Climate change and the energy crisis demand an energy transition.

Cities and towns like the City and Town of Ithaca have established ambitious goals for meeting the crisis. But this requires a method. 

Energy transition is hard because (1) you need the whole community to participate in order to be a real change, and (2) you need to change not just one energy use but all: power, heat, transportation and waste, which make up about 75% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.

That's a lot to change: but it's needed for climate impact. 

Own Your Power solves the many problems of energy transition through a basic strategy of reducing the community's grid and pipeline use on site:

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• Combine power, heat and vehicle energy systems into single onsite interoperable systems to need less grid and pipeline

• Help energy users invest monthly power, heat and vehicle energy bills payments in onsite systems they own; and 

• Help neighbors share onsite power, heat and vehicle systems that are more cost-effective.

 

This program is about taking local responsibility over conventional energy supplies specifically in order to reduce our use of them. Own Your Power is being managed by the same company - Local Power LLC - that manages energy supply through Community Choice Aggregation (CCA), a separate but complementary municipal electricity and natural gas program regulated by the New York Public Service Commission. It is time for Ithacans to get on the same page with a new definition of "energy services" to significantly transition off of heating fuels, vehicle fuels and grid power onto onsite energy systems. Own Your Power is:

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• A technological transition from gasoline car to EV, from natural gas to geothermal heat and hot water, and from grid to solar

• A geopolitical transition from dependency on mostly remote, imported energy sources to mostly local and onsite energy sources

• An economic transition from being an energy consumer or ratepayer to becoming an owner of your power.

 

A successful transition requires good design. Local Power LLC's energy transition service will help you find your way to real change in your life and the life of the neighborhood. Own Your Power services include:

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• Analysis of your energy use to identify cost-effective applications for your situation

• Facilitation of group adoption of more cost effective and more advanced shared onsite energy systems 

• Assistance evaluating onsite power offers and financing options, and tracking of system performance over time.

 

In short, Own Your Power will provide Ithaca energy users with a trustworthy platform for making new decisions about every kind of energy you use every day and pay for every month: power, heat and vehicle.

"Degrowth" in global pipeline and grid economy is "Regrowth" in the local economy. How we get there is to Own Your Power.