After 10 years of battling incumbent utilities, Marin Clean Energy became California’s first operational community choice aggregation authority in 2010. Already, local ratepayers can opt to get 100 percent of their electricity from renewable resources.
Solar leasing has offered thousands of homeowners a “no money down” route to go solar, broadening participation in the distributed generation revolution. Unfortunately, this revolution has been co-opted by high finance. Big banks have been able to write off millions in taxes by over-reporting the cost of financed solar PV projects in what may be the country’s next banking scandal.
The following map was the headline graphic to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s 2009 report, Energy Self-Reliant States, unveiling the enormous potential for each state to meet its own electricity needs internally. I re-created the map for web viewing, so it’s now even easier to share how each state can meet its electricity consumption with in-state renewable energy resources.
Although Americans overwhelmingly support renewable energy, it’s usually much harder to find a way to support the development of renewables close to home. This innovative proposal offered last session in the Minnesota state legislature could change that.
When is it time to break up with your utility? Perhaps it’s when they come to ratepayers for $30 million in cost overruns on a “free” smart grid project. Or when they fail to meet deadlines to propose a new franchise agreement. Or when they cite national security in an effort to avoid sharing load information. Or when they crash your office with 9 employees to present their delayed franchise plan. Or perhaps when the propose raising rates again to keep up with rising fossil fuel prices.
The United States doesn’t need another nuclear or coal power plant. Instead, it’s time to abandon our 20th century electricity system, dominated by large, centralized utilities, for a 21st century electricity system: a network of independently owned and widely dispersed renewable energy producers.
The City University of New York (CUNY) released a solar map of New York City last week, allowing building owners in the city to determine the amount of solar power their roof could host. The cumulative impact is enormous, with city rooftops capable of providing half the city’s peak power, and 14% of its annual electricity consumption.
The solution to the variability of wind power is more wind.
