Appalachian Institute for Renewable Energy
Pioneering community-owned renewable energy
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.
AIRE ended a great week today, Juneteenth 2020, having had an inspiring display of solidarity in crowdfunding the Burton Street Community Peace Gardens Solar (also here and here). We’ll be installing that solar project very soon. This successful effort has me thinking about common threads. I’m hopeful more people know the critical history of “Juneteenth”
WILLIAM “SHORTY” IRBY and a monument meant to endure… Because the crowdfund campaign for the solar project has been so successful, it’s allowing the gardens to leap right into its Phase 2 solar vision, which is equipping the garden’s hands-on lab with equipment to train for solar. This is very significant and here’s the story.
Everyone by now has seen commentary on the “looting” that has taken place amidst the smoke in Minneapolis and other cities. It’s true that lots of looting occurs in the United States. The problem is that the word “looting” is being used dog whistle style, mostly by politicians and others to deflect attention away from
We’re about to launch a crowdfunding campaign for maybe the most important solar project ever. It won’t be the biggest by any stretch but there’s no doubt its impact will amplify the power of this special place. The Burton Street Community Peace Gardens has been a place for absorbing trauma and for healing for a
AIRE extends a warm welcome to Damian Gregory, a rising senior at Western Carolina University, where he expects to complete his Bachelor of Environmental Science with a minor in Geology & Environmental Health in May 2021. Damian, who is from Statesville, NC, has already accumulated important experience in energy and sustainability at Western and is
Our friend and colleague, Adam Thada up in Indiana, passed this report along to us recently dealing with the intersection of two very important things– bees and solar power. Colony collapse and the climate emergency make them important. We’re rightfully proud of his leadership on ecological relationships at the Center at Donaldson that has resulted
Well, poor ole’ natural gas? Actually, Duke knows very well that natural gas is bad for life as we know it, and is collapsing by virtue of its own economic logic [1], not because people have the gall to point these things out, so spare us the sympathy
As has been a running thread in these coronavirus days here on AIRE’s blog, the novel virus for all its misery, grief, and social upheaval is exposing some myths. All one has to do is pay attention and use their critical lenses. Whether it’s food supply, medical treatment, or energy supply, there’s growing evidence that
Just as Planet of the Humans dropped on YouTube, Jeff Deal and I got an email from our friend and colleague Adam Thada. His tone and tenor was my introduction to the film and it foretold of his angst that has now, in the span of eight days, been repeated across progressive media: So…. I’m
The smash and grab continues under the cover of coronavirus economic relief. Our illustrious federal government is shooting heroin again. It’s disaster capitalism looting the public kitty in broad daylight and at bewildering speed. A couple headlines picked up in my daily feed from U.S. Energy News should make us very angry: The Trump administration