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BUILDINGS: New state incentives are pushing Mainers to adopt “whole-house” heat pump systems that make efficient electricity the primary home heat source and discourage the secondary use of oil or gas. (Energy News Network)
GRID:
OFFSHORE WIND:
TRANSIT: Around $142 million in federal funds will go toward improving public transit and flood mitigation along a Pittsburgh highway. (Trib Live)
SOLAR: More Maine towns are establishing rules and ordinances to limit and shape solar development within their boundaries, including Dixmont, where a recent ordinance requires solar applications to come with a decommissioning plan. (Bangor Daily News)
FOSSIL FUELS: After a more than decade-long ban, a gas driller will be allowed to drill 11 wells in Pennsylvania’s Dimock Township, reviving water contamination concerns. (Associated Press)
HYDROPOWER: In New York, a New Jersey renewable energy developer says it has had its preliminary permit application to build two hydroelectric plants at Sewall’s Island “accepted” by federal regulators. (NNY360)
WORKFORCE:
CLIMATE: In New York City, data from the annual Central Park Christmas Bird Count shows warmer temperatures are allowing more southern, typically migratory species to stick around. (Gothamist)
COAL ASH: A draft risk assessment published by the U.S. EPA for the first time says using coal ash as structural fill in road and other building projects can cause an elevated cancer risk from radiation, validating the concerns of residents on Puerto Rico’s south coast, where the material was commonly used. (States Newsroom, Energy News Network archives)
CLIMATE:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Many school districts still don’t have electric buses on the road after getting federal funding to buy them, as some districts struggle with the application process and supply backlogs. (Canary Media)
BUILDINGS: New state incentives are pushing Mainers to adopt “whole-house” heat pump systems that make efficient electricity the primary home heat source and discourage the secondary use of oil or gas. (Energy News Network)
PIPELINES:
COAL: Questions arise about a potential conflict of interest after details emerge about West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s efforts to push a tax break for a troubled coal plant then owned by FirstEnergy, which subsequently settled a suit against one of Justice’s coal companies for a fraction of what it had sought. (E&E News)
SOLAR: More Maine towns are establishing rules and ordinances to limit and shape solar development within their boundaries, including Dixmont, where a recent ordinance requires solar applications to come with a decommissioning plan. (Bangor Daily News)
CARBON CAPTURE: Wyoming issues permits for three underground carbon dioxide sequestration wells in the southwestern part of the state as the state looks to establish itself as a leader in the industry. (Casper Star-Tribune)
OIL & GAS: California’s oil and gas industry seeks to influence lawmakers by spending tens of millions annually on lobbying and campaign donations and allying with a powerful construction labor union. (CalMatters)
COMMENTARY: A researcher calls on states to ban political campaign contributions from utilities because they open a “back door of influence” over their regulatory environment. (Utility Dive)
CARBON CAPTURE: Wyoming issues permits for three underground carbon dioxide sequestration wells in the southwestern part of the state as the state looks to establish itself as a leader in the industry. (Casper Star-Tribune)
UTILITIES:
OIL & GAS:
EFFICIENCY: A national laboratory in Colorado joins an effort to reduce data centers’ carbon footprints by powering and cooling them more efficiently. (news release)
SOLAR:
WIND: The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management launches an environmental review of potential offshore wind power development along California’s central and north coasts. (North American Wind Power)
HYDROGEN:
CLIMATE: Montana advocates urge the state Supreme Court to reject the state’s request to pause a lower court’s order requiring agencies to consider climate change impacts in permitting decisions. (Daily Montanan)
COMMENTARY: A Utah researcher calls on states to ban political campaign contributions from utilities because they open a “back door of influence” over their regulatory environment. (Utility Dive)
In the meantime, check out ten of our best Energy News Network stories from the past year, from tackling toxic coal ash in Puerto Rico to electrifying buildings in snowy Maine.
Heating and cooking aren’t the only sources of building emissions: In Massachusetts and beyond, advocates and policymakers are starting to tackle the carbon footprint of all the materials and labor that goes into new buildings.
Detroit resident ‘leads with love’ while laying a foundation for neighborhood climate resiliency: On Detroit’s east side, Tammara Howard is leading efforts to build a network of climate resilience hubs to help residents thrive amid a changing climate.
