A cooperative utility in Hawaii has reduced its electricity prices, multiplied its renewable energy capacity, and increased its grid resiliency — all without relying on neighboring utilities, because there are none.
More than 100 cities have committed to 100% renewable electricity transitions, with most hoping to get there by 2030 or 2050. Burlington, Vermont already achieved this goal five years ago.
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.
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.
Originally published at ilsr.org. Updated Quarterly How are Community Solar Garden programs doing across the country? For decades, rooftop solar has allowed homeowners to generate their own renewable energy — reducing their dependence upon grid energy and lowering their energy bills. However, solar rooftops are not an option for many … [continued]
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.
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.
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 2018.
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.
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.
