Author: Clean Energy Group Staff Published: 1/20/2026 Clean Energy Group
Updates for January 2026
New Orleans Approves Community-Led Virtual Power Plant Program
The New Orleans City Council has unanimously passed a $30 million virtual power plant (VPP) program, The Neighborhood Power Plan. The program, developed by community-serving organizations Together New Orleans and the Alliance for Affordable Energy, will improve reliability and reduce ratepayer utility costs by investing in distributed energy resources for approximately 1,500 homes and 250 community institutions, with 40 percent of funds earmarked for low-to-moderate income households. This landmark investment is the result of years-long organizing and advocacy efforts for community-based power solutions in New Orleans. Clean Energy Group had the privilege of working with Together New Orleans and the Alliance for Affordable Energy in advancing this program and will continue amplifying their efforts as a guide to developing community-led VPP programs nationally.
What Can a Resilience Hub Look Like in 2026?
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Resilience hubs powered by solar+storage are community facilities equipped to support residents, deliver services, and coordinate resource distribution before, during, and after a power outage. A new guide, An Introduction to Resilience Hubs, explains why resilient power is essential for maintaining public health, what critical electrical loads need backup power, and how communities across the country have succeeded in establishing resilience hubs. The resource is designed to be helpful for community-serving facilities of all types, including community centers, food banks, houses of worship, libraries, and schools.
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Puerto Rican Community Establishes Energy Cooperative for Island-Wide Solar+Storage
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In Vieques, an island of about 8,000 people located eight miles east of the Puerto Rican mainland, the nonprofit Community Through Colors installed 225 kilowatts of solar and 335 kilowatt-hours of battery storage at 15 community buildings. The solar+storage systems provide between 12 and 72 hours of reliable backup power to an island still experiencing frequent blackouts and near daily brownouts. In 2025, Community Through Colors officially established a community-owned electric cooperative, which will own and manage the network of solar+storage systems across Vieques. A new case study overviews how the community overcame project development obstacles, secured funding, and now manage the solar+storage systems. It also introduces the new electric cooperative and its intended future role in the community.
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The Use Case for Solar+Storage at Rural Community Health Centers
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Rural community health centers depend on consistent and reliable electricity to serve their patients. Power outages pose a major risk to medically vulnerable community members, who might need to defer or travel long distances for care if local health centers don’t have power. Outages can also be massively expensive for health centers due to interruptions in service and loss of refrigerated vaccines and medications. When considering backup power solutions, community health centers have a unique set of needs the system must meet. A new resource, Solar and Storage Microgrids for Rural Community Health Centers, provides an overview of how solar+storage microgrids work, how they can benefit rural community health centers, and how these systems can be financed.
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Ammonia Derived from Green Hydrogen Won’t Drastically Decarbonize the Fertilizer Industry
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The fertilizer industry relies heavily on ammonia production, a process that emits 500 million metric tons of CO2 every year due to its use of grey hydrogen derived from fossil fuels. In order to decarbonize, fertilizer producers are looking to replace grey hydrogen with green hydrogen in their ammonia production. However, this switch will only delay true decarbonization and result in continued harmful emissions from hydrogen, ammonia, and the fertilizer itself. A new blog post by CEG Project Manager Eva Morgan dives into the nature of this false decarbonization promise, how industry players are coming up short, and what can actually be done to reduce emissions from fertilizers without sacrificing food production. This blog post is part of a series on Green Ammonia, in conjunction with a previous blog post on green ammonia as shipping fuel and a factsheet on green ammonia production.
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Upcoming Events
Sustainable Northwest is hosting their 4th annual Energy Resilience for Local and Tribal Governments workshop, which will be held virtually on Tuesday, January 27 from 10am-1pm PST. This free workshop will include information related to funding for energy resilience planning and project development, partnering with technical assistance providers, and identifying next steps to integrate resilience planning into existing planning processes. Join Clean Energy Group’s Senior Project Director, Marriele Mango, in Breakout Group #7: Municipal-Led Resilience Permitting and Code Initiatives. Register here.
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