For tree-sitter, no hiding from heartbreak of deal to greenlight Mountain Valley Pipeline: The federal government’s approval of the contentious Mountain Valley Pipeline brought heartbreak for Theresa “Red” Terry and other Virginia advocates.
Who decides where we get electricity and how much we pay? Mostly White, politically connected men: A pair of studies showed how public utility commissions, which have control over electricity rates and sources, don’t look like the people they represent.
For this immigrant-led clean energy company, perspective is everything: A Chicago-area engineer and CEO with roots in Ghana, Senyo Ador and his Sẽsẽnergi Eco Solutions Enterprise is helping the next generation of energy workers find their footing.
Making Maine’s next generation of housing fossil-free — and affordable: Maine’s population is growing faster than its housing supply, and advocates say that gives the state an opportunity to build out denser, all-electric, energy efficient housing.
In Puerto Rico, residents wait for accountability, cleanup of toxic coal ash ‘caminos blancos’: Two decades after a Virginia-based power company sold toxic coal ash to Puerto Rico towns as a cheap material for road construction, residents are fighting for cleanup and accountability.
With N.C. home efficiency codes frozen, advocates eye other opportunities: After North Carolina’s building industry lobbied to stave off new energy-efficient building codes for years, advocates are looking to federal tax credits and utility incentives to clean up building emissions.
Low-emissions steelmaking could be big business for Minnesota’s Iron Range, experts say: We finished out the year with this collaboration with Minnesota’s KAXE/KBXE, diving into ways the state can clean up its emissions-heavy taconite mining industry.
🤝 COP’s big deal: The COP28 climate summit ends with the first-ever global agreement to begin “transitioning away from fossil fuels,” though some leaders acknowledge the pact is nonbinding and should’ve been reached years ago. (Politico)
🎓 America’s climate report card: Climate and clean energy experts grade U.S. climate progress in 2023, from an A- for clean energy investments to an F for its patent system that keeps critical breakthroughs private. (Grist)
🛢️ Normalizing carbon capture: The rising viability of carbon capture worries climate scientists, who say oil and gas producers could use it as a loophole to keep drilling. (E&E News)
⚡ Sidestepping gas bans: Western cities find innovative ways to push building electrification — such as setting emissions targets and restricting indoor air pollution — that don’t violate a court order prohibiting natural gas hookup bans. (Grist)
🔌 EV charging inconsistencies: Experts say the electric vehicle charger industry faces a big dilemma as it aims to normalize charging standards and software among several manufacturers. (Canary Media)
🧊 DEI efforts stall out: Efforts to diversify environmental organizations appear to have stalled or even lost ground, according to a new analysis, potentially jeopardizing the fight for equitable climate solutions. (Axios)
New state incentives are pushing Mainers to adopt “whole-house” heat pump systems, making efficient electricity the primary home heat source and discouraging the secondary use of oil or gas.
Federal tax credits are still available for a wider range of heat pump installations, and the state offers rebates for low-income households to install a heat pump as a supplemental heat source.
But the latest big rebate for families of any income in Maine, which has become a national leader in heat pump adoption, focuses on using this technology to heat and cool the user’s entire house — or close to it.
“Customers are then able to turn off their old central furnace or boiler, relegating it to an emergency backup system,” said Michael Stoddard, the executive director of the state’s energy incentives agency, Efficiency Maine, in an email. “When that happens, (heat pumps) are able to meet their full potential.”
The agency’s new whole-house rebate program aims to help meet Maine’s climate goals. First rolled out this fall, the rebate was revised in recent weeks in response to criticism and confusion from contractors over its compliance rules.
A whole-house heat pump system — also called whole-home, or whole-facility in a space like a school or business — means that heat pumps are the go-to source of heating in the winter, with any supplemental sources used infrequently or as emergency backups.
To receive Efficiency Maine’s new rebate, which covers 40% of project costs up to a $4,000 cap for people of any income or more for those of lower incomes, a heat pump system must be sized to serve at least 80% of the home’s potential heating load, from shoulder seasons to the coldest day of winter.
Eben Perkins, the chief strategy officer with the Maine-based energy consulting firm Competitive Energy Services, said this is just one way of defining a whole-house heat pump in the grand scheme: For example, his company tends to look at how much heat pumps are serving a client out of the whole year, rather than on a day-to-day basis.
