02/09/2026
Distributed energy gives communities and households a path to energy ownership and value creation. Yet, realizing that energy wealth often remains theoretical, constrained by a lack of practical mechanisms to unlock it.
A novel energy model being developed in Ithaca, New York, could change that.
The Ithaca Common Council this week approved its revised Local Distributed Energy Resource (DER) Plan, a strategy to make the city into an independent energy ecosystem that offers dividend-paying DER ownership shares to local residents.
The plan comes as Ithaca also forms a community choice aggregation (CCA), a model used by about 1,500 U.S. communities that allows local governments to buy energy on residents’ behalf.” What distinguishes Ithaca’s approach is its focus on incentivizing local power and heat to reduce how much energy the city must purchase elsewhere
The Ithaca DER plan, approved last week by the city council, offers a way for the New York city to decarbonize independently from the grid.
