Back
After languishing since 2022, a revamped measure to launch a shared solar program in southwest Virginia found daylight this year.
The General Assembly gave the go-ahead to a pair of measures (SB 255, HB 108) directing utility regulators to set up Appalachian Power’s inaugural 50 megawatt program by Jan. 1.
Despite the modest size laid out in the new law, Charlie Coggeshall, Mid-Atlantic regional director with the Coalition for Community Solar Access, is content with the breakthrough into a part of the state historically dependent on the coal industry.
“Our expectations had to be tempered significantly,” Coggeshall said. “But we got to a place where we’re putting a stake in the ground in Southwest Virginia, a win for continuing the advancement of shared solar in Virginia.”
It isn’t yet clear how soon Appalachian Power customers will be able to subscribe. The utility must provide tariff information and other related requirements by July 1, 2025.
Relatedly, the Senate and House of Delegates passed separate legislation, SB 253 and HB 106, to enlarge Dominion Energy’s existing shared solar initiative to 350 MW from its current 200 MW limit.
Shared solar, also known as community solar, allows Virginians to purchase solar power via subscriptions to communal, off-site arrays typically built and owned by third-party entities, not utilities.
The arrangement is attractive to customers who can’t afford the upfront cost of rooftop panels, residents with shaded southern exposure or subject to homeowner association restrictions, and apartment renters and condominium owners without control of their rooftops.
Ideally, subscribers earn credits in the form of savings on their monthly electric bills while also helping to pay down the cost of constructing the shared array.
Proponents are encouraged that programs for both investor-owned utilities could eventually include incentives for shared solar projects that are sited on underused surfaces such as rooftops, landfills and brownfields or that incorporate advances such as combining solar with agriculture ventures.
The Virginia Department of Energy will be organizing a stakeholder group to shape the particulars of such inducements.
Coggeshall and other advocates were disappointed two years ago when legislation aiming to set on-the-ground goals for shared solar at Appalachian Power was scuttled in favor of a bipartisan law calling on utility regulators to meet with interested parties to evaluate the program’s possibilities.
Peter Anderson, the director of state energy policy at Appalachian Voices, said proponents had no choice but to persist. Now, he added, it’s up to the State Corporation Commission to institute an affordable model that attracts subscribers and solar developers.
“I’m over the moon that we are establishing shared solar in Appalachian Power territory,” Anderson said. “But my fear is that if we don’t have demonstration projects to build from, we’ll have to go back and rewrite the bill.”
One continuing fractious issue with Dominion’s shared solar program is the debate over what’s called the “minimum bill.” It’s a monthly fee the utility is allowed to charge enrollees to account for the costs of implementing the program and for use of the utility’s grid infrastructure.
In 2022, regulators opted to set that fee at $55, but agreed to exempt lower-income participants from paying it.
Advocates argued that such a high charge for a renewable energy initiative designed to save customers money would prevent wealthier residents in Dominion territory from enrolling. That has indeed been the case since operators began enrolling participants last July 1.
On the other hand, the Appalachian Power program will include a minimum bill, but does not include an exemption for lower-income customers.
“This makes it risky for solar project developers,” Coggeshall said. “With Dominion, at least developers can be somewhat confident about building a project that’s 100 percent for low- and middle-income customers. Appalachian Power doesn’t have that kind of backstop.
“Still, the interest is there. I have coalition members asking me about Southwest Virginia. I tell them the economics are to be determined. We won’t know for about a year.”
Utility regulators are tasked with setting Appalachian Power’s minimum fee. The utility pushed to reshape the legislation this session because it didn’t want non-participating customers to be burdened by any costs of adding shared solar.
“This issue is specifically listed within the bill as a factor the SCC must consider when determining the minimum bill,” spokeswoman Teresa Hamilton Hall said. “Appalachian Power worked hard to get this language inserted in the legislation, and we believe the SCC will be mindful of the financial impacts to non-participating ratepayers when making decisions.”
