Mid-May proved beneficial for many high-voltage transmisison developers, as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s “high-voltage gravy train” kept delivering the cash. Five additional transmission projects...
The solution to the variability of wind power is more wind. The output from a single wind turbine can vary widely over a short period...
I just got a copy of a utility bill for a Minnesota business that has a 40 kilowatt (kW) solar PV array. I’d hoped to...
Power plants use a stunning amount of water. In 2005, thermoelectric power (e.g. coal, natural gas) accounted for half of all water use in the...
Some nice news from Connecticut, where the state’s commitment to increasing distributed generation is increasing on-site generation and helping hold rates down: Distributed generation is...
Yet another Canadian province is showing a serious commitment to the economic benefits of renewable energy development. Ontario’s “buy local” energy policy has the promise...
The use of tax credits as the primary federal incentive for renewable energy has often stymied cities, counties, and cooperatives from constructing and owning their...
A new article in the journal Energy Policy supports the notion that local ownership is key to overcoming local resistance to renewable energy. The article...
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...
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...