Listen: Interview of David Morris on KPFK Radio on Energy Policy
Interview of David Morris on KPFK Radio on Energy Policy [12 minutes]… Read More
Report: Seeing the Light – Regaining Control of Our Electricity System
The California energy crisis is not simply about a lack of electricity it is about who owns the production and distribution of that electricity. As state after state agrees to deregulation, the utility industry is approaching a concentration not seen since the Power Trust of the 1930s. Seeing the Light urges us to change the rules now and create a future that includes affordable, locally-owned electricity. The book chronicles hopeful new developments and reminds us that the best way to prevent another crisis is to build a better system.… Read More
Democratizing the Electric System
Inthe beginning, before there were giant utilities and high voltage transmission lines, and state and federal regulatory agencies and rolling blackouts, companies didn’t sell electricity. They sold power plants. By 1883, the Edison Electric Illuminating Company (later General Electric) had installed 334 power plants inside cotton mills, grain elevators, manufacturing plants, newspapers and theaters.
Be Your Own Power Company
This book by David Morris (first published in 1983) was the first how-to book published after Congress ended the 100-year-old monopoly by utilities on the generation of power. The book examines the technical and economic aspects of four small scale power technologies (photovoltaics, wind power, hydropower and onsite cogeneration) and offers advice on how to negotiate a contract for sale of on-site power to local utilities.… Read More
Self-Reliant Cities – Energy and the Transformation of Urban America
The first half of this book discusses the century-long struggle by cities to gain autonomy and authority from state governments and create their own planning and service delivery capacities. The second part describes the first urban-based localization movements. Given the relevance of the book to current localist efforts, we’ve written a new foreword that traces the local energy initiatives after the 75 percent plunge in oil prices after 1982 and the coming to power of a new administration hostile to renewable energy.… Read More
Decentralized Photovoltaics
The Congressional Office of Technology Assessment invited the Institute for Local Self-Reliance to evaluate the comparative economics rooftop solar arrays and the solar powered satellites (SPS) proposed by NASA that would beam power generated in space back to earth. The report concluded, "If decentralized applications achieve the same array efficiency as those projected for SPS arrays, and if buildings are designed to maximize photovoltaic potential, the residential sector can meet all its energy demands from rooftop arrays, and have enough electricity left over to operate family vehicles, or to export into the grid system."… Read More