We post our news and reflections on energy, and we also like to repost pieces that we find relevant to community-owned renewable energy. Topics touch on policy, finance, energy politics, case studies, breakthroughs, trends, electric vehicles, as well as the broader social, economic, and maybe even metaphysical dimensions of energy.


Tom Philpott’s “Perilous Bounty” Tonight


Our favorite critical food politics voice, and Maverick Farmer, Tom Philpott will be discussing his new book tonight at 7.30 pm Eastern. Go to https://facebook.com/BloomsburyUSA/ to join the live conversation. In our view, food and energy have much in common in terms of sustainability, sovereignty, and actions we organize in our communities. For example, the


Burton Street Community Peace Gardens Solar Phase 1 Has Been Installed


The solar installation was completed on Monday, August 10th. Now we await only Duke Energy to connect the system to the grid. The advocacy community uses the term “slow walking” to describe how long that may take. Only Duke knows, but hopefully soon. The garden is producing healthy food, ideas, healing vibes, and is ready


What is solar for? AIRE’s new plan for cooperative, sustainable communities solar


This guiding question borrows from the title of a collection of essays, “WHAT ARE people FOR” by agrarian writer, Wendell Berry. It is provocative because it calls our values into question and challenges assumptions. Our conversations and activities at AIRE have recently asked a similar question out of the same vein– What is solar for?


Plan for Beyond the Panel: A Solar and Land Use Seminar


The Indiana Chapter of the American Planning Association will be holding its semi-annual professional development conference on July 30th, 2020. We mention this event because it promises to be informative in addressing an important yet, often overlooked topic– land use after solar is installed. But more importantly to us, it showcases the bold and brilliant


Burton Street Community Peace Gardens ‘Make the Road Solar’ on Blue Ridge Public Radio


Blue Ridge Public Radio’s Cass Herrington, interviewed Burton Street’s DeWayne Barton for a piece aired on June 30th. Always quotable, the following excerpt from the interview illustrates why Barton is such an inspiring leader and visionary, and why nearly 300 unique individuals came together to crowdfund the solar project that will be installed in the


The Bankruptcy of Fracked Gas: The Chickens Coming Home to Roost


Just a quick little rant here, but it’s worth filing a mention of the goliath of fracked natural gas, Chesapeake Energy bankruptcy. I’m not going to get into the details since the story is everywhere in the financial news. To see how big a deal this is, just search “Chesapeake Energy bankruptcy” and you’ll get


The Trial of the Century: An Update on Accountability for Climate Disaster (and Asteroid Strike)


I co-authored an article published in the North Carolina State Bar Journal back in 2017 entitled “The Trial of the Century: Kids, Climate, and Law’s Role in Allocating Responsibility for Harm.” The case, Juliana vs. United States, in the 9th circuit federal appellate court, raised critical questions, not just about the climate emergency and who


Solar Panels Tilting Toward the Sun: Summer Arrives Today


One of our most inspiring solar projects just happens to have a great teaching component. It’s especially relevant today, the SUMMER SOLSTICE, as a way to remind us all that we’re all part of a dynamic constant– our relationship to the sun. That’s FREE FUEL that doesn’t have to be mined, transported, fought over, used