Community Renewable Energy

Community Energy for Community Groups

If you work for, lead, belong to, are thinking of organizing, or joining a community group (cooperative, non-profit organization, religious institution, or group of active citizens) and are interested in clean energy, we welcome you! Clearly without Communities there could be no Community Energy!

The benefits of clean energy are vast, and positively impact many aspects of society: our environment, economy, and security, to name a few. While this website focuses not on the reasons, but on practical methods to pursue clean energy use, we frame the discussion around Community Energy projects, those that strive to demonstrate and retain the benefits of clean energy within the local community.

Just as there are many reasons to support clean energy, it takes a host of team members, perspectives, and backgrounds to successfully implement community energy projects. While outside professionals might be hired for many of the steps involved in project development and management, community groups can be key drivers of feasibility assessment, organizing project teams, securing financing, earning public acceptance, and ultimately even owning a project. The more knowledge of renewable energy community groups and leaders have, the more likely the benefits will be retained by the community.

In short, community members are important, if not obvious stakeholders in community energy projects. We encourage your participation, and hope you find this website a useful step in learning about community energy project development.

The website is organized by the major types of clean energy resources that are currently being developed in the Pacific Northwest. Sections on each major type of resource (wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, and efficiency) can be found by clicking on the tab at the top of the page. In addition, separate sections for project management, utility considerations, and additional resources delve even further into the many issues that make up clean energy investment and project implementation.