Minnesota’s community solar program hit 613 megawatts in September 2019, enough to power more than 100,000 homes each year or about half as much capacity as a typical nuclear power plant!… Read More
In Southern Florida, utilities relax after escaping the brunt of Hurricane Dorian’s destruction. Other areas, like Abaco and Grand Bahama Islands, were not so lucky. The growing threat of large storms poses a question for coastal communities: what kind of energy system will be most resilient? Although it wasn’t tested by this most recent storm, our podcast guest has been pushing for distributed energy systems to build resiliency for his Florida community.
For this episode of the Local Energy Rules Podcast, we reach into the archive to a conversation between host John Farrell and South Miami Mayor Philip Stoddard. In the episode, published April of 2018, the two discuss combatting monopoly utility power through local efforts to implement solar in South Miami. Since the episode, many of Mayor Stoddard’s endeavors have produced results. In March, Stoddard showed that energy independence was possible by taking his home off the grid and running on his own solar and battery storage for seven days. Then, in May, the City Commission made a commitment to 100% renewable energy by 2040. … Read More
In this episode of Local Energy Rules, host John Farrell speaks with Maria Thomas, Outreach and Organizing Coordinator for Soulardarity. The two discussed energy democracy, and Soulardarity’s work in Highland Park, live in Milwaukee at the RE-AMP annual meeting.… Read More
More than 100 U.S. cities have now set ambitious commitments to transition to renewable energy, but how are they making these goals a reality? In this episode of our Voices of 100% series from Local Energy Rules, we dig into what has given 16 suburbs of Philadelphia an edge over the central city in making commitments to 100% renewable energy, and what strategies both suburbs and the city can take to make progress.… Read More
Nearly 7 gigawatts of new power generation capacity came online in the first quarter of 2019 — 13 percent of which from small-scale solar installations — in the latest update from ILSR’s Energy Democracy Initiative. Renewable resources claimed a majority share of new power generation for the second quarter in a row.… Read More
New Mexico’s proposed community solar program only passed its state House this year, but the program could set a new standard for community solar in the United States. … Read More
In this May 2019 interview, ILSR’s Director of Energy Democracy John Farrell, and Ingrid Vila – an engineer and director of Cambio, a Puerto Rico based nonprofit – discussed the enormous opportunity, and the pitfalls the island must avoid, to seize the island’s chance for energy democracy.… Read More
Minnesota is the national leader in community solar, with 208 projects around the state, more than a third of all community solar projects in the U.S. The state’s community solar policy is the best, making it easy to develop and subscribe to solar power. Read more about the benefits for customers, workers, and landowners in a new report from Vote Solar, MnSEIA, and the Institute for Local Self Reliance.… Read More
Despite its pride in having the nation’s largest community solar program––shown by the massive poster on its headquarters front doors (the above photo)––Xcel Energy can often be caught complaining (erroneously) that utility-owned solar would be more cost-effective. In the following analysis, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance explains why Minnesota’s community solar program has actually saved Xcel Energy customers millions of dollars already.… Read More