Maine home heat targets are based on modeling of how many heat pumps and weatherization jobs it would take to offset the state’s top-in-the-nation reliance on heating oil and other use of fossil fuels in buildings, with statutory targets of cutting emissions 45% over 1990 levels by 2030 and 80% by 2050.
This sector, which includes schools, businesses and more along with homes and apartments, is second only to transportation in contributing to Maine’s emissions.
This past summer, the state hit an initial target of installing 100,000 heat pumps relative to 2019. Now, it’s working toward another 175,000 more units by 2027. Stoddard said the goal is to see 130,000 homes with one or two heat pump units by 2030, and 115,000 more with whole-house systems.
“The efficiency levels of heat pumps can be two-X, three-X, four-X technology compared to a combustion system. So one, it’s just a good technology that keeps on getting better,” said Perkins. “Second, it gives you a pathway to actually fully decarbonize the upstream fuel source… That’s the pathway we need to really deeply cut emissions at the state (level).”
Maine had about 580,000 households in 2022, per the U.S. Census, and about 56% of them use heating oil, according to federal data — slightly lower than in recent years, but still the highest rate in the country.
The state aims to make its energy usage 100% renewable by 2040.
The answer is technically yes, but ideally no, at least under Maine’s new rebate.
As they switch to whole-house heat pumps, eligible customers are asked to turn their oil- or gas-powered furnaces or boilers and connected thermostats off or all the way down, and to cover the systems’ switches. They can still use these systems for hot water heating or in connection with an emergency generator.
This fall, Maine walked back an earlier requirement that old fossil-fired systems be disabled or disconnected from electrical service entirely, with locks on their switches, amid pushback from heat pump installers and fuel oil vendors about reliability and other concerns.
Despite reverting the rebate to more of an honor system, Stoddard said avoiding supplemental fossil fuel use as completely as possible is key to maximizing heat pump benefits.
“Our research shows that the majority of heat pumps installed in Maine will save significantly less money and emissions when they are operated concurrently with a central furnace or boiler than when they operate alone,” he said.
The rebate rules suggest “room heaters, a wood stove, or small space heaters,” Stoddard said, to cover up to 20% of the home’s heating load alongside the whole-house heat pump system.
In theory, a whole-home heat pump system could have a range of configurations. But Efficiency Maine focuses its new rebates on heat pumps with one indoor unit per outdoor unit (which they call “single zone,” though contractors say this can have different meanings). These might be the customer’s first heat pumps, or they might add on to older units to make up that 80% heating overall capacity required by the state.
Dave Ragsdale, the HVAC division manager at Maine-based ReVision Energy, said heat pumps need to be carefully tailored to a home’s needs to maximize their efficiency.
“You really need to have the… capacity of your heat pump system match the heat load of the house as closely as possible,” he said. “To the extent you oversize a heat pump system, you’re creating a situation where it’s beginning to resemble, more and more, an old-fashioned heating system.”
Traditional boilers and furnaces, he said, are almost always far oversized to the house’s heating needs — because they can be. “When you have a call for heat in a room, the thermostat tells the boiler, ‘we need heat,’ (and) turns the boiler on. It doesn’t matter how many (units of heat) that boiler is rated for — it’s only going to run for as long as it needs to to get heat to that room to satisfy that thermostat,” Ragsdale said.
Heat pumps are different, he said: They perform best when they can run pretty much constantly and modulate their output in response to temperature needs. If a heat pump is sized to provide more heat than the house could ever need — or, say, if one outdoor compressor is sized to run heat pump heads in four rooms, though only one or two may be used at a time — it can lead to costly, inefficient “short-cycling.”
“As soon as (the oversized heat pump) turns on, its capacity is way in excess of the load,” Ragsdale said. “So almost immediately, it floods the room with heat and then turns off, and then the room loses heat, and then it turns on again,” much like a traditional fossil fuel-fired system.
Ragsdale said this need for fine-tuning is why Maine’s rebate focuses on those one-indoor, one-outdoor, “single-zone” units — and why he suggests customers choose whole-house systems that meet just a tiny bit less than their home’s peak hypothetical heating load, ideally 99% or 99.6% of it.
