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.
January 19th, 2021 | by John Farrell
For this episode of the Local Energy Rules podcast, host John Farrell talks with Patrick Hanlon, Director of Environmental Programs for the Minneapolis Health Department. They discuss Green Cost Share: a program that promotes public health by matching investments in solar and energy efficiency projects
January 8th, 2021 | by John Farrell
A new report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance shows that America’s monopoly problem is bigger than you might think
December 7th, 2020 | by John Farrell
Getting electricity customer-generators the compensation they deserve has been a battle in many states. Could a settlement between the utility and solar advocates squash net metering conflict for good
November 20th, 2020 | by John Farrell
For this episode of the Local Energy Rules Podcast, host John Farrell speaks with Brandon Coan and Gretchen Milliken. Coan, who helped draft Louisville’s 100% renewable resolution, is a Metro Councilman for the region and Milliken is Director of Advanced Planning and Sustainability
November 16th, 2020 | by John Farrell
Here’s a brief overview of several ballot measures illustrating how cities are moving at a rapid pace creating new funding to support local clean energy, and that clean energy has a much broader appeal than either political party
October 26th, 2020 | by John Farrell
In this episode of the Local Energy Rules Podcast, host John Farrell speaks with Ben Paulos of the Berkeley, Calif. Energy Commission. Paulos and the commission have given the community a chance to put its money where its mouth is with a “climate equity action fund” on the ballot this November
September 28th, 2020 | by John Farrell
In this episode of the Local Energy Rules Podcast, host John Farrell speaks with Jamie Valdez about Pueblo, Colorado’s efforts to municipalize. In its push for 100% renewable energy, Pueblo went head to head with a power monopoly and has learned the heavy costs of facing a utility giant. Valdez offers up Pueblo’s story to other municipalization efforts nationwide and speaks of the hope the movement still has
September 14th, 2020 | by John Farrell
If each US state took full advantage of its renewable resources, how much electricity would it produce? How much of its own electricity consumption could renewable energy fulfill? Would in-state renewable generation be enough to charge electric vehicles and power electric heating, too? The answer, in almost every state, is a resounding yes
August 31st, 2020 | by John Farrell
In this episode of the Local Energy Rules Podcast, host John Farrell speaks with Jay Egg, a geothermal expert, about the potential of minimizing the carbon footprint of heating and cooling buildings by adapting water mains to capture the heat just below the Earth’s surface. They discuss successful geothermal projects in Canada and the triumphs and challenges of projects in the
August 3rd, 2020 | by John Farrell
A “natural monopoly” is a service or product that gets cheaper as the market grows. Hempling says that the idea of a natural monopoly has changed dramatically in recent years and that many have lost sight of natural monopoly’s place in energy markets
July 27th, 2020 | by John Farrell
This report explores the phenomenon of undercounting customer-sited and non-utility solar energy in Minnesota: a state with several adopted policies expressing a public interest in distributed generation
July 20th, 2020 | by John Farrell
This article was originally published at ILSR.org. A concerted effort is growing in the Northeast to address renewable energy goals [&hellip
June 15th, 2020 | by John Farrell
The global pandemic has put a pause to all kinds of commerce. As wildfire season nears and climate change worsens, are solar and storage companies still preparing communities for the disasters ahead
May 26th, 2020 | by John Farrell
With city and state budgets stretched to their limits, families struggling to stay afloat, and one all-absorbing crisis on everyone’s mind, can clean energy planning proceed in a pandemic
May 18th, 2020 | by John Farrell
With financial rewards tied to building big things, and a 100-year history of doing so, utilities overlook distributed energy resources like rooftop solar. State regulators, expecting the grid future to unfold from a utility’s central plan, rarely push back. But the truth is that central planning may cost everyone (except utility shareholders) more, because the most cost-effective electricity system can be built from the bottom up
May 11th, 2020 | by John Farrell
Supporters of clean and affordable energy dream of neighborhoods powered by rooftop solar. In D.C., this vision is becoming reality; the district is en route to 100% renewable energy in just twelve years
May 4th, 2020 | by John Farrell
Many cities have already proven the possibility of 100% clean, renewable electricity. For those that are still working towards this goal, patience and persistence are one way to get there
