Articles by John Farrell
John Farrell is the author of Energy Self-Reliant States and a senior researcher at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, where he focuses on renewable energy policy.
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How solar energy cuts electric grid costs
With solar power, “we can avoid that $100 million investment in transmission lines, distribution lines, in capital infrastructure…” That was Vice President of Environmental Affairs Michael Deering of the Long Island Power Authority in a remarkable podcast interview, explaining how local solar energy can help offset expensive grid upgrades for bringing in remote power generation, […]
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The Opportunity to Overturn Three Costly Values in Our Energy System
Earlier this year I worked as an election judge for the city of Minneapolis. It was the city’s second experience with ranked choice voting, a system where instead of voting for a single candidate, you get to pick your top three choices. If your first choice candidate is mathematically eliminated from winning, your vote is […]
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A Big Question for ‘Solar Choice’
Two weeks ago, Minnesota’s Public Utilities Commission ratified the first-ever statewide policy for setting a fair and transparent price on solar energy. This week, a coalition of companies that provide leasing contracts for solar to home and business customers declared war on this “value of solar” policy, and pretty much every financial model for compensating […]
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Can a Fair Price for Solar Energy Win Over Utilities?
In March 2014, Minnesota became the first state to adopt a “value of solar” policy to set a fair, transparent price on solar energy. It may serve as a national precedent and fundamentally change the financial relationship between electric utilities and their energy-producing customers. So what will value of solar mean for utility customers producing […]
