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.
Just a few days ago I posted on this great solar theatre story. The installer, Green Alternatives, made quick work of the solar installation, just as they did on Phase 2 at The Center at Donaldson. Yes, go Hoosiers! We’re loving the little town of Plymouth, Indiana. A virtual ribbon cutting may be in the
I shared a short bit of serenity in the previous post on Earth Day. If ever we needed to calm our synapses, it’s now, in the turbulence of a pandemic and a certain (ir)response. So much is going on it almost seems like something else is breaking or being deliberately broken by the minute. That’s
More on Earth Day in the next post, but in the chaos of our present, here’s a quiet look through a millennial’s eyes. I wish we were as wise. My daughter, Grace, has made a short film (videography, essay and narration) from a trip into the Pacific Ocean just before coronavirus hit crisis levels. Here
I reported last fall about a local theatre restoration project that we’d connected with through our work at The Center at Donaldson (“Poor Handmaids”). We’ll the community is making good on its vision to include solar from the get go. There were giant holes in the roof when we were on top of it last
You’re probably seeing reports (e.g. here and here) of how the air around Los Angeles and other places is suddenly clean with the economy turned off now. I even had a dream last night that I could see a lake in the distance that I’d never seen from a mountaintop I’ve frequented many times. I
I’ve been thinking about all the interrelated crises[1] that seem to be coming to a head now with the deadly coronavirus shutting down large swaths of social and economic activity. My mind tends to go there, especially with a little time to expand my imagination and questions amidst a real-life global calamity. There’s nothing theoretical
Dahr Jamail’s excellent piece on Truthout, Could COVID-19 Spell the End of the Fracking Industry as we Know It? connects a couple important dots. Of course coronavirus is one of them. Rightfully so, it seems for anyone capable of thinking in systems, this tragic and deadly pandemic continues to reveal so many fatal flaws within
New cars these days don’t come with a spare tire. What little that may reduce the price of the car, if any, just doesn’t seem worth it when a flat strands you on the side of the road. That’s the analogy Nobel Prize economist Joseph Stiglitz [1] uses to critique the old economic and political
Here’s a partial screenshot of this important press release. Please go to Center for Biological Diversity to read the full release. This call to halt non-pay shut-offs is vital now from a big community equity perspective and for public health!
This coronavirus public health emergency is a time-compressed capsule view of a lot of our big crises– climate emergency, bad energy policies, privatization and enclosures of the commons, unthinkable levels of inequality and human suffering, shock doctrine [1] economics that doesn’t work for 99% of the people, and all the rest. These are things we