As renewable energy grows, the grid needs to grow more flexible to accommodate variations in the wind and sun. This video explains the limitations of “baseload” nuclear and coal power plants to work alongside large amounts of clean power.… Read More
ILSR’s Stacy Mitchell joined 4 other guests on The Stream, broadcast on Al Jazeera English’s global television news network, for a lively half-hour discussion of Washington D.C.’s big-box living wage bill. … Read More
Community renewable energy has significant political and economic benefits, but is often hindered by five major barriers. Watch this vividly illustrated presentation to learn how communities can overcome the barriers and advance more local renewable energy. ILSR Senior Researcher John Farrell gave this presentation as part of a Sustainable Economies Law Center webinar on April 30, … Read More
Christopher Mitchell, Director of the Telecommunications as Commons Initiative has been spending many hours on the road these days. Why? Interest in publicly owned broadband networks continues to grow as communities search for savings, economic development, and connectivity on the local level and more organizations seek out Chris’ expertise. From policy to implementation, ILSR continues to reach … Read More
As part of the FCC’s Gigabit Cities Challenge, the agency plans to host a series of workshops over the next several months. The workshops will focus on tools communities can use to expand connectivity, changing telecommunications policy, and will present experts from the field. Christopher Mitchell participated in the first workshop on March 26th in Washington, … Read More
Like many cities attempting to solve climate change at a local level, Minneapolis is finding the prospect more challenging that it may have imagined. The lion’s share of emissions (two-thirds in the case of Minneapolis) come from electricity and gas sold by two monopoly, corporate utilities. Minnesota’s state-level policy is helping: a renewable energy standard pushes … Read More
Solar company Renvu created a delightful whiteboard animation of the results from our Rooftop Revolution research, which automatically makes them cooler than the average solar company. Check it out below or on Youtube.
Following up on his “Solar for All” piece in the current issue of Sierra Magazine, Paul Rauber interviews his “solar guru,” ILSR Senior Researcher John Farrell, on the future of community solar. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQcIX3bGTBo]
A 5-minute video explaining CLEAN Contracts (a.k.a. feed-in tariffs) in simple terms. It’d be great if it used a name for the policy that’s in common circulation, but since I was guilty of using Renewable Energy Payments, too, I shouldn’t complain. [vimeo 11553961 w=500 h=281] How Renewable Energy Payments (REPs) Work. from Chris Neidl on Vimeo.
