While we were at #CLEANPOWER22 last week, American Clean Power Association (ACP) released their 2021 Market Report. This one is interactive, with some interesting graphics – I encourage you to check it out. 
 
My major takeaway from this report is the imperative role renewable projects play in raising community revenue. "Land lease payments serve as a drought-proof cash crop that provides a stable income for American farmers, ranchers and private landowners. The tax revenue that clean energy projects bring to communities means new income to repair roads, invest in schools and fund essential services."  
 
As we saw in our survey with Embold Research, the benefits of these renewables plants are vastly under communicated to the rural, often conservative counties that host them.  
  
A few other interesting takeaways: 

Cleantechers, some of you might remember that last December, we released interesting numbers from bellwether Huron County, MI.

Groundbreaking polling methods were used to assess community attitudes toward renewables - and what it took to move them in a positive direction.

Since then, Tyler Duvelius, Robin Pressman and I have conducted an iterative road show to socialize the findings.

But when we talked with Tim Montague, we expanded the perspectives presented to include solar developer Jon Carson.

The results were some useful insights for renewable power developers. All of them face tougher community acceptance landscapes, one of the few ways that the costs of renewables are going up.

The keys to leadership with Chad Farrell - Scaling Clean Ep. 4

So far on our podcast, we’ve interviewed cleantech leaders that are in a later stage of their careers. We figured that wisdom comes from a combination of gray hair and track record.  

Chad Farrell is different, and that’s a good thing. As the CEO of Encore Renewable Energy, Chad’s first company is his current company. Encore develops what it calls “community-scale” renewable energy projects, often on land reclaimed from past industrial uses. But Chad’s been driving Encore’s success for almost 15 years, which is plenty of time to gather a body of lessons learned we can pass to others in his position.