BURTON STREET SOLAR UPDATE OCT 1ST
Learn more and support Burton Street community solar. AIRE and friends have
generated almost $20,000 in-kind value but we need your help.
BIG NEWS- Green Built Alliance and Appalachian Offsets make massive contribution. THANK YOU.

The Appalachian Institute for Renewable Energy (AIRE) is a non-profit organization that helps community-based organizations and public sector institutions plan, develop and own renewable energy systems. We work with faith communities, nonprofits, local governments, K-12 schools, colleges and universities. We also consult and conduct research on renewable energy in the public interest and collaborate with organizations that are working to hasten a rapid transition to distributed, community-owned renewable energy.



Recent Blog Posts


“Grocery stores to start charging customers extra for growing a garden” (Not true but that’s exactly what utilities are doing to solar!)


Feb 15th, 2022 - The insanity of a “gardening tax” could be right out of the satirical news rag The Onion, and it's a good allegory for the assault on rooftop solar. It’s real and it’s really undemocratic, and it reveals the overtly contested nature between rooftop solar and predatorial utilities who see it as a mortal threat. Rooftop solar ...

Looking at 2022: Much at stake, lots to gain


Dec 31st, 2021 - Every new year’s ritual involves reflecting on where we’ve been and looking ahead to where we may be headed. Rarely though, is this ritual engaged in any meaningfully critical sense. Instead, it’s the ubiquitous new year’s resolution. This year is no exception but what feels different, or at least more intensely amplified, ...

Happy Holidays


Dec 24th, 2021 - Rime ice on a Frazier Fir on the balds of Roan Mountain Highlands. In times of great challenges, anxieties, social and ecological upheaval, may we all have a moment of peace and joy. ...

Walking the Renewable Energy Talk: The Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ Practically Walk on Water


Oct 28th, 2021 - Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ walking their talk with solar, wind, EV & V2G and more. They just keep doing what is necessary.Photo: Adam ThadaOur friend and colleague, Adam Thada, up in Plymouth, Indiana sent us a photo yesterday of their latest "walk." I'm talking about the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ and their Center at Donal ...

Pearson Garden Solar: making a way out of no way


Oct 18th, 2021 - Volunteers hard at work installing the racking for Pearson Garden solar. Bountiful Cities' Pearson Garden in Asheville is an inspiring and living example of making a way out of no way.[1] Just revealed in a new study, the billionaires in America increased their already staggering wealth by another $2.1 TRILLION (yes, trillion do ...

You call that democracy? How Virginia’s electric co-ops fail their member-owners


Oct 14th, 2021 - My copy. Read about the cutting edge of cooperatives. Very accessible and informative.What does "cooperative" mean when you think of your rural electric provider? It's probably not what you think. I've known through direct participation, observation, reading, and following the stories elsewhere, that rural EMC's (electric co-ops) a ...

The Town of Boone: facades, climate, and matters of priority


Oct 14th, 2021 - My home town, Boone, NC, is contemplating some zoning changes that will adversely affect rooftop solar. The proposed changes also reveal a mental model about the town’s priorities. There’s a new wave of political activity forming that will tilt closer to or farther away from sustainability and the town appears to be between a r ...