Best Practices for Equitable Stakeholder Engagement in State Solar Programs

As states plan and implement solar programs for communities, equitable stakeholder engagement is crucial to truly understanding and meeting communities’ needs. This document seeks to help state government officials create and/or expand their processes for equitably engaging with communities when developing and deploying solar programs.

A state’s stakeholder engagement process will depend upon existing levels of engagement with communities of interest, levels of community interest, available resources and capacity, and other factors. No two approaches to engagement will be identical. It can, of course, be difficult to incorporate and involve a range of voices at the decision-making table.

This document is intended as a high-level overview for states to begin their engagement processes or check in on their established processes to create a more equitable program foundation. This is critical, especially as states engage residents and community members in marginalized groups whose voices are often unheard or unconsidered.

This document was developed as part of CESA’s Solar with Justice: Connecting States and Communities project. The Solar with Justice project aims to bring together state energy agencies (SEAs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) developing solar for environmental justice communities to create opportunities for dialogue and collaboration.

This document is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the Solar Energy Technologies Office Award Number DE-EE0009360.