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Fossil fuel impacts on climate change are driving aggressive timelines for local and state governments to eliminate fossil fuels from electricity production. Oil and gas companies, automobile manufacturers, investor-owned utilities and other fossil fuel-reliant companies are pledging to reduce or eliminate their reliance on emission-generating products by 2050, 2040 and even 2035. Is a more rapid conversion to renewables and elimination of natural gas-powered energy production better for the environment? Mesa Solutions Energy Specialists are taking a more holistic look at the impact of power and finding that may not be the case. Methane Occurs Naturally Methane is a result of natural processes. No amount of solar, wind, fuel cell or geothermal transition will stop methane production. In fact, electrical generation only accounts for 27% of total greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).¹ While 50-65% of methane emissions are caused by human activity.²36% of methane emissions are from mining, natural gas and oil extraction.³ The extraction of oil isn’t going away anytime soon. Oil is used to develop and manufacture nearly all household and industrial items. Despite current, concentrated efforts to reduce

Introduction Microgrids, while still in the early stages of adoption, are being widely utilized at a rapidly growing rate. As more resources become available and research expands on the benefits of this power solution, trends are appearing that highlight the unique situations in which microgrids are most effective. This paper will focus on one of those trends, gathering some of the widely available information demonstrating why schools and universities are in a unique place to benefit from the growing deployment of microgrids. And not only are schools well-positioned to benefit, but they can be a decisive asset to the advancement of efficient, cutting-edge, and environmentally friendly energy that microgrids bring. When it comes to why schools are a particularly good place for saving money with microgrids, it’s important to take the path of stone-cold economics: downtime costs, energy costs and environmental costs will be the main focus. This paper will first describe why schools experience these costs. Then it will explain how a microgrid could mitigate them, concluding with a short section on the options for financing a microgrid, including