura of green energy. … Read More
Learn more about the struggle against the incumbent utility giant for local clean energy in this 2014 interview with Marin Clean Energy Executive Director Dawn Wiesz about community choice aggregation in California and her community’s pioneering program.… Read More
Browse the Report Introduction What is Energy Storage? Empowering Local Energy Community Solar and Storage Removing Barriers to Storage Supporting Renewable Energy Summary Footnotes DOWNLOAD THE REPORT Executive Summary Distributed energy storage promises to change the electricity system during the next decade, as fundamentally as distributed renewable energy has in the last decade. Already, promising examples … Read More
The rapid changes to the electricity system being wrought by distributed solar have utilities crying out, and they’ve poured much of their distributed solar angst into a chart being shared throughout the energy nerdocracy – the duck. The Duck Chart, Showing Net Supply/Demand on the California Grid in 2012-13, Forecast through 2020 Until 2012, daily energy demand … Read More
The Hawaiian utility, made local when the investor-owned utility left the business a decade ago, is surging toward 40% renewable energy in the next year, with a third of that total from customer-generated solar. Half its daytime energy will come from solar arrays by the end of 2015.
Learn more about how a cooperative utility has blown past purported technical barriers to renewable energy and pioneered energy storage to make solar a prominent part of their energy mix in this interview with Jan, recorded via Skype on Feb 25, 2014.… Read More
On Wednesday, Minnesota became the first state to allow utilities a new method of contracting with distributed solar producers, called the market-based “value of solar.” If adopted by utilities, it will fundamentally change the relationship between solar-producing customers and their electric utility. Following Minnesota’s Value of Solar Process? Here are a few resources: Part 1 and … Read More
We spoke with New Era Colorado executive director Stephen Fenberg about the grassroots campaign to fight Xcel Energy and build a better energy future.… Read More
