Want to see Community Solar done right? A project in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula could serve as a model

Even small community solar projects can be used as a tool to increase energy affordability for less affluent households, as a project in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula shows.

The solar panel near the village of L’Anse consists of 340 panels and has a power of approximately 110 kilowatts. It produces energy for approximately 50 households or organizations that have registered as subscribers.

The results, presented in a recent article published in the journal Energy Research & Social Science, show how this project – small by any measure – managed to achieve its financial and social goals.

Karl Hoesch, lead author and a doctoral student at the University of Michigan, argues that the L’Anse site could serve as a case study in how to develop solar energy in an equitable way when funds for such projects dry up and skyrocketed thanks to the Restriction Act. inflation.

There is no agreed definition of community solar. In its simplest form, the term can refer to any project that uses photovoltaic panels to produce electricity for multiple customers or subscribers.

However, many people, including Hoesch, prefer to emphasize the “community” part.

“In its ideal form, community solar can be a mechanism for advancing energy justice,” he said in a paper written with co-authors Doug Bessette of Michigan State University and Dominic Bednar of the University of California, Irvine.

He sees the L’Anse project as a good example of community solar in its ideal form.

L’Anse, with a population of approximately 1,900, is located on Keweenaw Bay on Lake Superior. The village includes part of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.

“I think it’s a pretty special place,” said Bob La Fave, village manager. “You’re probably no more than five minutes from real wilderness if you want to go into the woods.”

The nearest metro station is Green Bay, Wisconsin, approximately 180 miles south.

The village of L’Anse, which owns the utility that serves the community, brought together universities, government offices and nonprofit organizations to explore how a solar project could help meet local needs. Planning began in 2017, about two years before construction.

One of the first concerns was whether there would be enough subscribers to make the project financially viable.

Hoesch found that the key to profitability was a $140,000 grant from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, which was used to pay the subscriptions of 25 low- and moderate-income households.

Another 25 subscribers are higher-income households or non-residential properties, including a church.

The total budget included $37,000 for feasibility studies paid for by grants and $237,500 for construction paid for by grants and a zero-interest loan.

Researchers interviewed recipients of subsidized subscriptions before the project ended in 2019 and then after about a year of being online.

These people reported that their electricity bills dropped by about $300 per year, which they felt reduced their financial stress. The company has seen a reduction in the number of arrears received from these households.

Hoesch said the project was successful because the process encouraged the entire community to get involved and also because of the financial benefits.

We made it despite some big obstacles. Among them: Michigan is not one of about 20 states that have state-level local solar programs that encourage development; without a state program to guide the development of the project, the village had to implement its own process and raise funds. Additionally, the Upper Peninsula receives significantly less sunlight than most of the rest of the country

Hoesch sees L’Anse’s process and results as replicable and hopes it will serve as an example for other small towns.

Cities and towns that want community solar will have a much easier time paying for it thanks to Inflation Reduction Act funding for programs like Solar for All, which funnels billions of dollars to state and local governments and nonprofit development organizations solar energy.

“There are definitely more tools in the toolbox today than there were back then,” La Fave said, comparing the funding available now to what was available when the village planned its project.

Demonstrates the gift of understatement. In 2019, community solar was almost non-existent outside of a few pioneering state programs like Minnesota’s. Today, there are programs in many more states and thousands of projects completed, and with IRAs, the funds will soon hit the stratosphere.

But that growth included many projects that consumer advocates and analysts say do little to help their communities. Many of them were developed by large investor-owned utilities without the need for a major local needs assessment process. The Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a nonprofit organization with an office in Minneapolis, is a leader in tracking developments and criticizing projects it sees as providing little benefit to the community.

I asked Maria McCoy, a researcher at the institute, to respond to Hoesch’s article. She said she agreed with the main findings and noted that it was important to distinguish between good projects like the one in L’Anse and the multitude of bad projects being implemented by investor-owned utilities.

He singles out Florida projects with particular disdain because they provide little benefit to individuals and have a monopoly status that prevents other groups from building better alternatives.

“When utilities offer what they call community solar but are not required by state policy, the only guarantee is that the utility will take advantage,” she said. “Any benefits for the customer are secondary and difficult to estimate. We have seen time and time again that you cannot expect equitable results by leaving utilities to their own devices.”

She said many of the best projects are carried out by utility companies like the one in L’Anse.

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Other energy transition stories to remember this week:

WoodMac Says Trump Presidency Would Put $1 Trillion at Risk on Clean Energy Investments: An analysis by research firm Wood shows that a victory for Donald Trump in the November 5 presidential election would threaten an estimated $1 trillion in low-carbon energy investments and lead to 1 billion tons more greenhouse gas emissions than under current policies. Mackenzie. Trump has said he will repeal tax breaks for electric vehicle purchases, limit the development of offshore wind energy and roll back federal regulations that require cutting emissions from cars and power plants. Valerie Volcovici reports for Reuters on the analysis and some of the context surrounding it, highlighting the high stakes of the upcoming elections.

Nissan delays transition to electric vehicles at Mississippi plant, shelving some new models: Nissan said it is pausing plans to start producing electric vehicles at its plant in Canton, Mississippi, until 2025. The Japanese automaker said it is “adjusting the schedule” for production of electric vehicles at the plant in response to signs that demand for the vehicles may be surging. . will be slowing down, as Peter Valdes-Dapena reports for CNN. Nissan previously said it would spend $500 million to adapt the plant to produce electric vehicles. It is unclear how long this delay will last, although the company says it is maintaining its goal of having 19 new electric vehicle models worldwide by 2030.

Here’s how many electric vehicles want to plug into each public charger: In 2016, there were seven electric vehicles for every public charging point in the United States; currently, there are more than 20 cars per charger, as Shannon Osaka reports for The Washington Post. The numbers show that charging infrastructure continues to keep pace with growth in electric vehicle market share. The lack of adequate charging options is one factor that could slow this growth.

As offshore wind development begins in New York, the environmental justice community waits to see the benefits: Contractors have begun work on one of the region’s most anticipated industrial projects that will transform the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal into one of the nation’s first offshore wind development ports, Nicholas Kusnetz reports for ICN. The terminal is an economic boon for the New York area, even as the offshore wind industry is going through a difficult period that has resulted in several projects being canceled due to high costs. Organizations involved in the construction of the terminal are waiting for better times, when many offshore projects are being built.

Ohio Solar returns in the face of a campaign whose alleged villains are China and Bill Gates: An Ohio county commissioner risked his political career to support the largest solar project in the state. The project was approved, but voters rejected it, as I report for ICN. The Oak Run Solar project is important because of its size, its plan to incorporate agriculture into areas equipped with solar panels and the way its approval marks a shift in how Ohio regulators respond to local opposition to solar development.

Clean Energy Ushers in a ‘New Era in American Manufacturing’ in the Midwest: The Midwest is emerging as a major manufacturing hub in the clean energy transition as federal incentives and falling renewable energy prices encourage companies to invest in new factories, Kristoffer Tigue reports for ICN. Since the passage of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, Midwestern states have received about $30 billion in announced private investments in clean energy production, according to a monthly tally kept by trade group E2. One of the things I’m watching with these production plans is the situation of the Midwest compared to the Southeast, which has received the bulk of the announced investment since 2022. Both regions stand to gain a lot from the IRA, and it will be interesting to see what the landscape looks like once this initial investment is built. groups of plants.

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