May Happy Hour, featuring Bill Hetherington, CEO of Bandera Electric Cooperative

Join us on May 25th to learn how Bandera Electric Cooperative (BEC) and other electric cooperatives are helping Texans build climate resiliency by providing affordable solar energy.

Here at Solar Austin, we continue to peel back the curtain on local policy and utility action after February’s Winter Storm Uri. It’s not a mystery why over two-thirds of Texans, left in the cold and dark, view the performance of their local electric utility as more negative than positive. The one exception to Lone Star utilities’ particularly scathing performance reviews came from the members of the 60+ electric cooperatives operating within the Texas Interconnection grid. According to Forbes Magazine, customers of these city-owned cooperatives submitted the only positive evaluations of their local utility’s February freeze performance.

As one of the few applauded utilities, Bandera Electric Cooperative (BEC) will be joining Solar Austin to discuss what set them apart from commercial competitors. Stretching from the outskirts of Northwest San Antonio to the far west corners of Leakey, BEC powers as many as 38,000 members and is helping re-imagine rural communities as we know them. Under the leadership of Bill Heatherington, BEC strives to provide a democratic and collaborative way of delivering secure, reliable, and affordable electricity and high-speed internet access – pillars for 21st century economic stability.

Picking up the discussion from our March Happy Hour on the Texan State of Solar, Solar Austin aims to shed light on the unproductive blame game between renewables and non-renewables currently gaining traction in our state’s Capitol. Our goal is to help bridge the gap between Central Texas’ energy producers and consumers to better understand how much solar energy matters.

Grab a (virtual) beer with us next Tuesday May 25th to learn how BEC’s Bill Heatherington has garnered such well-deserved successes. If you are interested in learning more about Apolloware, the financial benefits of solar for Hill Country residents, BEC Fiber, and Bill’s vision for decentralized solar and storage fit, this is a happy hour you won’t want to miss!