Blog

This weekend the Cleveland Solar Cooperative held its first official member meeting, approved bylaws and elected a board. We're thrilled to see this group take flight! The Cleveland Solar Cooperative, a project of Cleveland Owns, will promote a more democratic energy system through collective ownership of solar arrays.

Access to electricity, gas, water, and internet is a human right. We're proud to join more than 50 anti-poverty groups in Ohio in a letter to Governor DeWine and Chair of the Public Utility Commission of Ohio Randazzo calling for humane statewide utility policy during the covid-19 crisis, to ensure every household has electricity, water, gas, and internet. Doing so will upset the large, profitable corporations that have monopolized the provision of these human rights for decades. But before the crisis, and more than ever today, in the middle of a global pandemic, their profits are less important than our rights.

Today in an article in Cleveland Scene, board members Mordecai, Adam, and Jonathan describe the urgent need to use collective ownership to rebuild a more equitable economy in Northeast Ohio.

We're standing with people in Northeast Ohio living without power during the pandemic, and with people at risk of having lights shut off when bills come due after the crisis, through a petition to demand that First Energy handle this crisis in a way that's humane and accountable. We're conducting the #covid19blackout on Thursday, March 26

Cleveland Owns released 'Equitable Community Solar,' a report that describes policies for community solar programs that promote racial and economic equity. The report proposes an ambitious, expansive roadmap for equitable community solar -- 30 policies and program guidelines that promote community ownership and governance, participation by low- and moderate-income households and households in pollution-burdened neighborhoods, and a rapid expansion of clean, renewable energy.

We're launching the Cleveland Heights Community Solar Fellowship.