“That little adjustment is enough to bring the capacity of your system more in line with what you’re actually going to see throughout the course of the heating season,” Ragsdale said.
If pushed to 100%, the system would be overpowered almost every day of the year, reducing efficiency and driving up costs. In the 99% design, the whole-house system is more efficient year-round and can use its supplemental sources to take the edge off and improve performance in the coldest weather conditions.
Getting the most out of a whole-house system requires careful customer education and for contractors to assess a home’s energy needs in great detail, Ragsdale said. Assessing air leaks and insulation needs with an energy audit can be a key part of this process. Ultimately, he sees houses with a more open floor plan and excellent weatherization as the best candidates for a cost-effective whole-house system.
“One thing is crystal clear… this whole-house model is not going to be applicable to every house you come across,” he said. “If there’s a house that’s broken up into a lot of small rooms, it’s probably going to be difficult to make a (whole-house) heat pump system work really well there.”
The same goes for using existing ducts from a forced hot-air system to run heat pumps, accompanied by an air handler. Those ducts will need new insulation to safely carry cold air in the summer, which is a complex retrofit for an existing house. Even at best, Ragsdale said, “you’re losing a fair amount of (heat) in the distribution” relative to a ductless heat pump delivering its hot air more directly.
But for people who may be unsure or ill-suited for the whole-house switch, Ragsdale emphasized that other heat pump configurations can still help vastly reduce fossil fuel use and costs, especially with state and federal incentives.
“Heat pumps still make sense, even a house that doesn’t have the perfect layout,” he said.
He gave his own home as an example. It was built in the 1940s, with lots of small rooms.
“I put one (heat pump unit) in my living room, which is the single biggest room, so I’m taking a big chunk out of my heat load even before I stop using my boiler altogether,” he said. “Most of that heat, frankly, in the shoulder seasons, managed to get its way around the house enough so that I was perfectly comfortable.
“Only in a couple weeks out of the winter,” he said, “did I have to turn that boiler on to … take the chill off.”
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Maryland is now officially the tenth state to adopt the Advanced Clean Trucks rule, phasing in zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles between model year 2027 and 2035. (news release)
GRID:
OFFSHORE WIND:
SOLAR:
COAL: Residents of Baltimore’s Curtis Bay community want Maryland not to renew a rail company’s air permit because of the neighborhood pollution caused by its coal dust pile. (Baltimore Sun)
FINANCE: A Washington, D.C. property assessed clean energy loan program surpasses $100 million in financed projects following the close of a $6.1 million financing of efficiency and renewable energy measures at a Georgetown hotel. (news release)
AFFORDABILITY: Eversource proposes a significant electric supply rate drop that should reduce power bills by around 35% starting in February. (WMUR)
CLIMATE: In Maine, some Portland residents say plans to cut down trees to expand a surface parking lot at the airport are entirely out-of-step with the region’s climate goals. (Portland Press Herald, Maine Public Radio)
CLIMATE: Black Americans’ migration to the Southeast to escape environmental racism and poor health outcomes in the North and Midwest means a growing number of people are moving toward the epicenter of the climate crisis. (Capital B)
BIOMASS: Opponents of a wood pellet producer’s planned Alabama plant cheer reports the company is experiencing a financial crisis that could undercut its plans to expand. (Inside Climate News)
POLITICS:
SOLAR:
STORAGE:
WIND:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
NUCLEAR:
OVERSIGHT:
GRID:
UTILITIES: The Tennessee Valley Authority projects the need to boost power production due to rising demand from electric cars, data centers and overall economic growth. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
COMMENTARY: Indiana should emulate Kentucky’s example and pass a law making it more difficult for utilities to close coal-fired power plants to ensure grid reliability, writes a Republican town council member. (Cleburne Times-Review)
NUCLEAR: California regulators vote to allow the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant to continue operating for five years beyond its scheduled 2025 retirement date. (Associated Press)
OIL & GAS:
CLIMATE:
SOLAR: An Arizona solar panel installation firm ceases operations, lays off dozens of employees and files for bankruptcy. (Phoenix Business Journal, subscription)
TRANSPORTATION: An analysis finds California’s zero-emissions vehicle mandates and other climate programs could lead to a nearly $6 billion decrease in gasoline tax revenues and a shortage of highway repair funds. (CalMatters)
HYDROPOWER: Northwest tribal nations and environmentalists say their $1 billion salmon recovery deal with the Biden administration is a road map for dismantling hydropower dams. (Associated Press)
STORAGE: California’s energy commission awards a firm $30 million to build a long duration iron-air battery storage project near Mendocino. (news release)
UTILITIES:
WIND: A Washington state advisory council will decide next month whether to recommend approval of a controversial proposed 200-turbine wind facility near Kennewick. (Tri Cities Area Journal of Business)
COMMENTARY: California needs to stop bickering over the minutiae of net metering policy and cost-shifting and wholeheartedly embrace rooftop solar to tackle climate change, an energy journalist argues. (Los Angeles Times)
The following story is the fourth in a series produced in collaboration with KAXE/KBXE, an independent, nonprofit community radio station that tells the stories of northern Minnesota.