While advocates will be weighing in on that docket to be sure it sets a fair minimum bill, they’re also heartened that the new Dominion law directs regulators to recalculate the current $55 minimum bill charged to market-rate subscribers.
Specifically, the commission must calculate the benefits of shared solar to the electric grid and the state, then deduct those benefits from other costs. Regulators must spell out each cost, benefit or other value used to determine the minimum charge.
The law basically requires a reconsideration of the minimum bill, Coggeshall said, adding that other states already recognize that shared solar and other distributed generation projects help utilities offset the cost of transmitting and generating power.
“Dominion has failed to look at the other side of the ledger and ask what the benefits of solar really are,” he said. “This law is forcing that discussion. Nothing is guaranteed. It’s still going to be a big fight.”
Anderson said it will be intriguing to watch how the three-member SCC — which has two new commissioners — approaches assigning a value to solar that will help dictate a minimum bill.
“The commission is where the rubber meets the road,” he said. “I’m an optimist. We’ll take our swings in front of the commission. My fingers are crossed and I’m hopeful we get projects in the ground.”
Robin Dutta, the acting executive director of the Chesapeake Solar and Storage Association, said having shared solar folded into Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s 2022 Energy Plan gave it priority status among legislators.
“It’s a great example of how clean energy should be bipartisan because it’s a step forward in building an equitable clean-energy economy,” he said. “Seeing the program expand in megawatts and territory is valuable.”
Quashing any growth since shared solar legislation was first authorized would have been the worst outcome, he said.
In 2020, Fairfax County shared solar champion Sen. Scott Surovell ushered in the original legislation by reluctantly capping Dominion’s program at 150 MW. That was permitted to stretch to 200 MW if at least 30% of the enrollees qualified as lower income. No project can be larger than 5 MW.
Thus far, Dominion has greenlighted 41 shared solar projects totaling close to 150 MW, according to its website. Operators began enrolling participants last July 1 when the law took effect. Another 15 projects — which add up to 60-plus MW — are on Dominion’s waiting list.
Under the new law, half of the additional 150 MW in Dominion’s territory can cater to lower-income subscribers. However, the other 75 MW must basically be split between market-rate and lower-income subscribers.
Another switch in the Dominion program allows the utility to keep the renewable energy credits from each project so they can count toward compliance with the state’s renewable portfolio. Appalachian Power also will benefit by holding onto its renewable energy credits.
“Before, developers in Dominion territory could do anything at all with the credits,” Coggeshall said. “Monetizing the credits helped developers recover costs of building projects, so that’s a lost economic advantage. That change might provide ammunition to regulators to lower the minimum bill.”
Even though Virginia’s shared solar program is relatively small overall, Coggeshall and other advocates are hopeful a federal infusion of $156 million announced on Earth Day can widen its reach.
The Virginia Energy Department will use its Solar for All grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — part of the $7 billion national Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund — to design and expand residential solar programs serving marginalized communities. Funding for the five-year program begins in 2025.
Surovell, the Senate Majority Leader who represents suburbs of Washington, D.C., latched onto the idea of shared solar in Virginia more than five years ago when he clicked on an ad for a program while visiting his vacation house in New York’s Adirondack Mountains.
He signed up in five minutes during that summer of 2019 and soon discovered that tapping into an off-property array would about cover his entire electric bill.
Though the Democrat admits the learning curve has been steeper in his home state, he has doggedly sponsored legislation every year since 2020 to enlarge shared solar’s overall footprint and ensure that access to renewable energy doesn’t solely benefit affluent homeowners.
This year, he was the patron behind both Senate versions of the bills that became law. Notably, neither was amended by Youngkin. Last year, Surovell introduced Senate Bill 1266, which would have boosted total capacity to 1 GW. It passed the Senate with a nine-vote margin but failed to advance out of committee in the House.
