Resilient Power Funding Programs: 2022 Annual Impact Report

Clean Energy Group offers two small-grant programs to help overcome the challenges to developing solar and battery storage projects at critical community-serving facilities.

The Technical Assistance Fund (TAF) helps environmental justice communities gain access to early-stage project development funding, expert guidance and advisory support, and the technical resources needed to develop community- led solar and energy storage projects that can serve as local resilience hubs during times of crisis. The Resilient Power Leadership Initiative (RPLI) provides community-based organizations with funding support to build the internal capacity to advance resilient power solutions.

From 2014 through 2022, CEG’s resilient power funding programs …

Transportation Electrification in the Southeast

Since September 2020, Atlas Public Policy (Atlas) has partnered with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) to publish the annual Transportation Electrification in the Southeast report. This report benchmarks progress on transportation electrification in six states in the Southeast: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. This is the fourth annual report and provides an update on progress from July 2022 through June 2023. A transition to electric transportation is underway across the country and with good policy design and implementation, may deliver emissions reductions resulting in improved public health along with jobs and economic development opportunities. …

Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Decarbonizing Chemicals & Refining

Industrial decarbonization presents a vital opportunity to transform industrial systems to improve energy and environmental justice. Today, U.S. industrial players are at risk of lagging behind net-zero targets, with a focus on short-term, easy-to-implement solutions; however, momentum is growing for deployment of industrial decarbonization solutions. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act have created unprecedented tools to support industrial decarbonization, customers are demanding low-carbon products (e.g., steel for auto), and early private sector movers are emerging. Achieving meaningful reductions could require up to $1,100 billion in capital expenditure and a bold shift in leadership and technology adoption across various …

Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Low-Carbon Cement

Industrial decarbonization presents a vital opportunity to transform industrial systems to improve energy and environmental justice. Today, U.S. industrial players are at risk of lagging behind net-zero targets, with a focus on short-term, easy-to-implement solutions; however, momentum is growing for deployment of industrial decarbonization solutions. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act have created unprecedented tools to support industrial decarbonization, customers are demanding low-carbon products (e.g., steel for auto), and early private sector movers are emerging. Achieving meaningful reductions could require up to $1,100 billion in capital expenditure and a bold shift in leadership and technology adoption across various …

Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Industrial Decarbonization

Industrial decarbonization presents a vital opportunity to transform industrial systems to improve energy and environmental justice. Today, U.S. industrial players are at risk of lagging behind net-zero targets, with a focus on short-term, easy-to-implement solutions; however, momentum is growing for deployment of industrial decarbonization solutions. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act have created unprecedented tools to support industrial decarbonization, customers are demanding low-carbon products (e.g., steel for auto), and early private sector movers are emerging. Achieving meaningful reductions could require up to $1,100 billion in capital expenditure and a bold shift in leadership and technology adoption across various …

Predevelopment Funding for LMI Solar and Storage Projects: A Case Study from New York

The Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) prepared this case study to describe how New York’s state energy office, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), collaborated with community-based organizations (CBOs) while administering the state’s PON 3414 Affordable Solar and Storage Predevelopment and Technical Assistance Program. This program has benefitted many low-and-moderate income (LMI) residents in New York by providing equitable access to solar energy and/or energy storage. The program is flexible to the needs of CBOs representing LMI communities, ensures the benefits of the solar and/or storage projects flow to LMI residents, and provides funding for the …

Predevelopment Funding for LMI Solar and Storage Projects: A Case Study from New York

A thorough predevelopment process for a potential solar or solar+storage project is essential to deciding whether the project can and should move forward. Predevelopment includes site identification, financial modeling, estimating equipment and installer expenses, customer outreach and enrollment, and other details about the scope of the project. This process can be expensive, and many for-profit solar developers only invest money into predevelopment when they already believe a project is likely to be able to move forward. Financing for predevelopment costs is usually not available to community-based organizations working to develop solar or solar+storage to benefit low-and-moderate income (LMI) residents because …

Strengthening a Minnesota Community with Solar and Resilience

The Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) prepared this case study to describe how the community based organization, Ecolibrium3, developed a community solar array and resilience hub to benefit residents of a low-income, historically marginalized community in Duluth, MN. To create these two distinct projects Ecolibrium3 made use of stakeholder partnerships, technical assistance, and community outreach. This case study illustrates how these two projects were developed, what they learned, and what advice they would give to those developing future programs.

This case study was developed as part of CESA’s Solar with Justice: Connecting States and Communities project. The Solar with Justice …

Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Overview of Societal Considerations and Impacts

How first-of-a-kind energy infrastructure projects impact—and are impacted by—society can determine market liftoff. Individual projects introduce far-reaching, multi-generational changes to local communities, while also setting the standard forfollow-on projects unfolding across the country. In this way, social considerations and impacts not only influence the success of each individual project, but ultimately determine social acceptance and adoption. As first movers, early players have an outsized role in shaping whether the clean energy transition is supported by, and supportive of, communities and workers across the country: new technologies can contribute to a more equitable and just future, or follow entrenched patterns of …

Powering Toward 100 Percent Clean Power by 2035

This paper from Evergreen and NRDC outlines an updated roadmap toward 80 percent clean power by 2030 and 100 percent clean electricity by 2035 now that the IRA is law. With two years remaining in his first term, President Biden must continue to pursue his agenda using standards, investments, and justice to tackle the climate crisis and build a thriving, just, and inclusive clean energy economy.…