Renewable Energy
Despite what you may have heard, clean, renewable energy and battery storage is reliable and affordable. We don’t have to choose between affordability or our health and climate. We can have it all!
There is no longer a good argument for continuing to invest in fossil fuel infrastructure that pollutes our air and water, harms our health, and drives extreme weather and climate change. Renewable energy is affordable, reliable, and makes our energy grid more resilient.
Thousands of Kentuckians across the state are saving money by switching to solar at their homes and businesses, but our utilities are slow to transition. (Or in the case of our investor-owned utilities, they can make more money for their shareholders by making bad decisions for us). We need to hold them accountable to moving us quickly towards the energy future we know we need.
Renewable Energy: Energy sources that can be replenished. Clean, renewable energy is carbon-free, which means that it doesn’t add to climate change AND it has no fuel cost, making it affordable. Clean, renewable energy sources include solar, wind, and hydro-power.
In Kentucky, we have abundant solar resources, yet solar makes up less than 1% of our electricity grid.
Real Solutions focus on clean, renewable energy that puts the biggest benefits into the hands of Kentuckians.
First, we need our utilities to invest in new technology that allows us to waste less electricity, lower our power bills, and set us up for low cost, safe, and renewable energy sources for the future. At Kentuckians for Energy Democracy we advocate first and foremost for energy efficiency and technology, like Virtual Power Plants, that help us reduce the need to build new energy sources.
Next, we want to see utilities investing in the clean energy future by prioritizing and valuing rooftop solar and battery storage, that allows us to lower our bills and make the electric grid more resilient by spreading our energy sources out (decentralized generation). Every home, business, rooftop, and parking lot that can should have solar panels and batteries. And we should be fairly compensated for the electricity that we put back onto the grid.
And finally, we know that to get to the future we need to see, large-scale, utility solar farms will be needed. We want to see solar farms that are built using best practices. That means education and community input, community benefits agreements, and construction and decommissioning practices that minimize the impact on the land for future uses. Solar works in Kentucky and if our utilities would invest in us and our future, we could have a thriving solar industry that was putting us to work in good paying jobs, while powering the future with low-cost, clean energy. It’s a no brainer.
Virtual Power Plants
A technology that allows utility companies to access and deploy a set of distributed energy resources (such as rooftop solar, home batteries, and smart appliances enrolled in demand-response programs) to work together to balance out the supply and demand for electricity on a large-scale.
Distributed Generation (Rooftop Solar)
Energy sources that are not centrally located like a large power plant. Distributed generation includes things like rooftop solar and battery storage at our homes and businesses.
Utility-Scale Solar
Utility-scale solar is a large solar installation (typically larger than 1 MW) that is owned and operated by a utility company. This is different from “Merchant Solar” which is a large solar installation that is owned by a third-party. It is also different from “distributed solar”, which typically refers to rooftop or small ground-mounted solar that is sited at or near a home, farm, or business. Distributed solar installations are typically owned or leased by the customer.
Want to learn more about rooftop solar for your home or business?
Many of our utilities have tried to make it harder for us to own our solar, but in parts of the state (especially, with rural electric cooperatives or RECCs), there are still good incentives in place to make solar affordable.
Investing in rooftop solar plus home batteries makes your home more resilient, makes the energy grid more reliable, and can lower your bills. Learn more from our friends at Kentucky Solar Energy Society (KySES)
Take Action
Here are two easy ways for you to take action for energy democracy.