Regulators’ decision to set a high minimum charge has continually frustrated Surovell. He has always maintained that such fees must be reasonable to attract subscribers seeking fairly priced renewable energy.
For Coggeshall, this session’s shared solar gains only reinforce the reality that Virginia is poised to embrace incremental progress, not great leaps forward.
“Virginia is not New York,” he concluded. “It has been a roller coaster trying to strike a balance to meet Virginia where it is at instead of where we want it to be.”
RENEWABLES: In northern Illinois and across the nation, waitlists to connect large renewable energy projects to the electric grid have ballooned, leaving over 1,400 gigawatts of wind and solar projects in limbo. (Chicago Tribune)
ALSO:
CLIMATE:
OHIO: FirstEnergy donated $2.5 million to a dark money group backing Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s campaign, according to newly released records. (Floodlight/USA Today)
OIL & GAS:
COAL: A St. Louis-area coal plant emitted far more sulfur dioxide pollution than any plant in the country, a news organization’s analysis finds. (Post-Dispatch)
NUCLEAR:
BUILDINGS: A monastery expects to become Wisconsin’s first net-zero retreat center this year after it integrates battery storage and geothermal systems with its existing ground-mounted solar array. (Cap Times)
ETHANOL: The U.S. EPA issues an emergency fuel waiver allowing gasoline blended with 15% ethanol to be sold during the summer despite concerns that it contributes to ground-level ozone in warmer weather. (South Dakota Searchlight)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Minnesota electric vehicle driver has used a website and app to review nearly 2,100 charging stations over the last seven years. (Star Tribune)
WIND: The Northern Chumash Tribe and wind energy companies agree to a phased establishment of a national marine sanctuary along central California’s coast that would clear the way for offshore wind development while providing protections the tribe seeks. (KCLU)
ALSO: The Biden administration plans to lease up to a dozen new federal offshore wind tracts over the next five years, including ones in California and Hawaii. (Associated Press)
SOLAR:
BATTERIES: Battery storage system output was the largest power source on California’s grid for the first time this week, surpassing natural gas, hydroelectric and wind generation for about two hours. (Renew Economy)
UTILITIES:
POLLUTION: The American Lung Association finds the Los Angeles area continues to be the nation’s smoggiest region, even though air quality has improved significantly over the last three decades. (Los Angeles Times)
HYDROGEN: The nation’s first commercial hydrogen fueling station for big-rig trucks opens at a port in Oakland, California. (Los Angeles Times)
OIL & GAS:
PUBLIC LAND: Western advocates and Republican lawmakers prepare for a legal battle over the Biden administration’s new federal public lands rule aimed at putting conservation on a par with extractive uses. (Utah News Dispatch, Source NM)
CLIMATE: The National Science Foundation awards an Alaska university $20 million to study how climate change could affect the state’s fishing and aquaculture industries. (KTOO)
BIOFUELS: Construction begins on a 13.4 MW power plant in California that will be fueled by wastewater-derived biogas. (Microgrid Knowledge)
OFFSHORE WIND: Federal ocean energy regulators soon plan to publish updated regulations that could lead to 12 new offshore wind lease sales by 2028, including in the Gulf of Maine, the New York Bight and the central Atlantic. (Offshore Wind Biz)
ALSO:
HYDROGEN: Siemens Energy and a hydrogen production and storage startup join together to identify where and what type of hydrogen production is best suited for Delaware. (Delaware Business Times)
GRID:
SOLAR:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The head of transportation and parking at Princeton University discusses how the school’s shuttle bus fleet went all-electric this past fall, describing the costs and benefits of making the switch from diesel. (WHYY)
BUILDINGS: A New Hampshire town works to train and certify at least 16 more people to do energy audits, installations and weatherizations as it aims to decarbonize 200 of its and a neighboring town’s buildings. (NHPR)
RENEWABLE POWER: A Maine startup business accelerator contracts with two executives-in-residence to push innovation at clean energy companies. (Mainebiz)
COMMENTARY: Several Delaware Tech faculty and students say the university shouldn’t drop a renewable energy degree program because it provides a “unique and affordable opportunity to enter the clean energy workforce.” (Delaware Online)
POLICY: New York’s comptroller releases an audit finding that the state energy siting office is too slow at approving big wind and solar developments and that permit applications often had missing or insufficient paperwork. (LoHud, Spectrum News 1)
ALSO:
OFFSHORE WIND:
GRID: Pennsylvania environmentalists cheer the end of plans to develop a major plastics chemical recycling plant in a cornfield, following their concerns it would be an energy-hungry and highly polluting facility. (Inside Climate News)
SOLAR:
UTILITIES: Pennsylvania utility commissioners unanimously vote to investigate a rate hike request from FirstEnergy equal to 34%. (Butler Eagle)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
COMMENTARY: A pediatric physical therapist and climate advocate writes that electrifying NJ Transit without regressive fare hikes is necessary to improve public health and air quality. (Star-Ledger)
Editor’s note: The following story has been updated to include responses from the Eastern Illini Electric Cooperative that were inadvertently overlooked prior to original publication.
