Sharply Higher Rooftop Solar Potential Increases Opportunity for Energy Self-Reliance

Date: 11 Apr 2016 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Earlier this year, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory released a new estimate of rooftop solar potential, an update to 2008 figures we used in our landmark state-by-state energy atlas, Energy Self-Reliant States. The bottom line: there’s much more potential to generate our electricity from solar on nearby buildings than we previously thought. The irony is that … Read More

If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Own ‘Em—Utilities Muscle in to Rooftop Solar Market

Date: 11 Aug 2015 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

In the past five years, rooftop solar has revealed the limitations of the archaic electric utility business model, as customers have found generating their own power more cost effective than taking 100% of their energy from the incumbent monopoly. For years, utilities have fought back by trying to make competition less cost effective, at a substantial … Read More

Solar Potential on Public Buildings in Kansas City

Date: 22 Jun 2015 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

How much solar is installed on municipal buildings? How much could be installed? As we discovered in writing ILSR’s Public Rooftop Revolution report—the latest in the Rooftop Revolution series—nobody had the answer, for almost every city we contacted. But in the course of the research, three cities answered our call to analyze their rooftop solar potential specifically … Read More

Public Rooftop Revolution in Pictures

Date: 10 Jun 2015 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

There are a lot of stories on residential rooftop solar but few if any on what cities are doing to make themselves energy self-reliant by using their own buildings and lands to generate power. In Public Rooftop Revolution, ILSR estimates that mid-sized cities could install as much as 5,000 megawatts of solar—as much as one-quarter of … Read More

Why Utilities Are Hating on Their Solar-Producing Customers

Date: 1 Apr 2015 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

I have the privilege of talking to a lot of reporters about rooftop solar energy, and particularly about why utilities seem hell bent on stopping their customers from using their own money to add clean, renewable energy to the electric grid. If this seems confusing to you, too, here’s a quick primer with some key resources. … Read More

Small-Scale Solar Contributes 13% of New Power Plant Capacity in 2014

Date: 10 Mar 2015 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

The growth of solar has continued at a furious pace, with a new record of 6.2 gigawatts installed in the United States in 2014. But the bigger tale may be the persistent growth of small-scale solar, on residential and non-residential rooftops (and property).  These projects, a megawatt or smaller, contributed 13% of new power plant capacity … Read More

2 Charts Show Solar’s Jump to Top Spot for New U.S. Power Generation

Date: 16 Oct 2014 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Want proof that distributed solar is rapidly growing?  Look no further than these two charts, showing how solar provided over a quarter of new power plant capacity in 2013 (6% from residential solar alone!) and 43% in the first half of this year! This article originally posted at ilsr.org. For timely updates, follow John Farrell on Twitter … Read More

Report: Walton Family Undermining Rooftop Solar, ILSR Finds

Date: 9 Oct 2014 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States, Retail | 2 Facebooktwitterredditmail

The Walton family — majority owners of Walmart — are impeding America’s transition to a clean energy future, a new study by ILSR finds. At a time when more than 500,000 households and businesses are generating their own solar electricity, and the U.S. solar industry is employing 143,000 people, the Waltons are funding nearly two dozen organizations working to roll back renewable energy policies, while a Walton-owned company is pushing for regulations aimed at hindering the growth of rooftop solar power.… Read More

Solar and the New (democratic) Energy Economy

Date: 19 Sep 2014 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

I spent three days this week with some of the biggest minds behind the “new economy” movement because their core theme – economic democracy – fits like a glove over ILSR’s work on democratic energy. The big takeaway? Solar power is the spark to energize a new energy economy from the bottom up. This new solar-sparked … Read More

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