State “value of solar” policies, as in Minnesota, create an incentive to install more solar energy in response to high natural gas prices and reduce long-term impacts on electricity customers.… Read More
Minnesota’s community solar program reached 833 megawatts in May 2022, enough to power more than 100,000 homes each year or about as much capacity as a typical nuclear power plant!… Read More
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
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
Watch John Farrell’s 2021 Empower Hour presentation on franchise agreements, the value of solar, and other strategies to wring clean energy opportunities out of monopoly utility companies.… Read More
For this episode of the Local Energy Rules Podcast, host John Farrell and guest Mason Rolph discuss Olympia Community Solar, the organization’s advocacy work, and why Washington needs a proper community solar program.… Read More
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
In a proposed decision earlier this week, California’s Public Utilities Commission will dramatically reduce the viability of rooftop solar in the state that launched the U.S. solar market. You could spend hours trying to digest the 200-page decision, but the truth of how we got here isn’t in it. Rather, the decision is a culmination of years of work by the incumbent, monopoly electric utilities to hoodwink a critical mass of stakeholders that solar should be the target for the many ills of the state’s electricity markets, rather than the morally and financially bankrupt utilities.… Read More
Fossil gas contributed only five percent of new power plant capacity in the second quarter of 2021. Gas has pitched in less than 10 percent in four of the last eight quarters. Here’s the latest update from ILSR’s Energy Democracy Initiative.… Read More