An Illinois bill that started as a protection for solar-powered doorbells has developed into comprehensive proposed legislation to break down the barriers confronting rural electric cooperative members seeking to install solar.
Many residents and solar developers say the measure is sorely needed, since electric cooperative members often face arbitrary and changing interconnection, compensation and liability policies from the cooperatives.
Illinois HB5315, called a “Solar Bill of Rights” and introduced Feb. 29, would require the state’s more than 50 cooperatives and municipal utilities to allow net metering until a certain threshold of solar penetration is met, and develop “shared policy” on solar that must be approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission.
The bill would prohibit problematic requirements often reported by electric cooperative members, including complicated insurance requirements, lengthy interconnection processes and restrictions on system size, solar leases and power purchase agreements. People with solar would also continue under the same billing terms for 25 years after installing systems.
“Customers of municipal electric utility systems and rural electric cooperatives often do not have the same opportunities as customers of investor-owned utilities” to get solar, says the bill.
Scott Allen, renewable energy policy coordinator for the Citizens Utility Board, said the organization tends to get more calls about solar problems from electric cooperative members than customers of the two investor-owned-utilities that serve the majority of the state’s population.
“Members aren’t satisfied with their rates of compensation, the cost of engineering studies, and the fact that policies can change with little or no notice,” Allen said. “Many people invest in solar, and sign net metering agreements with a pretty good idea of how long it will take to recover their costs, then the policy changes, and their financial outlook changes dramatically. Members don’t have a clear understanding of how, or to whom they address their concerns. Often, the rules about addressing the [electric cooperative] board are unclear, and in some cases, it can take months to get a few minutes on the agenda.”
Mike Wilson, vice president of member and community relations for Eastern Illini Electric Cooperative, said the utility has heard concerns about difficulties installing solar at its board meetings, and in one recent such case, “the board listened intently to the concerns expressed and engaged in discussion with the member to address them.”
The 2021 Climate & Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) required electric cooperatives to interconnect rooftop solar installations, but the cooperatives still institute size limits, requirements for expensive liability insurance and other barriers, critics say.
Electric cooperatives and municipal utilities are not regulated by the Illinois Commerce Commission in the same way it oversees investor-owned utilities ComEd and Ameren. The cooperatives were started as ways for rural residents to run their own electric systems democratically. But critics say the boards that administer the cooperatives often lack meaningful public input procedures, and have not made adequate efforts to embrace the clean energy economy. Proponents of cooperatives and municipal utilities meanwhile note that they offer citizens more direct control, at least theoretically, than investor-owned utilities, without a profit motive.
“Ultimately, we have concerns about any legislation that removes local governance from cooperatives, since that is one of our core principles,” Wilson said.
