This document summarizes the work of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) in promoting community and democratic ownership of renewable energy. ILSR aims to illustrate the vision of energy democracy through media citations, public engagement, reports and tools. They provide technical assistance to advocates and engage policymakers to change rules in support of distributed renewable energy. ILSR research and advocacy has helped shape community solar rules in multiple states and expand access to financing for renewable projects.

1. T O O L S F O R F I G H T I N G C L I M AT E
C H A N G E W I T H R E N E WA B L E E N E R G Y
F R O M T H E G R O U N D U P
E N E R G Y D E M O C R A C Y

2. Beyond Sharing: How Communities
Can Take Ownership of Renewable
Power
The electric utility monopoly is breaking up, but will new companies
make renewable energy become another form of wealth extraction or
can community renewable energy enable communities to capture their
renewable power?
John Farrell
April 2016
O U R S T R AT E G Y
Community solar
Distribution ISO
Value of solar
Local franchise fees
Inclusive financing
C H A N G E
T H E R U L E S
P R O V I D E
T O O L S
I L L U S T R AT E
T H E V I S I O N
Energy Fair keynote

3. I L L U S T R AT I N G T H E
V I S I O N : E A R N I N G M E D I A

4. G O A L S
E A R N 2 0 C I TAT I O N S O R
O P - E D S I N M A J O R
R E G I O N A L O R N AT I O N A L
N E W S O U T L E T S
E A R N 2 0 C I TAT I O N S I N
M A J O R I N D U S T RY / T R A D E
M E D I A
184 media hits in 1 year

5. I L L U S T R AT I N G T H E V I S I O N :
E N G A G I N G T H E P U B L I C

6. An unexpected success: our parody video earned over
1,000 social media shares in 2 days and a legal letter
from the utility, concerned about its success

7. P R O V I D I N G T O O L S F O R D E C I S I O N
M A K E R S A N D A D V O C AT E S

8. M I G H T Y M I C R O G R I D S
Mighty'Microgrids''
Communi'es*all*over*the*country*are*finding*ways*to*break*the*macro*barriers*to*
microgrids.*As*we*flip*from*a*top>down*to*bo?om>up*grid*management*structure,*
major*policy*barriers*must*be*liBed*in*order*to*expand*energy*democracy*to*
customers*and*producers.*
!
Ma$!Grimley!and!John!Farrell!
March!2016!
2 , 2 0 0 V I E W E R S
B I O C Y C L E K E Y N O T E

9. 0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
August Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb
N E W I N T E R A C T I V E F E AT U R E S
Averaging over 1,000 monthly unique visits

10. W I D E LY R E A D
2 , 7 0 0 V I E W E R S
Beyond Sharing: How Communities
Can Take Ownership of Renewable
Power
The electric utility monopoly is breaking up, but will new companies
make renewable energy become another form of wealth extraction or
can community renewable energy enable communities to capture their
renewable power?
John Farrell
April 2016
2 , 3 0 0 V I E W E R S
2 , 2 0 0 V I E W E R S
3 , 4 0 0 V I E W E R S
7 , 8 0 0 V I E W E R S

11. I N T E R V I E W I N G L E A D E R S
Over 5,000 views of podcasts; listens are hard to track…

12. D E F E N D I N G D I S T R I B U T E D R E N E WA B L E
E N E R G Y A N D P R O M O T I N G E N E R G Y
D E M O C R A C Y T O T H E P O L I C Y M A K E R S

13. C O M M U N I T Y P O W E R T O O L K I T
N E W I N T E R A C T I V E F E AT U R E S

14. L O C A L E N E R G Y C A L C U L AT O R
N E W I N T E R A C T I V E F E AT U R E S

15. E L E C T R I C V E H I C L E S A N D E N E R G Y
D E M O C R A C Y
P O W E R F U L R E P O RT S

16. U P C O M I N G
P O W E R F U L R E P O RT S
S O L A R + S T O R A G E

17. U P C O M I N G
P O W E R F U L R E P O RT S
E C O N O M I C B E N E F I T S O F
1 0 0 % R E N E WA B L E

18. P R O V I D I N G T O O L S D I R E C T LY:
T E C H N I C A L A S S I S T S

19. Technical assistance
Presentation
Further help given
Declined presentation
T E C H N I C A L A S S I S T S
Spain
UK
National issues:
HOT TOPICS
• Community solar
• Value of solar
• M u n i c i p a l s t r a t e g i e s :
municipalization, community
choice aggregation, city-utility
partnership

20. Technical assistance
Presentation
Further help given
Declined presentation
T E C H N I C A L A S S I S T S
Spain
UK
National issues:
Select successes
SETTING A STANDARD FOR
ACCESSIBLE COMMUNITY SOLAR
• Organized national coalition to
provide model rules for universally
accessible community solar.
• Commission invited additional
comment on ILSR’s proposal
(pending).

