Clean Energy Finance Forum

"Policies to foster competition in energy are important especially in states like Michigan with regulated electricity markets. In Michigan, regulated investor-owned utilities are the only providers of electricity in the service territories in which they operate."

Seven states – Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, South Carolina, and Vermont – have enacted legislation to promote pollinator-friendly solar development. A new white paper by the Clean Energy States Alliance provides an overview of these state efforts and offers suggestions for what other states can do to promote solar while also creating or preserving healthy habitats for pollinators.

Louisville Gas and Electric's solar share program allows ratepayers to purchase a share of a large solar field and get a credit on their utility bills for the solar energy the share generates, WKYU-FM reports.

A major rain and wind storm struck the state at the close of October, knocking out power to some 115,000 customers. Among those affected, 1,100 homes managed to keep the lights on thanks to pilot programs specifically designed to promote resilient backup power with energy storage.

The MI Power Grid program will focus on three areas: customer engagement, integrating emerging technologies and optimizing grid performance and investments. Business groups and one of the state's largest electric utilities, Consumers Energy, applauded the move.

On June 26th, Governor Janet Mills signed new legislation to broaden customer access to net metering (known in Maine as net energy billing) and to promote distributed energy generation, including through competitive procurements for long-term contracts with the state’s transmission and distribution utilities.

Michigan regulators approved Consumers Energy's latest integrated resource plan, which will shutter its Karn coal-fired plant by 2023, setting the utility on a course to eliminate coal entirely and by 2040 reduce emissions from power plants by 90%.

The city's municipal utility, the Tennessee Valley Authority's largest customer, has launched a study to explore whether it can save money by breaking away from TVA, possibly by developing or buying renewable energy sources like solar and wind.