Members Reviving Atlanta Electric Co-op After CEO Takes Millions – Episode 31 of Local Energy Rules Podcast
Cobb EMC serves around 175,000 member-owners just outside of Atlanta, Ga., and is one of 900 member-owned electric cooperatives in the United States. Mark Hackett,...
Electric cooperatives have been the backbone of the nation’s rural electrical system for more than 80 years. Their mission and business model now face more challenges...
Are Rural Electric Cooperatives Driving or Just Dabbling in Community Solar?
Electric cooperatives, member-owned organizations that sell electricity to those within their service area, are perhaps the nation’s largest group of utilities that could champion clean,...
Just How Democratic are Rural Electric Cooperatives?
Randy Wilson knew you had to start somewhere. Knocking on doors and hanging around retail store parking lots, he and volunteers from the citizen group...
Did FERC Just Smash the Biggest Roadblock to Clean, Local Power for Electric Co-ops?
Because they only sell 11% of the country’s electricity and they largely overlap politically conservative areas, electric cooperatives are often the forgotten stepchild of the...
A $6 Billion Opportunity for the Rural Energy Economy
One of the biggest barriers to making investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy is the upfront cost. So what if members of rural electric...
Watch: How Democratic Energy Fits the Rural Electric Philosophy
The following presentation was given by ILSR’s Director of Democratic Energy John Farrell at the Electrons on the Run mini-conference in Alexandria, MN, on March...
A Perfect Storm for Renewables – Episode 18 of Local Energy Rules Podcast
The Hawaiian utility, made local when the investor-owned utility left the business a decade ago, is surging toward 40% renewable energy in the next year,...
The #1 Solar Utility is in…Iowa? – Episode 12 of Local Energy Rules Podcast
It may be one of the oldest cooperative utilities in the country, but in the next six months, Farmers Electric Cooperative (FEC) of southeastern Iowa...
Two Ways Americans May Get More Ownership of their Energy Future
Three years ago, the prospects for Americans to own their energy future seemed relatively bleak. There were almost no replicable models for doing community-based energy...
Randy Caviness and Community Wind in Iowa – Episode 4 of Local Energy Rules Podcast
Community wind projects are relatively rare, but allow numerous investors to share in the financial benefits of owning wind power. After the 2008 financial crisis,...
Boulder’s Solar Sales Taxes Fund Rebates and Other Projects
A modest tax incentive proposal in Boulder, Colorado, creates a solar renewable energy fund from local sales tax revenues on solar energy equipment. About one...
Community Based Energy Development Moving Ahead in Minnesota
A Community Based Energy Development (C-BED) organization has been formed to help landowners and/or investors make connections with each other. C-BED tariffs have been filed...
