Hawaii Is a “Postcard from the Future”
Today, the New York Times published a good look at how Hawaii’s residential solar power industry, the most advanced in the US, is forcing obsolete power companies to change, and how those power...
View ArticleAnd FirstEnergy Shows Its Hand on HB2201
Today, The State Journal published energy reporter Sarah Tincher’s story on the differing views of HB2201. In her story, she quoted FirstEnergy PR guy, and our old friend, as follows: “FirstEnergy is...
View ArticleHB2201 Now on Gov. Tomblin’s Desk: Veto Needed
HB2201 is back on Gov. Tomblin’s desk. He has until Saturday to veto it. He needs to veto HB2201 a second time. HB2201 is completely unnecessary, because net metering was protected in HB2001, and...
View ArticleElectric Industry’s War on Solar Comes to WV
In the fight over preserving net metering, the electric industry’s war on solar, declared in 2013 by the Edison Electric Institute, has come to the WV Legislature. The war has come in the form of two...
View ArticleGov. Tomblin Signs HB 2001 Into Law
Gov. Tomblin signed HB 2001 into law today. The bill repealed the Alternative and Renewable Energy Act of 2009 and replaced it with a statute titled “Net Metering of Customer-Generators,” preserving...
View ArticleSolar Economics Picking Up Momentum in US
A recent study calculates that home solar power generation is now cheaper than centralized power in 42 of the 50 largest cities in the US. “Right now, buying an average-sized, fully-financed solar PV...
View ArticleNigeria – One of Africa’s Most Prosperous Countries Has Collapsing...
This article from yesterday’s New York Times is a good companion piece to my recent post about Kenya’s M’KOPA. Nigeria, the subject of the Times article, is more than 2000 miles from Kenya, but both...
View ArticleKenya’s M’KOPA Pioneers Decentralized Power
Kenya is on the leading edge of decentralized solar power. M’KOPA provides a 4 watt solar panel, three LED lights, a DC radio and a cell phone charger, all in a box. The kit costs about $200. The...
View ArticleKarl Cates – The Other War: Underreported but Not Insignificant
Karl Cates has an excellent piece over at the IEEFA blog that will give you a good look at how decentralized solar power is under attack by the electrical industry around the US. Cates also describes...
View ArticleOak Park, IL Microgrid Project Moving Forward
I posted back in 2013, here and here, about the pioneering project to turn more than 100 homes in Oak Park, IL into a resilient microgrid. The project is moving forward as you can see from this link....
View ArticleWV Senate Passes SB 1 with Net Metering Protection
Just a little while ago, the WV Senate passed Senate Bill 1, repealing all of the current Alternative and Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard law, except for the authorization of net metering in WV....
View ArticleAlliance for Solar Choice’s Bryan Miller Shuts Hoppy Down
Hoppy Kercheval had Bryan Miller of the Alliance for Solar Choice on his radio show this morning. Hoppy offered up every bogus argument against net metering that you have read about here on The Power...
View ArticleWest Virginians Standing Up to Protect Net Metering
Back in 2009, the WV Legislature passed the Alternative and Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard law. For years, Republicans have falsely claimed that the law was a “cap and trade” assault on the coal...
View ArticleRepeal of Net Metering May Be Big on Industry Agenda in 2015
The new Republican leadership in the WV Legislature may give new life to past attempts to repeal net metering for solar power producers in WV. Republican and coal Democratic legislators have...
View ArticleAEP Transmission Line Pulled in Arkansas
The Southwest Power Pool just dumped AEP’s planned 345 kV transmission project in Arkansas. It was the same old story: On December 29, 2014, SWEPCO received a notification letter from SPP stating that...
View ArticlePACE Program Working Well in CT, Why Not WV
Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs are used across the US to help property owners get low interest financing to make energy efficiency and solar power investments in their buildings....
View ArticleMore Samso/US Connections
I have posted about my trip to Denmark in late September on The Power Line. While we were on Samsø Island, we saw a group of college students from the College of the Atlantic in Maine at the Energy...
View ArticleNY State Making Good Investments
New York is investing tax dollars in the future. Here is a story about a $1.8 million grant awarded by the state to fund solar purchasing co-ops, energy efficiency projects and job training in the...
View ArticleNo, NY Times, It Is Never Too Early to “Be Sustainable”
On the same day the Solnit op-ed ran, the NY Times ran another story that spent hundreds of words to tell us that renewable power is just too hard – especially if you are older. The story in the Homes...
View ArticleIL Commerce Commission Blocks Clean Line Speculators
The Illinois Commerce Commission has just issued an order denying utility status to the highly speculative Houston-based Clean Line operation under a state law granting the company powers of eminent...
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