Why Minnesota’s Community Solar Program is the Best
Minnesota’s community solar program hit 797 megawatts in May 2021, enough to power more than 100,000 homes each year or about as much capacity as a typical nuclear power plant!… Read More
Voices of 100%: In Case of Emergency, Break Down Barriers to Net Zero — Episode 131 of Local Energy Rules
For this Voices of 100% episode of the Local Energy Rules Podcast, host John Farrell talks with guests Mark Gamba and Natalie Rogers of Milwaukie, Oregon. In 2020, the city declared a climate emergency and accelerated its climate action goals.… Read More
30 Times More Jobs from Rooftop Solar, Utility Filing Says
Tucked into a proposal from Xcel Energy, the state’s largest electric company, was a comparison of two proposed solar projects: one, a giant solar array on the site of a closing coal plant; the other, a small collection of rooftop solar projects to serve low-income residents. In a nondescript table was a bombshell revelation about the relative economic benefits of solar at small scale: for every million the utility proposed spending on rooftop solar, it would create 30 times more jobs than $1 million spent on utility-scale solar.… Read More
Voices of 100%: Youth Propel a Climate Action Plan in St. Louis Park — Episode 128 of Local Energy Rules
For this Voices of 100% episode of the Local Energy Rules Podcast, host John Farrell and guests Larry Kraft and Emily Ziring discuss the St. Louis Park, Minn. climate action plan and commitment to carbon neutrality by 2040.… Read More
New Power Generation Quarterly: Annual Update — 2020
The U.S. energy industry in 2020: though the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic showed up, renewables resources showed out. Here’s the latest update from ILSR’s Energy Democracy Initiative.… Read More
Much More Rooftop Solar from an Alternative to Monopoly Utility Models
A new modeling approach from Vote Solar and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) might finally put distributed solar on the same footing in grid planning as the large power plants that utilities prefer.… Read More
The State(s) of Distributed Solar — 2020 Update
How much of the U.S. solar fleet is made up of smaller, distributed sources that help communities build wealth locally? This 2020 update examines the size of state solar markets and their corresponding shares of distributed and community solar systems.… Read More
Greenpenny Puts Community Banking to Work for Clean Energy — Episode 123 of Local Energy Rules
For this episode of the Local Energy Rules podcast, host John Farrell speaks with Greenpenny’s Jason MacDuff. They discuss what’s needed for a prompt clean energy transition, the value of community banks, and the success of the innovative Greenpenny model.… Read More
Let’s Talk About Solar, Equity, and Monopoly Power in 2021
2020 demonstrated that distributed solar isn’t just economically competitive or a superior job creator, it’s better for everyone. In this year-end post, Energy Democracy Initiative Director John Farrell describes where that lesson should take advocates in 2021.… Read More