Joel Zook, Energy Planner Some Rebates Will Be Eliminated Completely If you’ve considered making any upgrades to improve the energy efficiency of your home or business, you may want to act now while rebates still exist to help lower the cost. SF2311 was passed this legislative year and mandates a dramatic cut in Alliant Energy and Black Hills Energy’s energy efficiency programs. Insulation, air sealing and other rebates are being
Joel Zook, Energy Planner I am taking another hard look at solar panels for my home. My roof is not an ideal site for solar; It faces west and is heavily shaded through most of the morning. I ran the numbers shortly after buying my house and the payback was longer than I was willing to commit to. However, it’s been a few years and prices continue to fall. Additionally,
Andy Johnson, Executive Director Have energy efficiency projects been on your should-do list for a long time, but not quite made the HONEY-DO list? Consider acting now to take full advantage of financial incentives, because many of those incentives will not be available come January 1, 2018. How do we know this? The utility lobby – especially Alliant and MidAmerican – designed, fought for and won passage of a “Christmas
(or “How To Keep Your Energy And Dollars Local”) Andy Johnson, Director LOCAL: Decorah Power is working hard to answer questions, educate voters, and counter a great deal of myth and misinformation regarding the tremendous opportunity for a municipal electric utility. Learn more at their website, volunteer to help, and contribute through the website or their crowdfunding campaign. STATE: Two bills continue to make their way through the legislature. SF2311 is an omnibus
Cresco, IA – On a grey morning in Howard County renewable energy advocates from Howard County’s newly formed Energy District illuminated the economic and environmental benefits of Iowa solar tax credits on their March 24th Solar Tour. The group of community leaders and state representative Jane Bloomingdale visited numerous solar sites around Cresco, Iowa. KTTC Rochester, Austin, Mason City News, Weather and Sports
Two critical Iowa policies that support solar and other renewable energy may be undone in the current legislative session: Net Metering and Tax Credits. You can act now: visit our legislator page, then call or email your state Senator and Representative with two simple messages: 1. Keep Iowa’s solar and clean energy tax credits in place. Together with the federal credits (extended in 2015) they are helping NEIA lead the
The Iowa legislature is currently debating three pieces of legislation of special interest to renewable energy advocates in Iowa. To take action, call or email your Iowa Representative or Senator, with contact information found here. Some information here is take from the Iowa Environmental Council’s weekly legislative updates, which can be received by signing up at their site. “NO” on SF406/HF548 SF406/HF548 imposes additional requirements for interconnection customers connecting renewable energy
Update: The current round of comments and replies in the Net Metering portion of this docket is closed. We will leave the explanatory section below for those interested, and provide updates and new guidance as the docket progresses. On January 7, 2014, the Iowa Utilities Board (Board) issued an order commencing an inquiry docket into distributed generation (DG). DG includes the full spectrum of customer owned or third-party owned electrical generation
A sustainability plan was developed with the City of Decorah during the spring, summer, and fall of 2010, with input from dozens of organizations and businesses and hundreds of local citizens. It is meant as a framework, a initial sketching out of the vision (in the Executive Summary) and some specific pieces of the puzzle (in the full plan). It is also meant to be a work in progress, regularly