One Year of Energy Self-Reliant States: Reports

Date: 20 Oct 2011 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 2 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Happy Birthday!Over the last year, we’ve published a number of reports that coalesce the analysis you see here into hard-hitting examinations of North American energy policy, always looking for the tools to best increase energy self-reliance.  Here are the big ones:

Energy Self-Reliant States, 2nd Edition

This is the report that launched it all, an atlas to each state’s potential for maximizing renewable energy generation within its borders.  The executive summary has been viewed over 23,000 times, and the report was featured in the New York Times Green Inc blog.  The title map alone drew over 2,000 views on CleanTechnica earlier this year.

…download the report…

Maximizing Jobs From Clean Energy: Ontario’s ‘Buy Local’ Policy

Released in January, this report examined Ontario’s feed-in tariff program for financing renewable energy and its remarkable requirement that participating wind, solar, and other projects be largely “made in Ontario.”  It made few friends in international trade circles, but provides the most robust connection between clean energy incentives and jobs in the world.  The executive summary has been accessed over 2,500 times and the report has become even more relevant as Ontario’s liberal party – responsible for the policy – narrowly won re-election just last week.

…download the report…

Democratizing the Electricity System

This report provides the vision for the transition from a 20th century electricity system dominated by centralized electricity generation and centralized power of utilities to a decentralized, 21st century grid with distributed renewable energy widespread.  Nearly 5,000 people have seen the report, which details the technical and economic value of distributed generation to the electricity system and the barriers and breakthroughs that will transform the grid to clean energy and more local ownership.

…download the report…

Pricing CLEAN Contracts for Solar PV in the U.S.

Starting with a few maps in a blog post, this short report packs in several data-rich maps explaining the cost of solar power by U.S. state, accounting for differences in solar resource, federal tax incentives, and the modest rate of return offered by CLEAN Contract Programs.

…download the report…

CLEAN v SRECs: Finding the More Cost-Effective Solar Policy

Just recently released, this report provides an in-depth analysis of the cost-effectiveness of two popular solar financing policies, CLEAN Contracts and solar REC markets.  The report finds that the low risk and high transparency of CLEAN Contract Programs can lower the cost of solar by as much as 20 percent.  The report also models the recently introduced New York Solar Jobs legislation, and finds that the 3% solar by 2025 goal would be met more cost-effectively with a CLEAN Contract Program.

…download the report…

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John Farrell

John Farrell directs the Energy Democracy initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and he develops tools that allow communities to take charge of their energy future, and pursue the maximum economic benefits of the transition to 100% renewable power.