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
Minnesota’s community solar program hit 532 megawatts in April 2019, nearly enough to power more than 100,000 homes each year or about half as much capacity as a typical nuclear power plant!… Read More
Xcel Energy hosts the nation’s largest community solar program. But in testimony to the legislature or comments to the media, Minnesota’s largest private monopoly utility often raises concerns about the community solar program’s value compared to building large-scale solar arrays that don’t offer individual customers any significant bill savings. Why?
New power plant capacity expanded across the country in 2018, but steady growth in local, small-scale solar and other renewables was overshadowed by a significant jump in new gas plants. Our latest annual and quarterly updates illustrate these trends and provides a few timely examples of how communities can keep utilities accountable to clean energy commitments, rein in new centralized fossil fuel infrastructure, and support local, renewable energy, instead.… Read More
The Black Start conference in March 2019 convened on- and off-island energy experts to discuss whether Puerto Rico can overcome a colonial past for a greener grid. It happened as the island’s governor aims to privatize the (corrupt) public utility and as new legislation recently passed to require 100% renewable energy. ILSR Co-Director John Farrell presented.… Read More
Earlier this year, ILSR released its 2019 Community Power State Scorecard, revealing the best and worst states for local clean energy across the country. In this new comparison of state rankings, we take a closer look at which states have taken the lead, which are improving, and which have more to do to create a policy landscape that supports distributed energy.… Read More
Released earlier this year, ILSR’s 2019 Community Power State Scorecard revealed new rankings of states that support local clean energy. How do states perform when compared to their neighbors? We explore this question to give advocates, lawmakers, and communities insights into how to improve state policies that enable local clean energy.… Read More
As investments in renewable energy grow, more states are prioritizing solar. But how much of that solar is coming from smaller, distributed sources that help communities build wealth locally? Using updated data for 2018, we examine state-by-state solar markets and the corresponding share of distributed solar systems to see which states have seen the greatest success in investing in local, clean energy.… Read More
