Sharing Solar Benefits – Expanding Residential Solar in Connecticut’s Communities of Color

This CESA webinar featured panelists from the Connecticut Green Bank who discussed the Green Bank’s Residential Solar Investment Program (RSIP) and its impacts and results. Join us to learn about their analysis and hear about the experiences of customers who participated in the Green Bank’s programs.

The RSIP has supported over 290 megawatts of residential solar PV deployment since 2012, including over 125 megawatts in low- and moderate-income communities. The program’s success in reaching LMI households can largely be attributed to the Green Bank’s Solar for All program, a public-private partnership with PosiGen Solar and Energy Efficiency that offers homeowner’s a solar lease paired with energy efficiency measures, regardless of income or creditworthiness.

Earlier this year, the Green Bank dove deeper into their data to look at the RSIP’s performance in reaching communities of color in addition to low-income households. The analysis found that LMI and communities of color that were previously underrepresented in solar PV adoption responded favorably to measured incentives and market focus. The experience in Connecticut bucks the trend of recent national studies that have shown a widespread inequality in the deployment of rooftop solar in the U.S. when considering race and ethnicity.

Guest speakers:

• Isabelle Hazlewood, Connecticut Green Bank
• Emily Basham, Connecticut Green Bank
• Nicole Hernandez Hammer, Clean Energy States Alliance (moderator)

This webinar was presented by the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) as part of a State Energy Strategies project supported by a grant from the US Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office.