About John Farrell
John Farrell directs the Democratic Energy program at ILSR and he focuses on energy policy developments that best expand the benefits of local ownership and dispersed generation of renewable energy. His seminal paper, Democratizing the Electricity System, describes how to blast the roadblocks to distributed renewable energy generation, and how such small-scale renewable energy projects are the key to the biggest strides in renewable energy development.
Farrell also authored the landmark report Energy Self-Reliant States, which serves as the definitive energy atlas for the United States, detailing the state-by-state renewable electricity generation potential. Farrell regularly provides discussion and analysis of distributed renewable energy policy on his blog, Energy Self-Reliant States (energyselfreliantstates.org), and articles are regularly syndicated on Grist and Renewable Energy World.
John Farrell can also be found on Twitter @johnffarrell, or at jfarrell@ilsr.org.
November 18th, 2019 | by John Farrell
In the pathway to 100% renewable energy lie electric utilities. Since the time of electrification until the 1990s, every electric utility was a monopoly -- it owned everything to deliver electricity from the power plants (and sometimes even the coal mines) to the transmission lines to the substations to the distribution lines to the meter on your home or business. With a market monopoly, utilities have enormous political power to promote or avoid change
November 11th, 2019 | by John Farrell
While most Americans get their electricity from a private company, about 1 in 8 Americans actually own their utility as a member-owner of a rural electric cooperative.
For this episode of the Local Energy Rules Podcast, host John Farrell speaks with Liz Veazey, Network Director of We Own It, and Chris Woolery, Residential Energy Coordinator at the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development
November 4th, 2019 | by John Farrell
Originally published at ilsr.org. Updated Quarterly How are Community Solar Garden programs doing across the country? For decades, rooftop solar [&hellip
October 28th, 2019 | by John Farrell
According to ILSR’s analysis, all customers (subscribers or not) are seeing financial benefits from community solar. The $2.2 million figure does not include factoring in the distribution capacity value of solar nor the potential volatility of gas prices that are avoided, nor does it include the benefits of shifting wealth from power generation ownership away from a private monopoly and to a broad set of subscribers across the state
October 21st, 2019 | by John Farrell
In this webinar, Institute for Local Self-Reliance Energy Democracy Initiative director John Farrell is joined by Karl Rábago of the Pace Energy and Climate Center to discuss city-level strategies to reduce gas use
October 14th, 2019 | by John Farrell
Renewable resources dropped back below 50% of new power generation in the second quarter of 2019. Although the proportion of distributed solar has grown in the last two quarters, losses in the growth of utility solar and wind allowed the majority share to be gas, once again. Despite this setback in percentage, renewables are making up a greater portion of new capacity than they have in previous second quarters of 2017 and
October 8th, 2019 | by John Farrell
Conventional wisdom suggests the biggest wind and solar power plants will be cheapest, but where they deliver power, and who will own them, matters more
September 30th, 2019 | by John Farrell
Don’t know where to start in expanding local clean energy in your community? This interactive tool provides examples of over 20 tested tools used by cities and towns across the country to increase local clean energy, reduce energy use, and fight climate change
September 23rd, 2019 | by John Farrell
Minnesota’s community solar program hit a record 613 megawatts of operational capacity in September 2019. The chart below shows the progress of projects through the program since August 2015, and the nearly two-year lag between the program launch in December 2014 and the successful ignition of multiple megawatts of capacity in January
September 9th, 2019 | by John Farrell
For home or business owners considering solar, their solar developer predicts how much electricity the system will produce and how much the cost of electricity will increase over the years. Just how accurate are these predictions of rooftop solar savings
September 3rd, 2019 | by John Farrell
On this episode of the Local Energy Rules podcast, host John Farrell speaks with Denise Fairchild, President of the Emerald Cities Collaborative, about Energy Democracy. As co-editor of the book, Fairchild helps explain the concept of energy democracy to Farrell for a recent episode of ILSR’s Building Local Power podcast, republished in a slightly shorter version for Local Energy Rules
August 5th, 2019 | by John Farrell
Cleveland was once the center of the oil refining industry – and the environmental pollution that accompanied it. Can an economy born of fossil fuels rise from the ashes, promote renewables, and proceed to an equitable and clean-powered future
July 23rd, 2019 | by John Farrell
In 2011, the neighborhoods of Highland Park, Michigan, went dark. The utility company had repossessed streetlights to collect on the city’s debt. Unwilling to stand idly by, the people of Highland Park organized to light the streets themselves using off-grid, renewable energy
July 15th, 2019 | by John Farrell
Four years have passed since ILSR’s initial report on utility-owned rooftop solar, and this 2019 update shows small growth but some potentially large repercussions. This update rehashes the costs and benefits, updates the progress of the four initial programs, highlights a few new programs, and discusses the wider implications
July 8th, 2019 | by John Farrell
What gives the suburbs of Philadelphia an edge over the central city in making commitments to 100% renewable energy
July 1st, 2019 | by John Farrell
The first quarter of 2019 saw renewable resources claim a majority share of new power generation for the second quarter in a row and for eight of the past 12 quarters. This trend provides a hopeful outlook for the future of clean energy this year, thanks to steady growth from small-scale residential and commercial solar installations and wind power, in particular
June 24th, 2019 | by John Farrell
How does a small city in southeastern Iowa plan to achieve energy independence and join the more than 100 cities across the country that are working toward ambitious goals to generate their electricity from renewable resources
June 17th, 2019 | by John Farrell
The legislative session is over and the bill was tabled, so New Mexico will be better known for its Energy Transition Act (and its liabilities) for now. But the community solar language that passed the state House in February could set a new standard for community solar program design
June 11th, 2019 | by John Farrell
Can an island economy overcome hurricane devastation to seize the opportunity for energy democracy
May 28th, 2019 | by John Farrell
As clean energy advocates urge retirement of fossil fuel power plants, securitization has become a billion-dollar word with huge implications for who will pay for and who will own the clean energy future