21. Technical assistance
Presentation
Further help given
Declined presentation
T E C H N I C A L A S S I S T S
Spain
UK
National issues:
H E L P I N G C I T I E S E X E R C I S E
AUTHORITY
• Presented to gathering of city staff
hosted by Inst. for Sustainable
Cities
• Working with activists in Miami-
Dade on challenging Florida
Power & Light
Select successes

22. Technical assistance
Presentation
Further help given
Declined presentation
T E C H N I C A L A S S I S T S
Spain
UK
National issues:
INFORMING REGULATORS ON
SOLAR ECONOMICS
• I n v i t e d b y M N u t i l i t y
commissioners
• Participated in a debate on utility-
scale v. rooftop solar in front of
100+ industry, commissioners, and
staff
Select successes

23. Technical assistance
Presentation
Further help given
Declined presentation
T E C H N I C A L A S S I S T S
Spain
UK
National issues:
GUIDING VALUE OF DISTRIBUTED
ENERGY POLICY
• Advised coalition of energy and
environmental organizations
• Co-presented to PSC chair Audrey
Zibelman
Select successes

24. C H A N G I N G R U L E S : E N G A G I N G
D E C I S I O N M A K E R S A N D A L L I E S

25. E N G A G I N G P O L I C Y M A K E R S A N D
I N F L U E N C E R S
PURPA and on-bill financing
U.S. Senator Merkeley
Ambitious renewable policy
Minority Leader Rep. Hortman (MN)
Time of use pricing
Lew Daly, Demos
Co-op oversight
Rep. Thissen (MN)
Debate on scale of solar
NARUC
Clean Disruption
Tony Seba, author
Value of distributed energy
Audrey Zibelman
Philosophy of grid modernization
MN PUC workshop
The issues with rural cooperatives
David Roberts, Vox
B-Corp Utility
Mary Powell, Green
Mountain Power
Solar as a choice
Barry Goldwater Jr. And many more…

26. W O R K I N G W I T H A L L I E S
John, you did a beautiful
job on your Beyond
Sharing report — J.
Michael Orange, working
on community solar in
Kansas City, MO
Thank you so much for participating on the
video conference with Commissioner
Zibelman today. Your assistance was
invaluable. We are so grateful — Jessica
Azulay, Alliance for a Green Economy
I also wanted to reach out to thank you for participating in
BuildingEnergy. I’ve heard from many attendees how
impressed they were by you; I count myself among them.
As a building practitioner with somewhat superficial knowledge
of broader trends in renewables and distributed generation, I
felt you did an especially good job at speaking to the non-
experts in the audience. I learned an incredible amount in
the short time you were at the podium.
BuildingEnergy conference organizer
I just came across this piece. It’s right on.
I just printed the whole report and will
read it with interest — Isaac Moriwake, on
our Hawaii at the Energy Crossroads
report
I would like to congratulate you on the
new mapping tool that you created and
that is up on your website. A really great
useful tool for anyone looking to explain
renewable energy expansion — Miguel
Yanez from the Environmental and Energy
Study Institute

27. TA R G E T I N G R E S E A R C H
• Highlights a powerful tool for
universal access to energy
savings (no credit scores!)
• Unplanned report pushing Clean
Energy Partnership in Minnesota
closer to adoption (would be first
investor-owned utilities to adopt
this policy)
• Edited by national Dept. of
Energy expert on energy
financing
On target
Inclusive Financing for
Ef2iciency and Renewable
Energy
John Farrell and Karlee Weinmann
December 2016

28. TA R G E T I N G E N G A G E M E N T
What leaders need
I was there, and was very impressed -
particularly with some of the analogies
you used. It ended up being one of my
favorite panels at NARUC. Great work.
Lauren Randall, Sunrun
This is *awesome*. Thanks for writing and pitching it!
Katie Eukel, 4th Sector Consulting (communications)

29. C H A N G I N G T H E R U L E S

30. G O A L : S E L E C T E D N E W R U L E S
Maryland: ILSR helped shape
community solar rules.
New York: ILSR worked with
Energy Democracy Alliance
to present on the value of
distributed energy to PSC
chair Audrey Zibelman
Minnesota: we led a national coalition
in developing model rules for
universally accessible community solar,
up for comment through mid-April
Rhode Island: Previous ILSR support
helped advocates pass community
solar legislation in mid-2016
Nebraska: helped activists secure a
lower fixed rate increase from the
public utility after a presentation in
Nov. 2015
Minnesota/Midwest: we’re leading a
regional coalition to expand the use of
PURPA to enable wholesale distributed
renewable energy projects, with advice
from national peers.
Nationally: we wrote a report on inclusive tariff-based
financing, a tool being used by rural electric
cooperatives (and working with coalitions to expand to
other utilities) to enable access to energy savings to
anyone, regardless of credit score.
California: provided comments to
support Clean Coalition’s campaign
against transmission access charges.

31. @johnffarrell
www.ilsr.org
C H A N G I N G
T H E R U L E S
P R O V I D I N G
T O O L S
1 0 0 % R E N E WA B L E
L O C A L E C O N O M Y
H U M A N
S C A L E
L O C A L
O W N E R S H I P
D E M O C R AT I C
A U T H O R I T Y
I L L U S T R AT I N G
T H E V I S I O N