May 28, 2009
How far would you pedal for a new energy future? This September 26 - 30th, more than two hundred cyclists will join together on the 2009 Brita Climate Ride from New York City to the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. Now in its second year, the Climate Ride allows solar citizens to make a powerful statement about the need for renewable energy and climate change mitigation, through a beautiful 300-mile bicycle ride through such areas as the Delaware River Valley, Valley Forge and Amish Country.
The Brita Climate Ride supports essential climate projects at two beneficiary organizations: Focus the Nation and Clean Air – Cool Planet. The fundraising efforts of Climate Riders (minimum ‘ante’ $2,400) help support their projects.
In order to accommodate more riders, the number of available openings has been doubled to 250. If last year’s event is any measure, they will fill up fast, so anyone with an interest (and strong legs) should register soon.
What else will the Brita Climate Ride mean for you? (more…)
May 28, 2009
Net metering—the practice used in most states for compensating customer-generators for power they supply to the grid—has about as many different versions as there are states. Some act the way they should, as encouragements to citizens to deploy clean energy, while others are nothing less than unfriendly to the whole concept of distributed generation. (For a state-by-state scorecard of net metering performance, check out the IREC/NNEC report Freeing the Grid).
Today, some states are loosening up their net metering rules, giving individuals and groups more ways of benefiting from installing solar:
In Massachusetts, under the ‘Neighborhood Net Metering’ provisions of the 2008 Green Communities Act, ten or more individuals can invest in a single renewable energy facility and receive net metering credits as if it had a single owner. Similar programs are run in Maine and Vermont.
In California, a ‘Virtual Net Metering’ clause exists, and can be used for multifamily affordable solar housing. The benefits of solar power generation, in terms of utility bill offsets, can be distributed to units as a percentage of the total credit.
Finally, the states of Oregon, Washington, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island allow meter aggregation, under which an owner of several separate renewable energy units (e.g., solar arrays) can combine all their meter outputs, so that the net metering credits for all accounts on the property are treated as one. This simplifies the formula under which the owner avoids some of his utility payments.
What’s your state doing to make net metering for solar installations more attractive to you?
