In Vermont, in-home and large-scale battery storage are generating buzz as homeowners and investors begin to recognize their potential.

"The storage market today is where solar was seven or eight years ago," said Chad Farrell, founder and CEO of Burlington-based Encore Renewable Energy. "Pricing is coming down, and products are getting more reliable and affordable."

In February, Flex Fund, New Hampshire Community Loan Fund and Coastal Enterprises, a CDFI in Maine, made a $1 million revenue-based investment in Encore Renewable Energy, a developer of solar power across the Northeast.

Planning for landfill design and operations to accommodate every stage of a facility’s life and beyond takes foresight. There’s especially a multitude of considerations when owners are contemplating reuse, as many are. One growing trend in particular is to set up these sites for solar projects; more than 150 shuttered U.S. landfills house such projects, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Solar projects can generate income through electricity sales or from renewable energy credits. But how does one plan for solar years in advance while juggling daily operations of an active site and thinking about post-closure?

Wind farms remain the most environmentally benign form of electrical generation we have ever managed to create, with solar farms a close second. They have the lowest greenhouse gas emissions per MWh, full life cycle. They mix boundary layers of air over fields, drawing moisture and warmth at night down to growing plants, reducing the likelihood of frost and increasing yields. They shade livestock. They take up about 1% of agricultural land in the areas that they spread across, usually the less arable corners, and perhaps 2% when placed on ridgelines. Their few downsides, such as the low bird and bat mortality figures, pale in comparison to the toll of fossil fuels both directly and through global warming.

The Business Network for Offshore Wind has added RenewComm to its team as public relations counsel to help take the US offshore wind energy industry to the next level.

"We are pleased to add RenewComm to our growing team of offshore wind experts. They bring deep subject matter expertise and decades of experience in developing communications campaigns that will resonate with industry and the general public," said Liz Burdock, CEO & President of the Business Network for Offshore Wind.

 In some instances, solar developments are proving to be an environmentally attractive option for brownfields — not only does this clean up sites but it also offers a source of renewable energy for a community to tap into.

First round bids have been submitted in the privatization of Florida’s Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA), which is owned by the city of Jacksonville

Encore Renewable Energy, a Burlington company that installs solar panels on land and rooftops, has received an $1.8 million investment from Leyline Renewable Energy in North Carolina.

Encore is the company behind solar installations on buildings like the Burlington airport parking garage and the ECHO center on the Burlington waterfront. It is breaking ground later this year on the first solar project at the Shelburne Museum, with seven acres of solar panels, said Blake Sturcke, the company’s chief operating office.

Rhode Island is currently in the process of creating an inventory of every brownfield, landfill, and parking lot in the state in their search for new locations to harness solar power. Even here, in America’s smallest state, the intersection of favorable economics and demand for carbon reducing solutions to address climate change makes scaling the number of solar installations in the U.S. inevitable. Meanwhile, finding suitable sites for greenfield development that don’t involve environmental, aesthetic, or interconnection constraints, has become increasingly difficult.

A new paradigm driven by purpose is steadily emerging in the business community. This spring, I attended an impact investing conference in Asheville, North Carolina. The conference was convened to draw together investors and business owners from a host of different, unrelated industries within the Certified B Corporation community to discuss the challenges and opportunities of growing 21st century businesses focused on purpose, mission and triple-bottom-line outcomes.

Our client, the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE)’s CEO Greg Wetstone was recently published in Fortune Magazine’s Opinion Section discussing their $1T by 2030 campaign.

The ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain on Friday celebrated the kickoff of renewable energy projects.

Mayor Miro Weinberger, D-Burlington, and officials from ECHO cut the ribbon on their Energy Commons project.

Operation and maintenance of America’s growing offshore wind industry is a task that requires wind technicians to overcome obstacles not seen on land. Unique challenges on this job start with the need for experienced land-based crews to undergo offshore marine safety training. Once training is finished, the workday starts early; boats leave at 6 in the morning, with days stretching12-14 hours (including several hours of boat travel). “It takes a long time to get out there, so your sheer daylight hours are cut,” said a crew member.

A recent example is a 500-kilowatt array built by Encore as part of a new headquarters and woodyard for forest management company Long View Forest. The project was built on a 28-acre remediated brownfield in Hartland that was formerly used as a sawmill and lumber treatment facility.

Encore Renewable Energy, which managed the Keene project, is already leaving its mark across New England with 60 solar projects in neighboring Vermont alone. According to Encore, this 140-kilowattpeak (kWp) solar installation atop the historic Silk Mill property will offset over 2,300 metric tons of carbon dioxide, equal to the emissions of almost 6 million automobile miles, over the next 25 years. A renewables grant from the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission helped make this project a reality.

Slapping solar panels atop so-called brownfield sites, land that housed mines, emissions-belching power plants or were tarnished by nuclear disaster, can be cheaper than decontaminating the ground and turning it into parkland. At the same time, there’s the prospect of turning environmental foes into friends.

It is no overstatement that the greatest threat facing America’s national security and the world at large is climate change. Denials of science and fossil fuel industry obfuscations seem to be fading from relevance as more Americans now see the reality of climate change impact their day to day lives.