Renewable Energy
The technology powering a lower-carbon, renewable electricity grid.
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California’s Home Batteries Just Set a Virtual Power Plant Savings Record
What do 140,000 home batteries do during a heat wave? Set a California record, and quietly save every ratepayer money.
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A Minnesota Solar Farm Doubles as Affordable Farmland for New Growers
What happens when a solar farm needs someone to tend the ground underneath it? In Big Lake, Minnesota, that question is opening up farmland that immigrant and beginning farmers could never afford on their own.
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A Minnesota Tribe Just Won the Right to Power Its Own Casino With Solar
What happens when a rural co-op tells a finished solar array it can’t turn on? Minnesota just answered, and it could reshape solar rules for every small utility member in the state.
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A Minnesota College Just Drilled 280 Wells to Keep Tuition Down
What if the ground under a college campus could out-save a $12.7 million construction budget? Fergus Falls just bet on it, well by well.
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A South Everett Solar Array Is Already Paying Neighbors’ Power Bills
What happens when a solar farm’s profits go straight into your neighbor’s power bill instead of a shareholder’s pocket? South Everett just found out, and the answer already adds up to $40,000.
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Hooksett’s Landfill Solar Deal Will Save Taxpayers $10 Million
No new taxes, no new debt, just a forgotten patch of land finally pulling its weight, and a $10 million question every town with an old landfill should be asking.
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Ann Arbor’s Solar Battery Program Is Expanding, and Renters Get In Too
Nearly 80 percent of Ann Arbor voters backed this idea two years ago. Now it’s scaling from 150 homes to a citywide program, and renters usually left out of the clean energy boom are cashing in too.
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How Solar Panels Are Erasing Lunch Debt at Rural Washington Schools
Twenty rural school districts in Washington are on pace to save nearly $20 million on energy costs, and none of them paid a cent to install the panels. Here’s how that math plays out for kids.
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PG&E’s New Microgrids Will Keep the Power On for California’s Most Outage-Prone Towns
Fifteen California towns, $73 million, and one wager: that solar and batteries can end the wildfire blackout for good.
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A Rockford Community Solar Farm Named for a Promise Kept Just Saved Neighbors $163,000
What happens when a solar farm splits its savings between low-income families and a nonprofit hospital? Rockford just finished year one, and the numbers are in.