In 2018, Ann Arbor resident Julie Roth vowed to take a break after two years of volunteering 20 hours a week. Then she attended an Ann Arbor District Library event about the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. Roth thought of...
Community opposition to solar projects is becoming a common hurdle that renewable energy proponents must respect and address. It often stems from uncertainty, resulting in a tension in which perceptions of place and community character are pitted...
Sarah Mills, senior project manager at the Center on Local, State, and Urban Policy, has been selected for a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office. Mills, along with School for Environment and Sustainability...
This report presents the opinions of Michigan’s local government leaders regarding a variety of energy issues and policies in their jurisdictions, including the relevance of particular energy policies for their communities, whether the jurisdiction...
A solar project in Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula is the first to use state grant funding to clean up contaminated industrial property. The 500 kilowatt solar installation planned at a vacant eyesore is effectively a pilot project that...
In this memo, we examine the existing ways states have crafted legislation on property taxes for utility-scale solar developments and find two main categories of existing legislation—”exemption or abatement,” and “exemption and replacement.” We...
As solar development increases, states face new challenges in regulating and taxing solar facilities. To better understand an important piece of the current regulatory landscape for solar, this study inventories property tax treatment for...
This report aims to understand the policy and regulatory landscape surrounding solar siting in the United States in the past, present and looking towards the future. The scope of this analysis includes siting for photovoltaic (PV) solar projects at...
This report presents the opinions of Michigan’s local government leaders regarding a variety of energy issues and policies in their jurisdictions, including the relevance of particular energy policies for their communities, whether the jurisdiction...
Decarbonizing the electricity sector will require a shift in the geography of where our electricity is produced. Currently, most electricity comes from large, centralized fossil fuel and nuclear power plants sited in or near urban areas where much...
To achieve parity in the benefits of solar energy, a growing number of states have developed policies and programs to address socioeconomic disparities by designating and targeting low- to moderate-income (LMI) households, as well as racial and...
The Renewable Energy Policy Initiative (REPI) conducts, supports, and disseminates high-quality applied academic research on state and local policies impacting the deployment of renewable energy in the American federal system that informs both scholarship and the policy process....
