The Aardehuizen Project is a community microgrid serving 23 homes in Olst, Netherlands. Few other ecovillages around the globe have been built at a scale as successful as the Aardehuizen. In this blog, Erin Yu highlights why Olst became the ideal location for a sustainable community and highlights several factors critical to the community’s success.
Scaling up community microgrids while ensuring equitable access to renewable power will require a range of new policies and financial mechanisms. In this blog, Kate Ringness and Miriam Aczel highlight novel legislative initiatives in CA and at the federal level that support community energy resilience and expansion of microgrids.
Last month, Dr. Sascha von Meier gave a presentation on the Oakland EcoBlock for Berkeley’s Science at Cal lecture series. In this blog, Miriam Aczel provides an overview of the engaging public lecture, and highlights what EcoBlock’s co-PI is optimistic about.
In the decade since the 2011 East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, microgrids have sprung up across Japan to help the country meet their energy demands and build resilience. Japan’s National Resilience Program led to the development of several microgrids. This article describes the development of the first microgrid community established in Higashimatsushima.
Microgrids have many benefits, but the value of microgrid services is not well-defined in the market and represents a critical barrier to future economic growth. Andrew Rasetti highlights novel rates and tariff structures to address these barriers for microgrids.
Recently, renewable, community-scale microgrids have gained traction within the energy industry, marking a shift from remote, centralized power plants to local, decentralized generation. Eunice Chung highlights a few examples of successful community microgrids today.