For this episode of the Local Energy Rules podcast, host John Farrell and guest Timothy DenHerder-Thomas discuss the People’s Solar Energy Fund, an initiative to pool together community-owned solar developers and scale up community solar nationwide.… Read More
The U.S. energy industry in 2020: though the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic showed up, renewables resources showed out. Here’s the latest update from ILSR’s Energy Democracy Initiative.… Read More
The Future Energy Jobs Act, passed in 2016, is a comprehensive bill that established Illinois’s community solar program and a commitment to expand access to solar for low- and moderate-income residents.… Read More
In the Minnesota Reformer, ILSR Co-Director and Director of the Energy Democracy Initiative John Farrell writes about how Minnesota state regulators need to enact stricter rules and regulations on gas monopolies.… Read More
Minnesota’s community solar program hit 789 megawatts in March 2021, enough to power more than 100,000 homes each year or about as much capacity as a typical nuclear power plant!… Read More
For this episode of the Local Energy Rules podcast, host John Farrell and CEO of OhmConnect Cisco DeVries discuss demand response and the 550 megawatt Resi-Station “virtual power plant.”… Read More
A new modeling approach from Vote Solar and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) might finally put distributed solar on the same footing in grid planning as the large power plants that utilities prefer.… Read More
19 states have policies allowing some form of community renewable energy. This quarterly update (2020 Q4) shows the capacity built in states with most active programs: Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and New York. It focuses on programs in investor-owned utility service territory.… Read More
LSR Co-Director John Farrell speaks with John Romankiewicz, Senior Analyst for the Beyond Coal Campaign at Sierra Club. Their discussion focuses on a new report from the Sierra Club called The Dirty Truth About Utility Climate Pledges, which takes an in-depth look at electric utilities’ public commitments to lower carbon emissions. … Read More