A Hoyt Lakes native leading a regional hydrogen partnership says the emerging fuel source could someday help make Minnesota’s Iron Range a leader in the production of green steel.
“Yes, certainly it has great potential,” said Tom Erickson, president and chief operating officer of the Heartland Hydrogen Hub, one of seven regional projects recently funded by the U.S. Department of Energy to kickstart hydrogen fuel production. “The first obvious use of hydrogen within the taconite (mining) industry is just to produce electricity.”
The federal government is investing billions to develop regional hydrogen production hubs, intended to spur the infrastructure needed to increase the supply and lower the cost enough to make it commercially viable.
Hydrogen emits only water vapor and warm air when burned, but it’s typically produced from natural gas in a process that creates high greenhouse gas emissions. The Heartland Hydrogen Hub will use renewable energy and nuclear power to try to reduce the climate impact, as well as the price tag.
The initial focus will be on supplying hydrogen for ammonia fertilizer, but Erickson said the same output could also replace more carbon-intensive fuels used to heat and power taconite mining operations on the Iron Range.
“That industry uses a lot of natural gas for heat and thermal systems, for producing the pellets,” Erickson said. “You’d have to design (the systems) quite a bit differently, but you could certainly add some hydrogen power to that and decrease the emissions from that standpoint.”
The most abundant element in the universe, hydrogen has historically been difficult to harness into energy. The Hindenburg Disaster of 1937 is an infamous example that demonstrates hydrogen’s explosive qualities.
“You can’t mine it. You can’t stick a pipe in the ground, then bring hydrogen up. You have to produce it from something else. It’s the smallest molecule, the hardest one to trap,” Erickson explained. “It’s the hardest one to move around once you’ve produced it, so we have some things that we need to get over and get behind coming up with new innovative ideas to really bring the costs down.”
Most commercial hydrogen is produced today by separating the hydrogen atoms from methane under high heat and pressure, with many industrial facilities using natural gas as the methane source. This method produces hydrogen, carbon monoxide and a relatively small amount of carbon dioxide.
Electrolysis splits hydrogen from water using an electric current. This method does not create any byproducts or emissions other than oxygen and hydrogen. It is the primary focus of the Department of Energy’s investment into hydrogen energy.
The Heartland Hydrogen Hub’s projects are expected to reduce carbon emissions by roughly 1 million metric tons per year, the equivalent of 220,000 gasoline-powered cars.
Erickson — who is also the director of exploratory research at University of North Dakota — said infrastructure for hydrogen’s use on a wider scale is in the future.
“Shipping — whether it’s trains or whether it’s ships moving large quantities of oil around — they are even bigger targets,” he said. “Maybe even a little bit easier targets for application of the hydrogen fuel.”
Erickson, whose grandfather and numerous other relatives worked in the taconite mines on the Iron Range, said technology to produce higher quality taconite pellets has been studied in Keewatin, where U.S. Steel plans to invest $150 million in a new higher-grade taconite plant.
“Folks on the Range have looked at (higher grade taconite pellets) produced from natural gas, from coal derived gases and of course from hydrogen,” Erickson said.
The Heartland Hydrogen Hub is currently in the concept development phase, and Erickson said he is excited for the advancing technology in energy for the future.
“What I’m most excited about is to start to see larger scale production of hydrogen,” he said. “Once we start producing it, we can start to find other ways to utilize the things that advantages society, different ways that we can manipulate the molecule …. to provide clean, reliable and sustainable energy.”
