Local Energy Rules

New Hampshire, home to some of the highest utility costs in the nation, could be fertile ground for community energy projects that promote lower-cost, renewable generation -- especially after investors in one shared solar array pioneered a strategy to promote greater local ownership.

Regulatory and legal roadblocks forced solar advocates in Keene to develop a comprehensive framework for adding a 43-kilowatt rooftop array to Monadnock Food Co-op, whose focus on sustainability and downtown location made it a natural partner. Still, when the group began exploring its options in 2013, community shared renewables represented unfamiliar territory in the Granite State.

Without a blueprint from other local projects, the group -- led by community members -- got to work. Peter Hansel, an investor in the project and part of its steering committee who helped develop its model, recently spoke with ILSR’s John Farrell about how it all came togethe

A growing number of small- and mid-size communities are harnessing their shared market power to promote local renewable energy. Using a state policy called community choice aggregation, these communities can unseat powerful monopoly utilities and seize greater control over their energy futures by choosing their electricity suppliers or generating their own power.

Community choice aggregation — a system pioneered in Massachusetts but now in play in more than a half-dozen states, both regulated and deregulated — allows cities and counties to form a single entity to select the electricity supplier on behalf of all., It expands energy options and gives these small communities market power, while keeping costs down for its customers. They negotiate terms for sourcing and purchasing energy, effectively sidestepping monopoly utilities that have historically made those decisions themselves.

https://ilsr.org/articles/westchester-power-energy-future-episode-43-of-local-energy-rules-podcast/

In New York, community choice aggregation is an especially compelling prospect. It dovetails with a wider effort to reorient state energy policy around renewables, distributed generation, and energy efficiency called Reforming the Energy Vision. Expected to take a decade to fully iron out, the regulatory overhaul -- which stands to reconfigure the longstanding monopoly model -- is underway. But community choice aggregation is already available, and the number of cities opting in is on the rise.

John Farrell, who heads up the Energy Democracy initiative at ILSR, recently spoke with Glenn Weinberg, who helped launch Westchester Power, a community choice aggregation program for 20 communities just north of New York City.

Rochester, Minnesota is known worldwide as the home of the Mayo clinic. And in recent years, its leaders have turned their attention to charting sustainable, responsible growth, including in energy with its own municipal utility. This Southeastern Minnesota city has extra flexibility in calling its own shots and recirculating a greater portion of its residents’ electricity dollars within the community. Now in his ninth year on Rochester city council, Michael Wojcik champions this kind of local control. He spoke with John Farrell, who heads the Energy Democracy Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance about Rochester’s unique opportunity to promote economic growth through better energy policies.

https://ilsr.org/articles/municipal-utility-offers-springboard-for-minnesota-citys-energy-vision-episode-42-of-local-energy-rules-podcast/

A 2015 mayoral proclamation that Rochester target an all-renewable energy mix by 2031 added the city to a wave of others across the country deepening their commitment to clean energy. The pledge wasn’t binding, but it set an ambitious goal for the community, Rochester City Council Michael Wojcik said. Wojcik spoke with John Farrell, who leads the Energy Democracy Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, in February 2017.

New England offers some of the nation’s biggest incentives for renewable energy generation, but high upfront costs and complicated financing mean many residents are still missing out on the opportunity to go solar. But one cooperative, with a series of pioneering programs, is beginning to change that.

Co-op Power, headquartered in Massachusetts, has steadily built up its credentials over the past decade. In a significant milestone, it mounted a $4.3 million community-based fundraising campaign for a biodiesel plant set to go online early next year. It has supported hundreds of rooftop solar installations, and fueled the region’s green job growth.

https://ilsr.org/articles/in-new-england-cooperative-values-drive-solar-growth-episode-41-of-local-energy-rules-podcast/

New England offers some of the nation’s biggest incentives for renewable energy generation, but high upfront costs and complicated financing mean many residents are still missing out on the opportunity to go solar. But one cooperative, with a series of pioneering programs, is beginning to change that.

Co-op Power, headquartered in Massachusetts, has steadily built up its credentials over the past decade. In a significant milestone, it mounted a $4.3 million community-based fundraising campaign for a biodiesel plant set to go online early next year. It has supported hundreds of rooftop solar installations, and fueled the region’s green job growth.

Leveraging its cooperative structure -- underpinned by 500-plus member-owners who help set its strategy and back projects in Massachusetts and New York -- the group plans to sharpen its focus on bringing more community solar projects to the grid, then delivering benefits more people in the communities it serves.

To date, Co-op Power has developed a series of innovative projects driving continued success in the marketplace. John Farrell, who leads ILSR’s Energy Democracy Initiative, explored the group’s past, present and future in a November 2016 conversation with Isaac Baker, a founding member of Co-op Power and its vice president of community solar.

The city of Minneapolis has earned wide reaching praise for its innovative, first in the nation partnership with a pair of local utilities formed to advance ambitious goals, to reduce emissions, energy consumption, and more. Two years in, the clean energy partnership is more than a novel tool to propel sensible energy policy. It offers lessons in how cities can better manage their energy futures.

https://ilsr.org/articles/at-the-two-year-mark-key-takeaways-from-the-clean-energy-partnership-episode-40-of-local-energy-rules-podcast/

Minneapolis garnered national attention when it formed a first-of-its-kind partnership with local utilities to advance sustainable, efficient energy policy. Now, as communities across the U.S. increasingly push for influence over their energy futures, the Midwestern city offers a blueprint for what works and a taste of the challenges that come with cooperation.

John Farrell, who leads the Energy Democracy Initiative at ILSR, was a key player in forging the hard-fought Clean Energy Partnership in 2013. He’s still involved as a member of the advisory committee formed to steer the city and its two investor-owned utilities toward policies that favor renewable energy and efficiency.

Officially two years in, the Minneapolis model offers deeper insight to other communities chasing meaningful change. Farrell outlined the key takeaways in the latest episode of Local Energy Rules, the ILSR podcast that highlights innovative pathways to local, renewable energy.

A conversation with people doing great community renewable energy projects and examining how energy policies help or hurt the development of clean, local power