From Dr. Norbert Rottgen, German Federal Minister for the Environment, in a discussion of baseload fossil fuels versus decentralized renewable energy: It is economically nonsensical...
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...
Last month, a Grist writer noted sarcastically that “Money is a miracle cure for ‘wind turbine syndrome’.” It is. And environmental advocates frustrated by the...
A bill in Minnesota’s state legislature would require utilities to offer a green pricing program for local, distributed wind power. The largest investor-owned utility in...
Community solar projects (called “solar gardens” under a new Colorado law) are blooming like wildflowers in spring, reports the Solar Gardens Institute. The 2010 state...
For many improvements (e.g. kitchen, bath), you can capture a significant fraction of the value back when you sell your home. For solar PV, you...
We think over the next three to five years the solar business will migrate heavily from a utility-sized solar business to a more of a...
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...
Raising the pay of Wal-Mart’s U.S. workers to a minimum of $12 an hour would lift many out of poverty and cost the average consumer,...
By a vote of 13 to 8, the Nevada Senate earlier this week approved a feed-in tariff to boost renewable energy develoment in the state. ...
Last week I shared a graphic illustrating the dramatic fall in distributed solar PV prices in Germany, down to $4.11 per Watt installed, for rooftop...
Even as distributed generation shows economical and political advantages over centralized renewable energy, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is running a high voltage gravy...
Maine’s Net Energy Billing system (2011) allows shared ownership of renewable facilities and virtual net metering. Participants must own a portion of the generation facility....
Most renewable energy advocates are familiar with feed-in tariffs, also known as CLEAN Contracts. They offer standard, long-term contracts for renewable electricity with prices sufficient...
This 2011 speech by Dan Knapp of Urban Ore is an important statement on the state of recycling in the US.… Read More