Allen emphasized the bill “is not about removing local control from any units of local government, it’s about making sure consumers are protected.”
“We’re trying to adopt a universal or semi universal standard for everybody across the state, where we have 30-plus municipal utilities, 25-26 distribution cooperatives, and they each have different policies, different ways they compensate their customers, and these policies can change whenever the board or city council wants to make that change,” he said. “It’s caused a lot of problems for individuals who got their system sized and financed based on one set of information, and the next year that information changes.”
The Association of Illinois Electric Cooperatives did not respond to requests for comment. Especially given potential pushback from electric cooperative interests, the bill may be unlikely to pass during the legislative session that ends May 24, in which case it would likely be reintroduced next year.
After Meredith Barnes and her husband purchased a home and started a lavender farm in central Illinois, they hoped to install solar. The Eastern Illini Electric Cooperative closed its net metering program in July 2020 after solar reached 5% of its load, with 430 households out of about 13,500 having solar.
“EIEC has developed local policies that seek to balance our ability to provide safe electric service that equitably recovers fixed costs, while also maintaining grid reliability and ensuring fairness to all members when providing credit for excess renewable generation,” Wilson said.
Barnes and her husband — who installed their array last year — receive only a low flat rate known as “excess electricity value” for power they send back to the grid.
Barnes noted that the flat rate is set annually, so households with solar don’t benefit if electricity prices rise, theoretically making solar more valuable. And the rate is much lower than the retail rate that cooperative members with net metering would get.
The bill would allow cooperatives to cap net metering at a set threshold, but the Illinois Commerce Commission would approve a “fair value of solar” that cooperatives and municipal utilities would be expected to offer through other billing structures.
“The equitable value of solar is definitely not what they’re paying us,” Barnes said. “They say [the flat rate] will go up, but when? There should be a minimum standard [paid for solar] across the state.”
Barnes said she’s had difficulty communicating with cooperative board members and understanding how the flat rate is set. Such lack of transparency is a common complaint among electric cooperatives, consumer and solar advocates say.
“The flat rate is very muddy. It’s just weird,” Barnes said. “The cooperative doesn’t like when you try to talk to them about it.”
Barnes tries to use as much of the electricity from her array as possible. “Since I have a farm and work from home, I can do laundry during the day, I can run the dishwasher during the day,” she said. “For someone who works at an office from 8 to 5, that’s not possible.”
Buying a battery to store their own energy was too expensive, she added.
“What we did is bought an electric vehicle and we only charge it when it’s sunny. It’s like our battery, I’m not sending as much back to the grid because I’m going to store it in my vehicle.”
The Solar Bill of Rights legislation does not address net metering or other policies for the state’s two investor-owned utilities, ComEd and Ameren, whose rates are determined in proceedings before the Illinois Commerce Commission. These utilities will end net metering in 2025, replacing it with a rebate for solar systems.
“We don’t want to compare investor-owned utilities to cooperatives,” said Allen. “There is an argument to be made that Ameren and ComEd have quite a bit more solar installed in their territories, they’ve kind of reached a decent threshold, whereas municipal utilities and cooperatives are lagging behind.”
When state Rep. Daniel Didech (D-59) and supporters began drafting the bill, it was meant to make sure that municipalities and counties couldn’t ban small solar collectors on the fronts of homes meant to power smart doorbells or other appliances. That language, still in the bill, expanded to ensure that these government bodies can’t ban solar arrays more generally. (The bill does not apply to shared roofs or buildings over 60 feet tall.)
A state law already bans homeowners associations from restricting solar for aesthetic or other reasons. But some Illinoisans still face restrictions from local government agencies. That was the case in the Chicago suburb of Sugar Grove until a village board meeting on April 16. There, board members overturned a ban on solar on front-facing rooftops, thanks to an energetic campaign by homeowners Becky Brocker and Mike Rayburn.
