By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
What Happened:Thanks to a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Sunshot Initiative’s Solar In Your Community Challenge, one coal-country Ohio town is moving toward a community solar installation.
- A group called Upgrade Ohio is trying to change the town’s laws in a way that would allow regular citizens – not just wealthy investors – get in on the ground floor of the array.
- Despite being in the heart of coal country, the citizens of Athens are excited about the prospect of opening up a new energy future for the poverty-stricken area.
Richland Avenue bridge, spanning portions of Athens, Ohio, with the Western Hills in the background
By OhioOat – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19870392
SolarWakeup’s View: Full disclosure: Athens, Ohio, is home to Ohio University, which both my parents attended and, if it hadn’t been for some health challenges, I would have attended myself.
With those biases in mind, however, I still think it’s hella cool is this story about Upgrade Ohio, a community group trying to change the city’s laws to allow everyday citizens (instead of just wealthy donors) to buy into a community solar project.
Upgrade Ohio, an energy advocacy group, was funded as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Sunshot Initiative’s $5 million Solar In Your Community Challenge and is working to change the energy landscape of the area. And while it is home to Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, is also one of the more bone-deep poverty-stricken areas in the state. Located in the heart of Appalachia, it was solidly coal country – but Upgrade Ohio is in the process of changing that. Said Executive Director Sarah Conley-Ballew to the Energy News Network:
It’s wrong to think that this region has only a coal-country mindset. There is a push to be new energy leaders in new ways. We want to generate our own power because we want to be independent from the extractive powers that have made decisions for this region for so long.
We want to take the coal and gas-dependent economy and make it renewably based. We need a bold and different strategy.
In today’s political climate, it’s easy to forget the vital role the Sunshot Initiative has played in moving solar beyond its traditional strongholds. The Upgrade Ohio project is a good reminder that its future must always be part of any funding conversation (and serve as a reminder, all propaganda to the contrary, that the solar industry supports research in all aspects of the industry, large and small).
More:
In Ohio town, energy ‘locavores’ drive demand for community solar (Energy News Network)
Bonus
This is my ACTUAL alma mater, of which I am SO proud. Marching through Kauke Arch being led by bagpipes on graduation was amazing.