Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/tag/solar/)
A new report about combining solar power and farming practices has advocates saying the practice could take hold in Michigan, boosting productivity while providing much needed refuge for bees and other pollinators.
This year solar energy newcomers and aficionados alike can tour solar powered homes virtually in Michigan and across the nation.
Solar supporters want to remove cap on how much juice they sell to utilities. But utilities say what they cannot recover the true cost of that energy.
Interest in powering Catholic parishes, schools and missions with the sun is surging in the wake of a large solar deal recently announced in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.
The number of Michiganders producing some of their own electricity from solar, wind and water power jumped 35 percent in 2017. That helped offset some of their power costs, but it still amounts to a tiny bit of the state’s electricity needs, according to a recent report by the Public Service Commission.
Charging for the cost of moving solar power over the utility grid discourages investment. And advocates say such costs are offset by producing cheap power instead of using high-cost generators to meet peak demand.
The Michigan city is learning that developing community solar largely comes down to whether the local utility is willing to participate.
Smaller, distributed projects have largely fueled Michigan’s solar growth until now. Analysts project the next wave will come from utility-sale projects.
Michigan may soon see a 50-megawatt solar panel installation, but residential incentives may be in jeopardy.
A municipal utility hopes to put a large solar array on an old auto manufacturing site.