Energize Your Impact: How Funders & Donors Can Support Equitable Solar Power

The solar boom is upon us: last year, more money was invested in solar power than in oil production. Yet, solar power is not equally accessible to all Americans. Low-income communities have few solar installations and often miss out on solar’s benefits.

Some foundations and other philanthropic funders have been working to change that. Across the US, projects are successfully using new strategies to bring solar into disadvantaged communities. This webinar showcased innovative approaches funders are taking to bring equitable solar to low- and moderate-income (LMI) households. Speakers shared examples of specific projects, as well as high-level takeaways from a recent report by the Clean Energy States Alliance, titled Energize Your Impact: How Foundations Can Accelerate Solar for LMI-Serving Community Institutions.

Speakers:

• Chelsea Chee from Native Renewables, an Indigenous-led organization promoting low-cost clean energy solutions.
• Kate Trujillo from the Honnold Foundation, a funder that is focused on supporting solar energy for a more equitable world.
• Vero Bourg-Meyer from the Clean Energy States Alliance.

This Clean Energy States Alliance webinar was part of the U.S. Department of Energy-funded Scaling Up Solar for Under-Resourced Communities project.

This webinar and accompanying report were produced with support from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the Solar Energy Technologies Office award number DE-EE-0008758.