Polar Bear Sustainable Energy Cooperative
Giving you the power.
Our Mission
PBSE Cooperative seeks to provide innovative, accessible, and affordable energy solutions to member-owners’ homes and communities that improve household health, wealth, resilience, and education.
Our Goals
PBSE’s overarching goal focuses on helping members become more energy efficient and energy independent through home efficiency retrofits, and electrification projects. More specifically, PBSE recognizes electrification as a key enabler of decarbonization in urban areas such as Detroit, Highland Park and Hamtramck and seeks to be an accelerator of these processes while promoting electrification as a powerful pathway to an equitable energy transition. PBSE also seeks to expand access to community solar and other methods of clean energy development accessible to renters and low-income homeowners.
Our Team
Board of Directors:
Brian Donovan, Chair
Stephanie Johnson, Vice-Chair
Jackson Koeppel, Secretary
Akanke Hill, Treasurer
Gibran Washington
Matheus Lima
Crystal Benard
Staff:
Rachel Edwards- Mosby, General Manager
Fighting for Community Solar Legislation in Michigan
Senate Bills 152 and 153 propose to create a community solar program in the state of Michigan. The bills set the broad parameters of the program, which allows households to subscribe to and purchase power from solar projects in their communities, and direct the Michigan Public Service Commission to set the rules of the program within them. These talking points are provided for advocates supportive of community solar as a tool
for equity and community benefits to speak effectively on them.
Community ownership is what sets community solar apart. Studies of
community solar development show that local ownership expands financial
benefits to households and local economies while generating more jobs, more engagement, and more stability for the solar industry. While projects owned by utilities may generate limited community benefits, they fail to reach the full potential realized by community owned projects. The failure of DTE’s low-income solar projects, for which they are presently seeking more public money after years of stagnation, are a case in point of how limited financial benefits and minimal community agency in the process impede development.
Community solar legislation is essential for Michigan to maximize the
benefits of Solar For All. Michigan received $156 million through the Solar For All program to benefit LMI households. EGLE’s proposal projects that over 90% of the solar deployed will be community solar. That’s over $100 million of public investment which could be generating all the stacked benefits of local and community ownership. Without legislative action, these projects will be dominated by utility interests and miss that opportunity.
Join Our Team!
PBSE is hiring. Click on the positions below for more information and to apply!