Friday, January 30, 2015

Rural Renewable Energy Alliance -- Helping Low-Income Families Switch To Solar | CleanTechnica

Even low-income families now have a path to embracing solar energy — well, at least in some parts of the country anyway — thanks to work being done by the Rural Renewable Energy Alliance.

The rather grizzled organization — started 15 years ago — has been working to create a system whereby families on the federal government's energy assistance program can receive their electricity via solar technologies, rather than dirty fossil fuels.

Read more: http://cleantechnica.com/2015/01/30/rural-renewable-energy-alliance-helping-low-income-families-switch-solar/


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SEPA Awarded U.S. Department of Energy $700K Award to Conduct Community Solar Study | AltEnergyMag Press Release

WASHINGTON, DC -- The Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA) today announced that it has received a $705,830 competitive award from the Department of Energy's SunShot Initiative for a first-of-its-kind project aimed at accelerating the spread of community solar energy programs across the country. 




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Thursday, January 29, 2015

Blue Skies Ahead For Shared Solar In New York | Solar One

SGI Alum Elana Bulman is working on shared solar in New York City with Solar One!

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Whether they rent their home, own a condo or have a shaded roof, many New Yorkers are currently unable to install solar energy systems. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, only 22-27% of residential roof space is suitable for on-site solar production. This leaves the majority of homes in the dark, without the economic and environmental benefits associated with solar.

2015 could be the year this changes.

Read more: http://solar1.org/blue-skies-ahead-for-shared-solar-in-new-york/

Sunday, January 25, 2015

China Falling Short of Distributed Solar Goals for 2014

Chinese project developers supported the government's drive towards distributed generation. However, given the prevailing administrative, financial, technical, and operational complexity of distributed solar PV compared with large-scale ground mounted projects it did not come as a surprise that in the first nine months of 2014 distributed solar installations fell very short of its expectations. According to NEA figures, between Q1 and Q3 just 2.45GW of utility-scale and 1.34GW of distributed solar PV projects were realised.

Read more:

http://www.pv-tech.org/mobile/blogs/china_2014_still_10.5_to_12gw_despite_new_policies_favouring_distributed_so

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Re-Volv Launches Third Crowdfunded Solar Project


San Francisco, California – January 13, 2015 – San Francisco based nonprofit, RE-volv, launched its thirdcrowdfunding campaign last week for its innovative revolving solar energy fund. The campaign, hosted on popular crowdfunding platform Indiegogo, will finance a 36kW solar energy system for the Other Avenues Food Cooperative in San Francisco's Outer Sunset neighborhood.

 

"I've been working on this project for eight years, and it's been difficult to find the right fit for financing this solar project," said Other Avenues president Darryl Dea. "So when RE-volv came around it was a perfect fit for us because not only do they work with nonprofits and co-ops, but we're able to contribute to this fund which will further create more solar projects."

 

RE-volv raises donations through crowdfunding to finance 20 year lease agreements for solar energy projects for community-based organizations.  As community organizations pay RE-volv back, RE-volv reinvests the money into additional projects creating a self-sustaining revolving fund called the "Solar Seed Fund." Lease payments from RE-volv's first two projects have reduced the amount RE-volv needs to crowdfund for this project by $7,000.

 

"Other Avenues has been serving its community for forty years and has developed a tight knit community of supporters. We're thrilled to be offering this community a way to take action on climate change and at the same time help their neighborhood grocery co-op" said RE-volv's Executive Director, Andreas Karelas.

 

This unique partnership is an example of community based solutions that are leading the climate movement. The campaign draws on the People's Climate March of September 2014, when 400,000 marched, demanding solutions to climate change. Crowdfunding for solar gives people around the world the opportunity to help drive climate solutions by supporting a revolving fund for clean energy in communities.

 

Other Avenues is a worker-owned cooperative dedicated to workplace democracy and maintaining a healthy planet by serving local, organic foods and sustainable lifestyle products. By going solar, they can further their commitment to sustainability and save $335,000 over the life of the solar system. In under a week, the campaign has already raised over 17% of its $48,000 goal from over 70 people to finance the 36kW system. This project will be RE-volv's largest to date.

 

 

RE-volv has received support for its work from the San Francisco Foundation, Audubon's Toyota Together Green, Patagonia, the Rose Foundation, and the Yahoo Employee Foundation. Aveda, KIND Snacks and Whole Foods have all supported the campaign with in-kind support.

 

Individuals can make tax deductible donations to the campaign atwww.solarseedfund.org.

 

About RE-volv
Founded in 2011, RE-volv, a nonprofit organization, empowers people to finance community-based solar energy projects by donating to a revolving fund. RE-volv raises awareness about solar energy through its community-based solar projects and outreach programs.

www.re-volv.org

 

About Other Avenues Food Cooperative

Other Avenues is a worker-owned cooperative serving the community since 1974. Located in San Francisco's Outer Sunset neighborhood, the co-op focuses on promoting sustainable lifestyles through the selling of natural, local and organic foods.

www.otheravenues.coop

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Community Solar Guidance Released for Consumers | Minnesota Renewable Energy Society (MRES)

Here at MRES we have been flooded with calls from people, businesses, and communities interested in becoming subscribers to community solar gardens. These calls have also been flooding into the Department of Energy Resources (DER), the Clean Energy Resources Teams (CERTs)and many other offices. In order to help address these questions and concerns for this new model of solar CERTs, DER and MRES have collaborated to create three different pieces to help everyone become an educated consumer!


Read more: http://www.mnrenewables.org/node/1644


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