Author: Joe Wachunas

Community Solar Year 1 — A New Program Gets Underway

Community solar is the idea that folks who can’t install solar panels on their rooftops — either because their roof isn’t in good shape or they don’t have the upfront capital or they rent and don’t own their home — can essentially buy solar panels at a solar farm (usually off in a field somewhere relatively nearby), receive credit off their utility bills, and take part in growing their solar energy locally.

Letter to a Friend Buying an Electric Car

Two friends recently bought electric cars for their families after thinking about it for a long time. Beyond wanting to congratulate them, and click my heels together like Gene Kelly in Singing in the Rain, I felt the need to describe, in detail, just how big a deal this EV purchase is, beyond platitudes like “EVs are so amazing for the world.” So I wrote them a letter.

The High-Performance All-Electric Home

In the 1950s, when nuclear energy was booming and hydroelectric dams were laying across rivers like tourniquets, the all-electric home became a thing. It didn’t matter that the electric heating technologies of the time were vastly inefficient. The promise of electricity that was “too cheap to meter” meant that people could use it to their heart’s delight.