Green Cities
Beyond the Grid: 3 U.S. Cities Reinventing Renewable Energy from the Ground Up
August 4, 2025
While some U.S. cities are playing catch-up on climate, others are sprinting ahead by reimagining their energy infrastructure from the ground up. From net-zero architecture to battery-backed solar grids, these communities are proving that innovation isn’t confined to Silicon Valley. It’s happening in city halls, community colleges, and public works departments, across the nation – redefining what a clean energy future can look like.
Spokane, Washington: Hydropower Meets a Range of 21st-Century Innovation
Spokane already benefits from a carbon-light grid thanks to Washington State’s legacy hydropower system, but it’s not using that as an excuse to sit still. Instead, the city is positioning itself as a testing ground for clean technology and grid modernization. These efforts are part of a broader, coordinated strategy to build local resilience and accelerate climate action, supported by both state and city-level initiatives.
The updated Washington Climate Commitment Act, or WCC, outlines a comprehensive strategy to modernize Spokane’s energy infrastructure while centering equity, resilience, and local job creation. This is supported in part by a cap-and-invest program, which raises funds by selling permits that allow for carbon emissions. The money collected is then used to fund initiatives that lower greenhouse gas emissions and enhance quality of life in local communities.The Act is projected to create over 45,000 jobs and generate $9.1 billion in statewide economic output over the next eight years, with Spokane poised to benefit from investments in clean power, public transit, green construction, and industrial decarbonization. The Act is also expected to attract billions in private funding and more in federal funding, positioning Spokane as a hub for both climate innovation and economic revitalization.
Spokane’s Sustainability Action Plan, updated in 2021, complements the goals of the WCC by providing a city-level roadmap to achieve 100% renewable electricity by 2030. While the WCC drives state-level investments and regulatory frameworks, the local plan translates those goals into on-the-ground projects—advancing climate resilience, accelerating energy infrastructure upgrades, and prioritizing equity through initiatives like building electrification, community solar, and workforce development in historically underserved neighborhoods.
Spokane is home to one of the most ambitious net-zero energy projects in the country: known as the Catalyst Building, which is now home to Eastern Washington University departments and labs. This 159,000-square-foot facility is designed to carry out zero energy and zero carbon certification while maintaining construction costs on par with conventional buildings. With its integration of solar, geothermal, and cutting-edge design strategies, the Catalyst Building reflects Spokane’s commitment to climate innovation and proves that carbon-neutral architecture can be both scalable and economically viable.
Spokane’s utility provider, Avista, is actively modernizing the city grid through a phased smart meter rollout, installing advanced meters that enable two-way communication between customers and the utility. Allowing households and businesses to monitor their energy use in real time, this provides them with greater control over their consumption patterns, while improving reliability and operational efficiency.
Building on this, Avista is also piloting two time-of-use (TOU) pricing programs for residential and small commercial customers in Washington. These programs incentivize users to shift electricity use to off-peak hours, helping to reduce the strain on the grid and lowering bills for customers who can adjust their habits.
These innovations are increasingly important as electric vehicles and electric appliances become more widespread. By managing peak load more strategically, Avista is preparing Spokane’s grid for the realities of mass electrification, ensuring that the transition to clean energy remains both resilient and cost-effective.
What sets Spokane apart is the city’s willingness to rethink how that energy is managed, distributed, and optimized. With strong city-university partnerships and a growing green tech sector, Spokane is shaping the clean grid of the future in real time.
Richmond, California: Battery Storage, Rooftop Solar, and Environmental Justice in Action
Once defined by the towering presence of the Chevron oil refinery on its shoreline, Richmond has become a case study in what it looks like for a fossil fuel town to push back and pave the way for a cleaner future.
The city of Richmond, located in the East Bay, is building real electrification and energy efficiency models and is focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving indoor air quality, and supporting health and employment outcomes. Especially for residents living in older buildings and disadvantaged neighborhoods, these efforts aim to address longstanding environmental and social inequities.
Through its partnership with Marin Clean Energy (MCE), a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) provider, Richmond residents have default access to 60-100% renewable electricity, giving the city a unique level of autonomy from investor-owned utility PG&E. Community Choice Aggregation is a model that allows cities and counties to procure electricity on behalf of their residents from cleaner sources, while the existing utility (like PG&E for the Northern California region) continues to handle delivery and billing. This gives Richmond more local control over its energy mix and enables a shift away from fossil fuel–based power.
But Richmond’s work extends beyond the grid deep into the community. In recent years, the city has funded residential and commercial rooftop solar installations that were made possible by streamlining permitting, partnerships, and incentive programs ⸺ all targeted towards affordable housing, municipal buildings, and business sites.
Plus, Richmond’s Green-Blue New Deal aims to create over 1,000 new green jobs in the renewable energy sector, through building electrification, and via sustainable infrastructure creation. Programs like Richmond Rising and Groundwork Richmond provide hands-on training in clean energy and urban forestry for youth, while a partnership with the Safe Return Project offers dedicated career pathways for formerly incarcerated residents who wish to enter the green workforce.
Perhaps most importantly, Richmond’s clean energy planning is embedded in broader struggles for racial and environmental justice. Long before terms like “just transition” entered the mainstream, local groups like the Richmond Progressive Alliance and APEN (Asian Pacific Environmental Network) were advocating for community-controlled energy. Today, those visions are becoming reality through tangible, neighborhood-scale investments in power, both literal and political.
Fayetteville, Arkansas: Clean Energy Momentum in the Ozarks
Fayetteville, nestled in the rolling hills of the Ozarks, might not be the first city that comes to mind in conversations about renewable energy — but it should be. In 2018, it became the first city in Arkansas to formally commit to 100% clean energy, setting a goal of decarbonizing municipal operations by 2030 and reaching citywide net-zero emissions by 2050. What makes Fayetteville stand out is how it’s transforming bold commitments into on-the-ground tangible progress.
The city has constructed two large solar arrays, including one paired with a battery storage facility, that now power municipal buildings and wastewater treatment plants. These projects not only reduce emissions but are projected to save the city millions in electricity costs over the coming decades.
The City of Fayetteville and University of Arkansas’s Office of Sustainability have emphasized regional collaboration in order to share best practices and build clean energy capacity across Northwest Arkansas. And despite being in a state where fossil fuels remain politically dominant, Fayetteville’s 2024 Climate Action Plan has successfully framed its energy work around values such as economic independence, local control, and public accountability.Positioning climate action as a function of good governance rather than partisan politics is exactly what we need.
Fayetteville is proving that sustainability isn’t limited by geography and political climate, but rather, it thrives wherever there is local leadership and a vision for long-term resilience.
Gridlocked to Groundbreaking: Cities Turning Climate Ambition Into Action
From the Pacific Northwest to the Ozark Mountains, these U.S. cities are proving that bold climate action doesn’t require being ‘woke’, or a coastal tech hub or a policy powerhouse.
Whether it’s Richmond transforming a legacy of fossil fuels into a foundation for environmental justice, or Fayetteville leading a clean energy charge in a conservative stronghold, each city is confronting the challenge of what is best for the members of its community.
Their work reminds us that clean energy transitions aren’t acquired through one-size-fits-all approaches. They’re adaptive and rooted in the unique strengths and needs of each community. And while the technologies of solar arrays, smart meters, net-zero buildings matter, it’s the creativity and collaboration behind these tools that truly power the shift.
As the climate crisis accelerates, these cities are preparing their residents for the future in a sensible and pragmatic way. They show that the road to resilience and equity can start anywhere, and that the future of energy is already being built in school districts, utility boards, and city councils by people who are willing to think differently and act decisively.
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