As a faculty member at Allegheny College in Northwestern Pennsylvania, I work with students to design and install solar arrays for churches, housing nonprofits, and other organizations that serve our community. Collaborating on local solar projects has taught me a great deal. But what stands out most from my experience is that vulnerable populations are being left out of the energy transition.
As I meet individuals and organizations who are actively pursuing solar installations, it is clear that these stakeholders possess a certain degree of time, knowledge, and/or financial resources that enable them to entertain the idea of a solar investment. Unfortunately, this is a luxury that many others in my community do not have. While the rapid growth of solar will provide clean energy and security to many, others will face an uncertain future without the direct benefit of solar and other green energy technologies. This disparity will have significant consequences on the equity and resiliency of our society.
The Roadblocks To Resilience
If you own your home, have a suitable roof or yard, and can afford solar, you can dramatically reduce your electric bills. If you combine those solar panels with battery storage, you can even fortify your home against blackouts and other grid disruptions. Lower-income households, however, face significant barriers to solar adoption. Older homes might need expensive roof replacements before solar becomes a viable option. Renters who do not own their roofs and those without access to financing may be entirely out of luck. These barriers to solar mean that wealthier households are lowering their energy bills and receiving more reliable electricity while everyone else is left purchasing electricity from providers with steadily increasing rates.
To make matters worse, low-income households are already facing daunting challenges when it comes to energy consumption. According to the Energy Information Administration, more than a quarter of US households are energy insecure, meaning that they are unable to meet their energy needs due to financial constraints, substandard housing conditions, and other factors that disproportionately impact low-income populations. Many of these households have sacrificed food and medicine to pay their energy bills, and not surprisingly, researchers have identified links between energy insecurity and mental health, respiratory health, thermal stress, sleep quality, and child health. Energy insecurity means less access to air conditioning, refrigeration, and electric-powered medical devices in a time of increasingly extreme weather and more frequent grid disruptions. In other words, energy-insecure communities are less resilient in the face of aging energy infrastructure and a changing climate.
Of course, low-income households are not the only ones impacted by energy insecurity. We all suffer the impacts of inefficient buildings pumping additional greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. We all pay for the social safety nets that keep families afloat when they are unable to meet monthly expenses. And we all pay for heat-related emergency room visits that would be completely avoidable in a more equitable society. We would all be better off emotionally, physically, and financially if we addressed the root cause of energy insecurity rather than its symptoms.
Solar represents an incredible opportunity to address the lack of access to affordable electricity and create a more resilient society. If photovoltaics have the power to widen income and energy disparities, solar can also be harnessed to buoy families facing the worst financial hardships, extreme weather, and grid disruptions. The only question is: How do we get solar in the hands of those who could benefit the most from the technology?
Solar Solutions: We Can Do More
There are several policy approaches that can close the energy divide and help communities become energy resilient. Solar incentives have historically been the go-to strategy for expanding the use of solar power, and the most notable residential incentive in the U.S. is called the solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC). As its name suggests, the ITC is a federal tax credit that can be worth anywhere between 30% to 60% of a solar installation. The only downside is that homeowners must owe more in taxes than they would receive from the tax credit in order to receive the full benefit. Low-income families rarely meet this criterion, and this means that they face higher costs when installing solar. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 provided a direct payment option for tax-exempt organizations to receive solar incentives, but this new payment mechanism does not apply to individual households. Going forward, we need our federal government to extend these direct payments to individuals who do not earn enough to take advantage of this tax incentive.
Another challenge is that residents cannot put solar panels on their homes if they do not own their own homes or if their roofs cannot support solar panels. That is why some states have adopted community solar programs that allow households to receive credit for solar that is installed off-site. In other words, renters and homeowners with unsuitable roofs can be credited with the energy savings produced by solar panels on another building, a shared apartment building roof, or a brownfield site. My home state of Pennsylvania and 25 other states have yet to pass bills to make this an option for residents. This means that millions of families lack the opportunity to benefit from solar directly. Enabling community solar should be priority number one for states that have yet to address this issue.
Of course, incentives and community solar can only go so far when the core problem is a lack of financial resources. Arguably, the most impactful strategy for getting solar energy into vulnerable communities is direct investment. The Biden administration made a historic investment towards this end when it announced its $7 billion Solar For All grant. Awardees will use these funds to pursue solar installations and workforce development projects in low-income communities all over the nation for the next five years. That said, individual households spent several times this amount on residential solar installations in 2023 alone. Unless we allocate more resources towards low-income solar, our most vulnerable communities will continue to fall behind. Local, state, and federal governments all need to invest in low-income solar if we hope to close the gap in solar spending.
The Energy Transition As An Opportunity
Fortunately, solar is just one of several green technologies with the potential to reduce inequality. Access to quality public transportation and active transportation (walking, biking, etc.) programs has been shown to save money, reduce congestion, and promote economic development. Energy-efficient homes have significant financial and environmental benefits, and they are also the first line of defense against physical and mental illness. And when all of these technologies are implemented in coordinated and equitable ways, the co-benefits could be transformative. Communities can become healthier and wealthier while maintaining access to safe environments, medicine, and mobility, even during extreme weather and grid disruptions.
To these ends I and several of my colleagues at Allegheny College are collaborating with local partners to create efficient and affordable homes, walkable and bikeable neighborhoods, and government buildings powered by renewables. These local initiatives are rewarding and essential, but citizens pushing for equitable energy policies would be far more impactful. Residents and organizers must push for more inclusive policies and more direct investment when it comes to solar and other green technologies. More importantly, we must elect politicians who understand the connections between equity, energy, and climate resilience. The energy transition represents the opportunity of a lifetime to invest in a more equitable and resilient future.