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WV Needs Independence and Innovative Thinking on Our PSC
The Charleston Gazette published my op-ed piece this morning. In late August, the WV PSC announced that Commissioner Ryan Palmer was leaving the Commission to take a job with the Federal...
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WV Sun and Community Power Network Building Solar Co-ops in Union and...
Community solar co-operatives have come to WV. Co-op buying from a single installer reduces the price of individual systems about 25%. WV Sun, the WV branch of the Community Power Network, have...
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Samso and Calhoun County, West Virginia
It may seem strange to compare a small island in the channel between Jutland and Zealand, in the middle of Denmark, with my home county here in West Virginia. If you traveled to Samsø, however, you...
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New Report Shows Change Is Possible, But WV PSC Has Made It Very Expensive
Ken Ward had a story in yesterday’s Charleston Gazette titled “West Virginia could meet EPA plant standards, report says.” West Virginia could meet proposed federal standards to reduce greenhouse gas...
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Anya Schoolman on Decentralized Power
Anya Schoolman is the genius behind the Community Power Network which has built solar generation in communities in the District of Columbia and three states, including two community solar co-ops (so...
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WI PSC Sides with Power Company Against Innovation While a German Town Takes...
The contrast between this week’s decision by the Wisconsin PSC to support Wisconsin Energy’s assault on its solar generating customers and the remarkable progress being made in Wildpoldsried, Bavaria...
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IL 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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No, 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...
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NY 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...
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More 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...
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PACE 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....
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AEP 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...
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Repeal 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...
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West 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...
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Alliance 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...
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WV 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....
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Oak 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....
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Karl 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...
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Kenya’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...
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Nigeria – 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...
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