Statement from Molly Knoll, Vice President of Policy for the Coalition for Community Solar Access (CCSA), on the study released today by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).
“Today, the Energy Markets & Policy group with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory released its timely research on the benefits that community solar can bring to households that cannot access traditional forms of solar.
Their findings are compelling: community solar subscribers are 6x more likely to live in multifamily housing and 4x more likely to rent. This reaffirms what we have known to be true for years — community solar is one of the best ways to increase equity in our energy system.
Research earlier this year from Wood Mackenzie also stated that the share of community solar serving low-to-moderate income (LMI) subscribers grew from 2% to 10% in just one year, with costs decreasing 30% over the same period. This, along with the LBNL findings, shows both the demand for equitable clean energy and the effects that policy tailored towards LMI customers can have on both increasing solar adoption and decreasing overall costs.
We expect this equitable access to increase substantially as more state policies include requirements that projects serve LMI customers and the $7 billion infusion from the EPA’s Solar for All competition further turbo-charges LMI adoption.
This study is important confirmation of one of the values community solar can bring to the electric grid and the tireless work our broad and diverse coalitions are doing to bring community solar to every state in the country.”