"They're creating a whole new model of energy delivery for a city," says Mike Shriberg, a professor at University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability who lives in Ann Arbor."
"When we came up with a concept, we reached out to the utility and said, 'Would you be interested in doing that?,' says Missy Stults, director of sustainability and innovations for the city. "And the answer was no. And our response was, okay, well, then we will.""
"The most vulnerable part of our energy system is the distribution network- poles and wires," says Stults. "That's what a tree falls on and takes out. It's not generation. So instead of relying on generating our energy in a faraway place that has to move across vulnerable distribution netw"
Ann Arbor is establishing a city-owned utility to build a local power network of rooftop solar microgrids and geothermal installations at homes and businesses. The new utility will operate within city limits and will not replace the existing regional provider, but will accelerate the shift toward zero-carbon power. Ann Arbor set a carbon-neutral goal for 2030 and identified distributed generation as a faster path than the regional utility’s 2050 plan that still includes fossil gas. Local generation reduces reliance on long-distance transmission and increases resilience against distribution failures like downed poles and wires.
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