In East Tennessee, Holston Electric Cooperative is listening to its member-owners and responding with new services, like high-speed internet and an opt-out program for herbicide spraying near power lines.
In East Tennessee, Holston Electric Cooperative is listening to its member-owners and responding with new services, like high-speed internet and an opt-out program for herbicide spraying near power lines.
Our Energy Savings team has been working to educate, organize and provide technical support to member-owners who want to increase participation in their rural electric cooperatives.
A new Tennessee law will provide $45 million in grants and tax credits for private companies to subsidize the buildout of rural fiber networks. It also allows rural electric cooperatives to provide broadband.
Electric cooperatives in Virginia and Tennessee have launched community solar projects to help members save money while reducing carbon emissions.
Appalachian Voices recently conducted a Facebook survey in western North Carolina served by rural electric co-ops. Almost 90% of the respondents survey said they had trouble paying their electric bill. Tens of thousands of homes in this region are older and drafty, losing energy through windows, doors and roofs. Yet almost half the population is below the poverty line. A new financing mechanism for energy efficiency improvements could work wonders.
“We do everything we can to keep energy,” Barbara Taylor says as she heads down the stairs to the basement of the home she has shared with her husband, Paul, in New Tazewell, Tennessee since 1980. Outside it’s a humid 78 degrees, but in the narrow basement room that houses the Taylors’ heat pump it’s cool and dry.
Contacts: Rory McIlmoil, Appalachian Voices, 828-262-1500, rory@appvoices.org Amber Moodie-Dyer, Appalachian Voices, 828-262-1500, amber@appvoices.org Daniel Kauffman, ResiSpeak, 919-812-5657, dk@resispeak.com BOONE, N.C. — Two reports released today by Appalachian Voices show how effective home energy efficiency improvements can be for saving families…
From electric cooperatives with solar farms to a smart energy finance program in Benham, Ky., communities are putting clean energy within reach.
Residents spend three times national average on energy bills Contact: Rory McIlmoil, Energy Policy Director, 828-262-1500, rory@appvoices.org Sarah Kellogg, North Carolina Field Organizer, 828-262-1500, sarah@appvoices.org Boone, N.C. — In announcing the three winners of its “High Country Home Energy Makeover…
Through its brand new program, Upgrade to $ave, Roanoke Electric Cooperative is offering its members on-bill financing for home energy efficiency improvements. The program is made possible by a $6 million loan through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Loan Program.