Policymakers at the federal and state level have begun to incorporate energy burden into equity goals and program evaluations, aiming to reduce energy burden below a high level of 6% for lower income households in the United States. Pairing an empirical household-level dataset spanning United States geographies together with modeled hourly energy demand curves, we show that rooftop solar reduces energy burden across a majority of adopters during our study period from a median of 3.3% to 2.6%. For low- and moderate-income adopters (at or below 80% and 120% of area median income, respectively), solar reduces median 2021 energy burden from 7.7% to 6.2%, and 4.1% to 3.3%, respectively. Importantly, solar reduces the rate of high or severe energy burden from 67% of all low-income households before adoption to 52% of households following adoption, and correspondingly from 21% to 13% for moderate-income households. Here, we show rooftop solar can support policy goals to reduce energy burden along with strategies such as weatherization and bill assistance.
}, year = {2024}, journal = {Nature Communications}, volume = {15}, month = {06/2024}, url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-48967-x}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-48967-x}, note = {An open-access version of this article published in Nature Communications can be downloaded here. A brief overview of this study can be found here.
A webinar discussing this study was recorded on June 26, 2024, and can be viewed here.
}, language = {eng}, }