renewable electricity
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'Solar home rule' could power the D.C. economy
Citizens of Washington, D.C. could generate jobs and keep more electricity dollars at home with rooftop solar power.
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Mapping Solar PV CLEAN Contracts in the U.S.
The price of solar is dropping fast, opening new opportunities for community-scale renewable energy across the country. But despite the improving economics and tremendously sunnier skies, the United States lags far behind Germany in installing new solar power. The biggest difference is policy. The U.S. has two major federal incentives (a 30% tax credit and […]
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Why we should democratize the electricity system — part one
A serialized version of ILSR‘s new report, “Democratizing the Electricity System,” part one of five. The 20th century of electricity generation was characterized by ever larger and more distant central power plants. But a 21st century technological dynamic offers the possibility of a dramatically different electricity future: millions of widely dispersed renewable energy plants and […]
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Solar PV makes most sense at modest size
Benefits of smaller-scale solar operations far outweigh any potential savings from building bigger.
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Gas is greener? Smearing renewables over land use exposes ignorance of fossil fuel lovers
Oregon’s solar highway. Photo: Oregon Department of TransportationA recent column in the New York Times suggested that land use is the greatest environmental problem facing new renewable energy. While getting the facts terribly wrong, it opens a door to talk about the advantages of distributed generation rather than large, central-station power generation. A prime example […]
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Solving wind power's variability with more wind power
Any single wind turbine's output varies as winds go from gusty to calm. But we can outsmart nature by adding more wind sites.
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Concentrated solar power plants are all wet
Concentrating solar has promised big additions to renewable energy production with the additional benefit of energy storage -- but there's a catch.
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Local ownership means local love for wind power
This post originally appeared on Energy Self-Reliant States, a resource of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project. 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 summarizes a survey conducted of two towns in Germany, both with local […]
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Renewable Energy Keeps Growing: Earth Summit in Rio provides an opportunity for even more action
Several new reports released over the past few days show that renewable energy keeps growing, with more countries implementing policies or incentives to spur renewable energy deployment. The studies found that renewable energy accounted for $211 billion in new investments in 2010 – an increase of 32% from the previous year. Next year at the […]