How LIFT Toolkit and IRA Boost LMI Community Solar Access and Savings
One of the most promising and emerging sectors of the solar industry is the community solar projects that serve low to moderate-income (LMI) households. However, the best practices and models for designing and financing these projects are still under development and experimentation.
To address this gap, the LIFT Solar Everywhere project conducted research on the best financial and customer models for LMI community solar projects in different utility contexts. The research, which is presented in “Exploring New Deployment Tools for Accelerating Equitable Solar Access to Low-and Moderate-Income Households,” aimed to create new tools to speed up the access of LMI homeowners and renters to community solar by finding the most suitable models for different regions and utility types.
Some of the findings of this research challenge common assumptions about what motivates subscribers and suggest new ways for developers to leverage these insights for marketing and development purposes. The LIFT dataset is unique in that it focuses specifically on LMI households and their community solar experiences. This research provides answers to questions that are relevant to these households and their solar access. The LIFT research findings also have implications for community solar program implementation, such as how early engagement with subscribers affects their satisfaction and how enabling legislation influences the savings of LMI households from community solar.
The LIFT Toolkit is a free online resource that helps users overcome common challenges to LMI equitable access and inclusive project-finance methods and allows users to interact with the dataset in various ways.
The toolkit enables users to easily explore the state of LMI community solar in the US and design community solar projects that maximize LMI participation, equity, and savings levels. One of the most unexpected findings was that subscribers - regardless of income level - said that the main reason they joined a community solar program was not savings but environmental benefits. In fact, lower-income households said that environmental benefits were the most important measure of how well their program served them. Findings like this are exciting because they can be quickly applied to both new and existing projects in communicating with current and potential subscribers.
Findings like this can also suggest a possible subscriber interest in learning more about how their community solar project helps the environment beyond the energy or savings it produces. Similarly, LIFT research showed that customer acquisition and subscriber management risks can be mitigated to allow developers to achieve competitive financial returns and customer retention for this vital market segment through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
The IRA facilitates access to tax credits and project finance value stacking, which can help solar developers lower their operating costs and deliver higher bill savings to LMI subscribers. We are still seeing the effects of this legislation on the community solar projects that serve LMI households, but it has already clearly boosted the development of projects in this area. To sustain this growth, industry leaders and advocates need to continue to focus on policy changes that will support accelerated growth and increased savings for community solar projects serving LMI subscribers.
To address this gap, the LIFT Solar Everywhere project conducted research on the best financial and customer models for LMI community solar projects in different utility contexts. The research, which is presented in “Exploring New Deployment Tools for Accelerating Equitable Solar Access to Low-and Moderate-Income Households,” aimed to create new tools to speed up the access of LMI homeowners and renters to community solar by finding the most suitable models for different regions and utility types.
Some of the findings of this research challenge common assumptions about what motivates subscribers and suggest new ways for developers to leverage these insights for marketing and development purposes. The LIFT dataset is unique in that it focuses specifically on LMI households and their community solar experiences. This research provides answers to questions that are relevant to these households and their solar access. The LIFT research findings also have implications for community solar program implementation, such as how early engagement with subscribers affects their satisfaction and how enabling legislation influences the savings of LMI households from community solar.
The LIFT Toolkit is a free online resource that helps users overcome common challenges to LMI equitable access and inclusive project-finance methods and allows users to interact with the dataset in various ways.
The toolkit enables users to easily explore the state of LMI community solar in the US and design community solar projects that maximize LMI participation, equity, and savings levels. One of the most unexpected findings was that subscribers - regardless of income level - said that the main reason they joined a community solar program was not savings but environmental benefits. In fact, lower-income households said that environmental benefits were the most important measure of how well their program served them. Findings like this are exciting because they can be quickly applied to both new and existing projects in communicating with current and potential subscribers.
Findings like this can also suggest a possible subscriber interest in learning more about how their community solar project helps the environment beyond the energy or savings it produces. Similarly, LIFT research showed that customer acquisition and subscriber management risks can be mitigated to allow developers to achieve competitive financial returns and customer retention for this vital market segment through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
The IRA facilitates access to tax credits and project finance value stacking, which can help solar developers lower their operating costs and deliver higher bill savings to LMI subscribers. We are still seeing the effects of this legislation on the community solar projects that serve LMI households, but it has already clearly boosted the development of projects in this area. To sustain this growth, industry leaders and advocates need to continue to focus on policy changes that will support accelerated growth and increased savings for community solar projects serving LMI subscribers.
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