News & Articles on Community Power
Developing renewable energy on the scale needed to make the energy transition will require public acceptance. Unlike nuclear power, where society can force a single plant on a community for the benefit of society at large, renewable energy will have to become ubiquitous in our communities and on our landscapes. This can only be possible when the majority accept this transformation. Experience has taught that acceptance is greatest when neighbors and the community at large can participate in the renewable energy revolution. The beauty of renewable energy is that everyone can take part–and own a stake in their future–when given an opportunity to do so. The challenge is creating the policies that make this possible, whether it’s for a community wind project or a solar garden.
Community Renewables International
By
Craig Morris and Rebecca Freitag
8th episode of AEE’s podcasts on community renewables. All are worth a listen. This episode exams what went wrong in Ontario.
MP helps launch Bradford Community Energy initiative
By
Tim Quantrill Chief Reporter
The scheme has been inspired by the success of over 200 community energy projects across the country and allows local residents to invest from £100 up to a maximum of £22,000 in local renewable energy projects across Bradford, with an ambition to replicate existing schemes to community-owned buildings in the district.
Sadness as community hydro project winds up after ten years
By
John Ross
A ten-year campaign to build a small hydro scheme which could have generated £130,000 a year for a Highland community has finally ran out of power.
National Community Solar Programs Tracker
By
Maria Mccoy and John Farrell
16 states have passed legislation enabling community shared solar gardens, but only four have active programs with multiple installations. This post will be updated quarterly with the number of projects and megawatts of installed capacity in each state with a formal community solar program that allows non-utility ownership. Although rural electric cooperatives have built a significant amount of community solar, the programs do not allow non-utility ownership and may differ from state-based programs that are structured to provide bill savings to customers.
The Wind Commons: PUBLIC OWNERSHIP FOR A FULL, JUST ENERGY TRANSITION
By
David Mcdermott Hughes
So we need to address two problems at once: inequity and resistance to renewables. This paper proposes public, national ownership as the double solution. A commons of the wind will make the energy transition inclusive, universal, and, above all, more rapid than it is now.
The Need for and the Value of the World Wind Energy Association
By
Paul Gipe
The World Wind Energy Association was formed because existing organizations were narrowly focused on the often arcane and specialized needs of the commercial wind industry. There was no organization with the long term view that people, especially the people who use and live with wind energy were vitally important to the industry’s ultimate success. There was a need, and WWEA filled it. That need still exists today–even more so than two decades ago.
California Regulators Approve Sacramento Utility’s Contentious Community Solar Plan
By
Emma Foehringer Merchant
California regulators on Thursday unanimously approved a controversial shared solar program proposed by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. The municipal utility will use the program, called Neighborhood SolarShares, to help meet new state building standards that require solar installations on all new residential roofs.
Open Letter to German Energy Minister: Community Power is Most Important for the Acceptance of Wind Power
By
Bee, Bbe, Dgrv and Wwea
For three decades, citizens, e.g. in local energy cooperatives, have been promoting the energy transition, by initiating and installing individual wind turbines and later also larger wind farms. Feed-in legislation, privileges in the federal building code and the renewable energy act EEG provided the legal framework for citizens to make the energy transition practically possible, by taking entrepreneurial risk at an early stage and generating innovation. Even today you can convince of countless wind projects that without major conflicts massive investments were made in renewable energy and thus in the future of the respective community and ultimately into the future of our country, often even primarily supported by voluntary work.
New community solar farm powered up in Devon
By
Priyanka Shrestha
Construction of the 7.3MW Creacombe community solar farm started in September last year and was energised in two stages.
