Why the Clean Energy revolution is going local

The movement toward buying and producing goods locally - already strong before the pandemic - is likely to continue, especially for clean energy, as advanced technologies provide more benefits at a lower cost and as local authorities increasingly favor local solutions.

In a recent example, the City of Rochester, N.Y., in November launched a new power authority, Rochester Community Power, that plans to buy electricity for the city’s 80,000 residents and businesses and provide them with locally sourced 100% renewable energy at a low, fixed rate. The move follows roughly 1,500 other U.S. municipalities representing 30 million Americans that provide this type of electricity service and many are looking for new sources of local, affordable, reliable, renewable, resilient electricity generation to supply their communities.

In California, there are now 23 of these local government run energy suppliers, called Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs), serving roughly 10 million people and buying power that is increasingly local. 

California CCAs purchased 16.4 million megawatt-hours of electricity in the first quarter of 2020, an increase of 37.8% from a year earlier, according to federal data compiled by S&P Global Platts. 

And many CCAs offer clean energy rebates to their customers. For example, Peninsula Clean Energy, based in Redwood City, Calif., is offering residents a $1,000 rebate on the purchase of a new electric vehicle.

Climate action in the U.S. also has grown on the local level, with states, cities, and businesses driving emission reduction efforts, despite the COVID-19 pandemic and economic recession, and during a time when the federal government has declined to take action and even sought to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. 

Local actions taken by U.S. states, cities, businesses, and others could achieve 37% emissions reductions below 2005 levels by 2030, according to a September report by America’s Pledge, an initiative launched in 2017 to support and track climate action leadership by U.S. governors, mayors, business leaders, and others. America’s Pledge predicts the U.S. can still achieve 2030 emissions reductions, despite a lack of action on the federal level, due to local action to reduce emissions in electricity, transportation and other areas, with support from organizations such as We Are Still In, C40 Cities and Science Based Targets.

The trend toward buying and acting locally isn’t just in energy. Consumers are increasingly purchasing and consuming locally grown food, a trend accelerated by the pandemic and expected to continue due to increased awareness of the need to support the local economy, while reducing environmental impacts, according to a recent report by Healthline.

People’s desire to shop local is reflected in the products they buy, such as locally sourced ingredients and products made by artisans, and the way they shop, such as supporting community stores, according to a report by Accenture.

And the “buy local” trend isn’t just in the U.S. The pandemic has driven a surge in “localism” around the world, with two-thirds (65%) of consumers now preferring to buy goods and services from their own country, according to a global survey by data consultancy Kantar.

At Ways2H, we are responding to the localization trend with distributed waste-to-hydrogen production solutions that can be installed just about anywhere. These hydrogen facilities come in a range of sizes, from a transportable unit that can fit in three 20-foot (6-meter) containers, process 1 ton of waste per day and produce 40 to 50 kilograms of hydrogen per day - enough to fill the tanks of 10 hydrogen fuel-cell passenger vehicles - to larger units that can process up to 48 tons of waste per day and produce up to 3,300 kg of hydrogen per day, enough to fuel 660 passenger vehicles.

The 1 ton/day unit, paired with a hydrogen power generator, is ideal for a hospital, a remote island or an off-grid community, as well as for emergency response following an earthquake, wildfire, storm or other disaster. Debris can be used as feedstock to produce emergency power.

For a fully local waste-to-clean mobility cycle, we are partnering with Paul Fenn at Local Power to integrate onsite renewable hydrogen for community microgrids and clean mobility. We see hydrogen produced from post-consumer waste as a useful addition to community microgrids and clean mobility for cities and counties that want to generate their own clean, locally-sourced energy.