Why Minnesota’s Community Solar Program is the Best
Minnesota’s community solar program reached 840 megawatts in July 2022, enough to power more than 100,000 homes each year or about as much capacity as a typical nuclear power plant!… Read More
Small Solar Frees Energy From Decades of Utility-Stifled Innovation — Episode 160 of Local Energy Rules
For this episode of the Local Energy Rules Podcast, host John Farrell and guest Bill Nussey discuss how regulated utility monopolies are stifling energy innovation and why “small is the future” of the energy sector.… Read More
New Power Generation Quarterly: 2022 Q1
Only 6.4 gigawatts of electricity generation capacity went online in the first quarter of 2021. Solar generation facilities comprised 3.7 of those 6.4 gigawatts. Here’s the latest update from ILSR’s Energy Democracy Initiative.… Read More
The State(s) of Distributed Solar — 2021 Update
How much of the U.S. solar fleet is made up of smaller, distributed sources that help communities build local wealth? This 2021 update examines the size of state solar markets and the saturation of distributed and community solar systems.… Read More
New Power Generation Quarterly: Annual Update — 2021
37.6 gigawatts of electric generation capacity were added to the grid in 2021, and for the first time, nearly half of that was solar. Here’s the latest update from ILSR’s Energy Democracy Initiative. … Read More
Tweaking a Tax Credit Would Help More Americans Go Solar [Infographic]
Current solar tax incentives have disproportionately benefited wealthier Americans and big businesses and banks. Changes to these tax credits could help millions of families, schools, and community organizations go solar.… Read More
What Is the Value of Solar? — Episode 148 of Local Energy Rules
For this episode of the Local Energy Rules Podcast, host John Farrell and guest Gabriel Chan discuss how to calculate solar energy’s true value, where to improve Minnesota’s Value of Solar, and why we must ground decisions in data.… Read More
90% of Last Year’s New Power Plants Were Renewable
Take a look at a year’s worth of power generation buildout in the United States, illustrated by two simple charts.… Read More
New Power Generation Quarterly: 2021 Q3
A surge of new solar power surpassed the growth of wind, gas, and coal in the third quarter of 2021, with solar contributing 54 percent of new power generation capacity. Here’s the latest update from ILSR’s Energy Democracy Initiative.… Read More