A Policy and System Design Blueprint for Local Power Networks. Local Solar for Reliable, Accessible and Affordable Electricity

At this stage in human technological and social development, electricity has arguably become a basic human need. Yet, access to this vital resource is increasingly precarious. Electricity rates charged by private utilities are rising. Outages are increasing due to climate-change impacts and obsolete, decaying infrastructure. Private utilities, with their centralized generation and dependency on inefficient, energy-wasting long-distance transmission, are failing to meet public needs. In the United States, the national political leadership is working to undercut the deployment of solar and wind power, the least expensive forms of generation. In the face of these challenges, this project investigated the feasibility of local solar generation to meet peoples’ need for accessible, affordable, reliable electricity. We found that, despite the hurdles, it is still possible to increase the ability of communities and households across the income spectrum to self-generate their electricity. Local solar generation is technologically straightforward and is popular with the public. This policy and practice Blueprint lays out the technological, institutional and financial design features and the policy framework to create solar-based Local Power Networks (LPNs), which can increase access to reliable, affordable electricity in communities across the country. LPNs are mini-grids, locally-owned and operated, comprised of electricity generation and storage at both the individual building level and at the network level. Municipal utilities and electric co-operatives are in a position to take action through a neighborhood- or community-level “solar saturation strategy†, which can lower costs, increase energy access and expand the provision of clean, renewable energy through local public power.