In a recent report, SunRun and Vote Solar revealed that permitting costs were rapidly becoming a much more significant portion of the cost of a small-scale solar installation, nearly 20%! Some states have responded with policies designed to streamline and reduce the costs of permitting. Continue reading
The state of Colorado passed a law in 2011 to solve the problem of inconsistent and expensive solar permitting costs. A national study recently found that local permitting can increase the cost of residential solar by 15-20%, a problem that becomes more pressing as the cost of solar hardware falls. Colorado’s Fair Permit Act (HB… Continue reading
The state of Vermont has come up with a good rule for reducing the cost of solar power installations. A national study recently found that local permitting can increase the cost of residential solar by 15-20%, a problem that becomes more pressing as the cost of solar hardware falls. Vermont’s rule shifts the burden of… Continue reading
Banks that wish to do business with the City of Los Angeles must annually submit information on their lending and investments in each of the city’s census tracts. Continue reading
Minneapolis Star Tribune – May 23, 2012 Minnesota spends more than $20 billion a year on energy — primarily importing polluting fossil fuels — and the state’s utilities typically lobby against decreasing our dependency. This hampers our economy and harms our environment. Fortunately, cities don’t have to rely on the Legislature to stand up for… Continue reading
In lieu of smarter policy, schools, libraries, and city buildings hoping to install solar power have to resort to complex public-private partnerships to access federal tax incentives. One common strategy is the power purchase agreement (PPA). In essence, a PPA allows the public building owner to buy solar electricity on contract from a third party… Continue reading
If you haven’t heard yet, there’s a “rule” that precludes distributed renewable energy projects from supplying more than 15% of the power to most “distribution circuits” (part of the low-voltage electric grid that brings power into homes and businesses). With the rapidly falling cost of solar power, many places in the country are starting to… Continue reading
In a forthcoming report on U.S. feed-in tariff programs, I’ll provide a comparison of solar feed-in tariff (FIT, a.k.a. CLEAN Contract) rates across the United States. Comparing published rates is not particularly helpful, however, because contract lengths vary (from 15 to 25 years) and the solar resource also varies widely. For international comparisons (e.g. Germany), it’s… Continue reading
We have developed a new video to explain why communities consider building their own broadband networks. Please pass it around, embed it in social media, and also remind people that we have a new report with in-depth case studies of community broadband! Video: Continue reading
Local ownership of a wind project accounts for half of its lifetime economic value to the community! From: Value Creation for Local Communities through Renewable Energies [pdf] Continue reading
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