Steel is made using a lot of heat, and coal-powered blast furnaces are still used for 57% of global steelmaking capacity. That’s a decrease from the year before, when 67% of the world’s steel capacity was made using blast furnaces — marking a shift toward electric arc furnace technology worldwide.
The Iron Range supplies three-fourths of the country’s iron ore, from which steel is made. Steelmakers such as U.S. Steel and Cleveland-Cliffs, which own the mining operations on the Iron Range, are seeing growing pressure from governments, investors, and customers to reduce their climate emissions. It’s not just the potential for future environmental regulations. More companies are willing to pay a premium for steel that comes with a smaller carbon footprint.
Cutting emissions from mining and other heavy industry is expected to be a bigger challenge than cleaning up cars or power plants. That’s because of the need to power massive furnaces and other equipment for which electric alternatives aren’t widely available.
These factors are leading many manufacturers to be interested in the potential of hydrogen fuel. Cleveland-Cliffs, which owns and operates Hibbing Taconite, has already committed to funding a hydrogen power project at its Toledo plant. Without any modification to the plant, the company says it could replace up to 30% of natural gas consumption with hydrogen. And with equipment upgrades and other investments, this number could rise to 70%, accounting for 1 million metric tons of greenhouse gases each year.
Cleveland-Cliffs is also part of a federally funded hydrogen hub based in northern Indiana. In October, the company was recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy for cutting its greenhouse gas emissions by more than one-third.
The company didn’t respond to requests for comment on what its emission-cutting efforts might mean for northern Minnesota, but researcher Rolf Weberg said the state’s mining industry is well-positioned to make use of hydrogen fuel.
“It turns out that Minnesota is by far highly competitive for making green iron and steel, beyond other states in the country,” said Weberg, the executive director of University of Minnesota-Duluth’s Natural Resource Research Institute. “We have essentially all of the resources, including infrastructure for future energy and access to water. All the things you need to have for a hydrogen-based approach to preparing green iron and steel.”
With the future of hydrogen energy, Weberg said conversations with stakeholders are only just beginning.
“Minnesota industry has been investing to prepare for this,” Weberg said. “It’s an exciting opportunity for Minnesota to embrace, and the conversation is just started. This is an opportunity to really lead the charge in this area, and also do it in tandem with green hydrogen and green steel.”
An effort led by Chicago’s Blacks in Green has been recommended for $12.5 million in renewable energy credits to help develop three community solar projects to benefit underresourced communities.
The three projects totaling 9 MW are valued at $25.7 million and will be developed by the Green Energy Justice Cooperative, a project launched by Blacks in Green and other partners, to benefit Black, Brown and low and moderate-income subscribers in and around Aurora, Naperville, and Romeoville, Illinois. The Illinois Power Agency ranked the projects first, second and fourth among proposals vying for renewable energy credits in the Illinois Shines competition.
Naomi Davis, founder and CEO of Blacks in Green, says the recognition is the culmination of a long effort to ensure energy independence for her community.
“The importance of the industry was made very, very clear to me and others right from the start,” she said. “The opportunity was presenting itself with renewable energy credits that Blacks in Green and others had fought for, for over a decade to really build out the toolkit for the renewable energy industry in Illinois.”
“We’re delighted to partner with Blacks in Green to help create new sources of renewable energy in Aurora and Romeoville through the Green Energy Justice Co-op,” said Vibhu Kaushik, senior vice president and global head of energy, utilities, and storage at Prologis in a news release. “As a member of the local business community, Prologis is focused on working with our customers, local governments, and local partners like Blacks in Green to help create a vibrant and sustainable economy.”
Launched in 2022, the Green Energy Justice Cooperative, or GEJC, strives to provide low-income communities of color with the economic and political power of owning energy generation. It coordinates the efforts of organizations that have been working toward economically and racially just ownership of local clean energy and related energy justice issues in the Chicago area for decades.
Davis founded the Green Energy Justice Cooperative along with these board members:
The co-op also receives support and advice from Claretian Associates, North Lawndale Employment Network, Chicago Environmental Justice Network, Urban Juncture and Greenleaf Advisors.