Advocates and solar developers say municipal restrictions like Sugar Grove had are actually rare. The only other well-known case is Kildeer, Illinois, which removed a total ban on solar in February and still prohibits front-facing arrays. But, advocates said, it’s still important to codify the right to solar statewide, especially as official opposition may arise more frequently as more and more people install solar.
“When [Didech] expanded the bill, he was thinking ahead that these sorts of covenants exist in places we don’t know about yet, just trying to get out ahead of any units of local government that might catch on to, ‘Hey, we can restrict solar for whatever reason we want to,’” said Allen.
John Delurey, deputy program director of the organization Vote Solar, noted that more than 75,000 small solar arrays have been installed statewide since the 2017 Future Energy Jobs Act created incentives. But preventing any future barriers to solar, and smoothing the way in electric cooperative territory, is crucial to make sure that growth continues, he said.
“In rural areas, counties may be the bodies with jurisdiction. I’m sure there are still people in Illinois having trouble because one person on a zoning committee doesn’t like solar,” said Delurey. “It drains everybody’s resources to roam around and play whack-a-mole with all these different rules.”
SOLAR: Connecticut’s governor wants to allow the state’s schools to quadruple their solar panel use over the next few years by no longer holding them to an annual solar installation cap. (CT Post)
ALSO:
OFFSHORE WIND:
POLICY: A panel of energy experts says New York can’t meet its goal of achieving 70% renewable energy by 2030, citing a lack of available labor, the stakeholder process and insufficient transmission capacity. (RTO Insider, subscription)
EMISSIONS: New Jersey environment officials say the state’s net greenhouse gas emissions in 2021 were equivalent to 1.7% of the entire country’s gross emissions. (NJ Spotlight)
STORAGE: A new report from a coalition of public agencies finds four-hour battery storage projects would perform better than two-hour storage and new fossil fuel-fired peaker plants, factoring in air pollution, emissions and overall cost. (RTO Insider, subscription)
GRID: Constellation Energy is among those asking federal energy regulators to stick with the original results of PJM Interconnection’s last base capacity auction, but Maryland and Delaware commissioners and public advocates say doing so would more than double capacity costs in their zone. (Utility Dive)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
TRANSIT: In New York, a Republican lawmaker pushes his colleagues to repeal the Manhattan congestion toll pricing plan, slated to go into effect in two months despite confusion over who gets tolled and when. (NBC New York, Gothamist)
UTILITIES:
NUCLEAR: North Dakota officials say nuclear power may provide a long-term solution to help meet the state’s growing power demand as coal plants retire. (Prairie Public)
SOLAR:
EFFICIENCY: Wisconsin regulators will soon face decisions about how to structure $146 million in federally funded rebate programs for energy efficiency and electrification. (Capital Times)
UTILITIES:
CLEAN ENERGY: The school board in Madison, Wisconsin, sets a net-zero emissions goal by 2045, overriding a previous goal of using 100% renewable energy by 2040. (Wisconsin State Journal)
PIPELINES:
OIL & GAS: Industry groups in North Dakota claim the Biden administration’s plan to increase royalty fees and leasing rates for drilling on federal land to prevent well abandonment attempts to address a problem that doesn’t exist. (KFYR)
HYDROPOWER: University of Wisconsin researchers aim to boost the efficiency of hydropower turbines with a new method that limits problems caused by low water pressure. (Spectrum News)
COMMENTARY: An author and longtime nuclear energy reporter says a plan to restart a Michigan nuclear plant would waste billions of dollars when building out renewables would be a far better option. (Detroit Free Press)
Thanks to a new infusion of state funding, three projects benefiting traditionally under-resourced Black, Brown and Indigenous communities in the greater Chicago area have taken one important step closer to fruition.
Last week, the Illinois Climate Bank unanimously passed a resolution to authorize loan funds of up to $1.6 million for three community-based solar projects owned by Green Energy Justice Cooperative, launched in 2022 by Blacks in Green (BIG). This increases the total funding to $2.9 million for GEJC’s community solar projects, a portion of which is privately funded.
