The West’s  renewable energy resources — especially the wind, solar and geothermal energy concentrated on our vast public lands — are in the limelight a lot these days. With that in mind, HCN put together this summer’s special issue around the concept of alternative alternative energy — as in, not just those big solar and wind plants that everyone’s jawing about these days, but also the role small, local energy projects could play in helping solve climate change, and the big challenges in the way of any attempts to change our energy mix to make it less greenhouse-gassy.

Conrad Wilson of KDNK, a community radio station in Carbondale, Colo., recently  interviewed HCN Assistant Editor Sarah Gilman about some of the stories in that issue. You can find their conversation here.

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Sarah Gilman is an independent writer, illustrator and editor based in Washington state. Her work covers the environment, natural history, science and place. She served as a staff and contributing editor at High Country News for 11 years.