“This is a tremendous win for Chicago and further highlights why collective action works,” said Anton Seals, Jr., GEJC board member and Lead Steward (executive director) of Grow Greater Englewood, in a news release. “Our communities need work and opportunities to support the brilliance and creativity to build a new economy that centers new concepts for commerce and energy in Black communities across the globe.”
Co-op member organizations, both individually and collectively, have sought to implement community-based solar since the passage of Illinois’ Climate and Equitable Jobs Act in 2021 that set ambitious goals for the equitable transformation of the state’s energy portfolio by 2050. Davis deliberately chose and invited members of the co-op to work alongside Blacks in Green to ensure maximum collaboration and productivity.
“A cooperative is a democratically operated business entity. So, I was looking for people, number one, who I knew to be highly productive organizations; number two, whom I enjoyed being with and around and communicating with; [and] number three, that I trusted in a business context,” Davis said.
“I was not going to go shopping for a headache,” Davis continued. “I was going to go shopping for the very most collegial, effective, enjoyable people to be a part of the founding board.”
Renters, condominium owners, and homeowners unable to install solar will be co-owners of the solar co-op and accompanying profit sharing, and will have a voice in management. The co-op will also provide workforce training and capacity development, and present residents with a hands-on opportunity to help create an equitable clean energy transition that protects the environment in their own communities.
“This will ensure that the projects are completed and thereby demonstrate the power of solar sovereignty for ownership and wealth building by Blacks in distressed Black communities,” said Rev. Tony Pierce, GEJC board member and CEO of Sun Bright Energy, in a news release.
The co-op’s success in the Illinois Shines competition brings it one step closer to delivering the benefits of the burgeoning clean energy transition in Illinois to underserved and marginalized communities, which have suffered the double whammy of disinvestment and disproportionate detrimental impact of the effects of climate change.
“Given that many environmental justice communities like mine, in the far Southeast Side of Chicago, bear the brunt of climate change, this is a great opportunity to begin to undo and heal our communities from that harm,” said Olga Bautista, GEJC board member and co-executive director of the Southeast Environmental Task Force, in a news release.
GEJC is also supported by partners at Cooperative Energy Futures, a Minnesota-based member-owned clean energy cooperative that has developed similar models of equitable community ownership of solar projects.
“We’re really excited to be supporting GEJC in bringing community-owned solar to GEJC’s local communities in Illinois,” said Cooperative Energy Futures General Manager Timothy DenHerder-Thomas in a news release. “Through our co-op in Minnesota, we’ve seen the power of this model in uniting communities around a clean energy future that works for renters and low-income households and makes sure local residents own and get the benefits too.”
The three GEJC community solar projects selected by the Illinois Power Agency will be presented to the Illinois Commerce Commission, the Illinois public utility regulatory body, in January 2024 for final approval for renewable energy credit contracts.
While this award represents a substantial win, it only represents one piece of ongoing work for Blacks in Green, whose mission Davis sums up as the establishment of a “walk to work, walk to shop, walk to learn, walk to play village, where African Americans own the businesses, own the land, and live the conservation lifestyle.”
“We are determined to expand our clean energy businesses.” Davis said. “That means we’re working to get funding so that we can work closely with our neighbors to educate, engage, train, mobilize, finance, and otherwise support ourselves in the design and implementation of local living economies in energy, horticulture, housing, tourism, and waste.
“We are here to, for example, decarbonize all of the buildings in our Sustainable Square Mile of West Woodlawn. And that’s no small feat to decarbonize the walkable village at scale,” Davis continued, saying that residents need to undertake weatherization measures and other costs before taking full advantage of clean energy technology.
Blacks in Green’s mission also includes work on a virtual power plant and clean energy microgrid, affordable energy legislation, and geothermal power.
“So, we’re on the ground taking all of the access points to, along the way to creating a triumph for ourselves in the tradition of our great migration ancestors,” Davis said.
And while she recognizes the importance and even necessity of philanthropy, Davis has no intention of relying solely on donors.
“We are looking to be our own emergency management system. At the end of the day when the ‘you know what’ hits the fan, we want our communities, our walkable villages to be ready not only because they have greater health and wealth, but because they have been in the process of creating an oasis of resilience against the harms of the climate crisis” Davis said. “That’s what we’re here to do.”
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