Nonprofits face a unique challenge in the solar-development market. According to a report by Smart Electric Power Alliance, the demand for community-shared solar is soaring, but supply cannot catch up due to a lack of financing options.

“There are no jobs on a dead planet,” said Sharan Burrow, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation. Burrow is vice-chair of The B Team, a coalition of business and civil society leaders that was founded by Richard Branson and Jochen Zeitz. In an attempt to address the dual dangers of economic injustice and environmental disaster that Burrow’s remark references, The B Team launched the Pledge for a Just Transition to Decent Jobs in August 2018.

Innovative solutions can help solar companies reach the low-to-moderate-income market, according to a report from Vote Solar. According to 2016 Census and FICO data, 44-78 million people in the United States qualify as low-income and/or low-credit. But many of these customers are being left out of the clean energy transition because of financial barriers to securing access to solar products.

With so much happening at a state level in solar power and energy efficiency, it is difficult to keep up with the variety of approaches and perspectives. So the Yale Center for Business and the Environment is here to help by launching “States of Clean Energy Innovation,” an online news hub with customized clean energy data and stories about the United States and Puerto Rico. Each state is different. Each state has thoughtful leaders working on our transition to clean energy. And each state deserves its own dashboard.

There is a strong groundswell of support for solar power and energy efficiency in Oregon. This has boosted the state’s programs and amplified their accomplishments, according to Janine Benner, director of Oregon Department of Energy. In this interview, she said Oregon is using these technologies to offset the environmental impact of its growing IT industry.

New Mexico needs to modernize its rates, regulations and incentives so it can make substantial progress in improving its solar-energy and energy efficiency markets, said Ken Hughes, clean energy specialist at the State of New Mexico’s Energy Conservation and Management Division. In this interview, he provided examples of success stories on the ground.

Solar power is starting to take root in West Virginia at a community level, said Kelly Bragg, energy development specialist with the West Virginia Office of Energy. In this interview, she also said energy efficiency remains a low priority due to the affordable cost of electricity.

The Sun Belt offers great possibilities for solar power development. And in many states of the deep South, residential customers stand to gain massively from increased access to affordable renewable energy. The Southeast is home to much of the nation’s worst sustained poverty. Its low-income consumers have some of the highest energy burdens in the country, according to American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. “Energy burden” is defined as the percentage of household income that goes toward energy costs. Many states in the region maintain detrimental policy frameworks. Innovation is needed across the board to ensure solar power’s benefits are...

On social media and at industry conventions, it is easy to find high-profile discussions on the technological revolution of electric grids. Experts on energy storage, distributed generation, and wireless options describe how emerging technologies are poised to transform the electricity sector. The hype is real. Energy companies are developing technologies at an increasingly rapid pace. But for all the attention on these new devices and expectations of market growth, there’s still no clear path to widespread adoption. As this series shows, several key barriers prevent technology adoption from keeping up with technology development.

During the solar policy debates that have happened in the United States over the past several years, many conversations about what low-income utility customers want have taken place without the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) being in the room. But now that the organization has published its 2017 report “Just Energy Policies: Model Energy Policies Guide,” it’s clear that the views of its constituents have been misrepresented in these meetings.