Vice President, Energy Transition Bowman Consulting Group Ltd
Distributed energy resources are still largely limited to commercial establishments and affluent neighborhoods that can afford the upfront cost. Island-able microgrids that provide resiliency are also limited to the higher income market due to low to moderate income (LMI) households’ lack of access to capital. At 12.9% of income, the average energy burden for LMI households is the highest of all groups. One way to address high energy burdens is through energy conservation measures and on-site energy production. However, according to a national survey of multi-family affordable housing developers, technical assistance support and innovative financing options are needed to implement solar+storage projects in the LMI market. In this poster, Michael Ginsberg and Kate Ringness share insights from economic and energy modeling of the California Energy Commission funded, UC-Berkeley led EcoBlock, and how community microgrids at scale can enable LMI households to benefit financially from solar+storage systems.
