Community Choice Aggregations (CCAs)

By Chris Nelder, Energy Transition Show

What are community choice aggregations, or CCAs, and why are they suddenly playing such a huge role in wholesale power markets?

Critical Mass Heaters

By Gergő Benedek, Transition Network

While Hungary is preparing to invest into the most ambitious energy project of its entire history – building a new nuclear power plant – the rural areas of the country are facing dire energy problems that very well could be solved with less effort and maybe even more benefit.

Scotland Promotes Local, Shared Ownership of Renewable Energy Infrastructure

By Wolfgang Hoeschele, Shareable

In 2011, the Scottish government established the policy goal to dramatically reduce its reliance on nonrenewable energy sources. In 2015, the 500 MW target of local renewable energy capacity was achieved. This target may not have been ambitious, but the support base is there to greatly exceed it.

Power for Puerto Ricans, not Private Investors

By Johanna Bozuwa, The Next System Project

It has been almost a month since Maria devastated Puerto Rico. Since then, most of the island’s 3.4 million residents have been without electricity or running water. The power grid was effectively destroyed, with only 7 percent back online to date. This means that the entire system, from generation to distribution, will need to be rebuilt. The question now is: how?

Will Public Banking Bring More Clean Energy Programs to California?

By Nithin Coca, Shareable

At a recent forum at Oakland City Hall, experts from the public banking and community energy sectors explored how the creation of a public bank could help communities transition to clean energy while creating economic opportunities.

Leech Lake Community Solar Array First in MN to be 100% Dedicated to Low-Income Residents

By Anna Carlson, Clean Energy Resource Teams

At a ceremony, fittingly under sunny skies, Leech Lake officials and representatives from the Rural Renewable Energy Alliance unveiled a new solar array at the Prescott Community Center. The walls of solar panels at the community center are one of five spread throughout the reservation, with others at the Palace Casino, Leech Lake Tribal College, the Rural Renewable Energy Alliance office in Pine River and a fifth in Jackson Village.

Shared Renewables Hold Big Potential for Communities Left Out of Clean Energy Programs

By Nithin Coca, Shareable

Shared renewables is a democratic system, in which a community or neighborhood collectively owns or operates small-scale energy systems. The co-owners do not necessarily have to be neighbors — or even live near each other — depending on the type of system.

Energy Democracy: A Response to Trump’s Climate Wrecking Agenda

By John Farrell, Institute for Local Self-Reliance

Join Anya Schoolman of the Community Power Network and John Farrell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance who will lead a discussion on how states and communities can push past Trump’s dirty energy agenda, drive down energy cost and boost renewable energy growth.

The Case for Local, Community-led Sustainable Energy Programs

By Wolfgang Hoeschele, Shareable

In a sharing vision of a local renewable energy system, many households will generate their own renewable energy (as in solar photovoltaic or solar thermal systems on their rooftops), but many more, for whom this is not an option, will share in the ownership and operation of off-site renewable energy generation infrastructure such as wind turbines.

Germany Shows it’s Worth Fighting for Energy Democracy

By Arne Jungiohann, Craig Morris, Resilience.org

People soon realized it was not enough to just say no. They needed to offer a better alternative and say yes to something. So the Germans demanded what has since become known as energy democracy: the right to make your own energy.