The money will be devoted to the pre-development phase of the project, including public outreach, an interconnection study, and a deposit for renewable energy credits awarded through the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA), said Naomi Davis, founder and CEO of Blacks in Green.
“Our $2.9 million in predevelopment costs include payments to our electric utility, ComEd — fees to connect our solar system to their grid and a 5% down payment for our renewable energy credits — like buying a house, you have the financing and the down payment,” Davis said.
“The sweet spot of this pre-development funding is what we invest in building relationships, educating them about the power of cooperative ownership and management, and collaborating with them to build a clean energy economy right where they live,” she said. “We’ve got two years before we flip the switch and start monthly savings and clean energy comfort… and between now and then we’ll be enrolling thousands of community subscribers in conversations for organizing, training and hopefully inspiring them.”
Energy self-sufficiency is one of the eight key principles of BIG’s Sustainable Square Mile concept, which the organization aims to replicate around the country.
“We say communities should own, develop, and manage their land and energy, and with our $10 million EPA Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center (TCTAC) award, BIG is offering free/open source access to our energy justice portfolio, which includes this 9 MW solar project and community geothermal and wind,” said Davis in a news release.
“With our energy affordability bill before the Illinois General Assembly, and our energy auditing workforce launching this summer, we aim to connect the dots of community-driven, community-scale energy solutions for low and moderate-income communities across America.”
In December 2023, the Illinois Power Agency recommended awarding the three solar projects, valued at $25.7 million, with $12.5 million in renewable energy credits. The three projects, located in Aurora, Naperville, and Romeoville, Illinois, would each generate 3 megawatts. Once completed, they will provide the dual benefit of lowering the disproportionate energy burden in BIPOC and low-income households, while providing a community stake in clean energy generation.
“When this project is completed over the next couple of years, it will be the largest non-governmental, non-utility, minority-community-owned solar project in Illinois. And as such, it will be the fulfillment of years of dreams and work by our Green Energy Justice Cooperative, to share middle-class jobs and wealth-building with historically deprived and distressed individuals and families throughout this area.” said Rev. Tony Pierce, GEJC board member and CEO of Sun Bright Energy, in a news release.
“In doing so, it will be the beginning of lifting these kinds of individuals and families from the bottom of our economic pyramid into the middle class,” Pierce said. “And it will therefore be the beginning of bringing some closure to the Black and White wealth gap that exists in metro Chicago; in addition to reducing the carbon footprint in our area, to reduce climate change.”
For Davis, this level of recognition and financial support reflects more than a decade of advocacy and effort to ensure energy independence for her community of West Woodlawn on Chicago’s South Side – and beyond.
“The cooperative (GEJC) that we organized and funded fits in with our overall mission because we have, as a stated pillar of our work [intend] to increase the rate at which neighbor-owned businesses are created and sustained,” Davis told the Energy News Network in December.
“We understand that the number one employer of Black folks in America is Black folks in America. And we are very committed in our understanding of the whole-system problem common to Black communities everywhere, that we are committed to being a solution.”
SOLAR: New Hampshire’s Supreme Court decides a town can’t block solar projects over aesthetic or property value fears if the project otherwise satisfies local ordinances. (New Hampshire Bulletin)
ALSO:
GAS:
RENEWABLE ENERGY:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
OFFSHORE WIND: With some residents for siting an offshore wind hub on Sears Island and others against it, officials in Searsport, Maine, are publicly neutral on the matter, which the town manager says local officials hold no sway over regardless. (WABI, Bangor Daily News)
FINANCE: A state board approves the formation of the New Jersey Green Bank to help make clean energy, zero-emission transportation and building decarbonization investments. (news release)
POLICY:
COAL: A former coal town in Washington state could serve as a model for Pennsylvania towns facing existential questions over a coal-free future. (WITF/StateImpact PA)
.svg)
