ILSR’s John Farrell led a seminar on energy democracy at the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association’s 2016 annual conference in Boston, MA. The conference was held...
On Tuesday, March 15th, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance hosted a webinar titled “Breaking the Macro-Barriers to Microgrids.” The webinar was led by John Farrell,...
How can a state modernize its electric system when it’s in the hands of vertically integrated monopolies? We offer some thoughts via its comments on...
It was the biggest quarter ever for solar, which supplied one-third of over 7.3 gigawatts of new power plant capacity added to the grid. Distributed...
With the release of ILSR’s new report, “Mighty Microgrids,” ILSR is releasing two podcasts with the developers and regulators of microgrids in the United States....
Communities all over the country are finding ways to break the macro barriers to microgrids. As we flip from a top-down to bottom-up grid management...
Most microgrids today are single buildings that rely on diesel generators to run when the grid is out. They’re simple backup, redundant power. But some...
Energy storage is the “next charge” for distributed renewable energy, and the small town of Minster, OH, provides a powerful illustration. Committed to building a...
Five years ago, I launched ILSR’s first program blog, Energy Self-Reliant States, to provide regular analysis and perspective on the opportunities to enrich local economies...
The following presentation was given by ILSR’s Director of Democratic Energy John Farrell, this year’s keynote speaker at the Sierra Club of Nebraska’s Annual Event...
Renewable energy continues to dominate new power plant capacity and distributed generation has contributed an increasingly large share. We’ve been tracking this phenomenon since April...
Building local equity is the key to campaigns for 100% renewable energy, giving everyone a chance to own a piece of their energy future. What...
In 2016, ILSR released a new report on solar and wind economies of scale, updating this data. While utilities continue to imply that large-scale solar...
A new report released this week asserts that utility-scale solar is much more economical than small-scale solar. The clear implication is that we should let...
At the beginning of June 2015, ILSR released its Public Rooftop Revolution report, which described how cities across the nation put the shine on municipal...