How U.S. Communities Can Help Deliver the Clean Energy Future

Over the next few months, citizens in more than 60 nations will choose leaders who will shape the future of those countries—and our planet. A key issue in many of these elections is how communities can help deploy clean energy—and build up local economies—in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

This is certainly true in the United States. The American energy sector is at an inflection point. How we heat and cool our homes and power our cars and industries is shifting to clean energy sources such as wind, solar, and batteries—and the demand for renewable electricity is growing dramatically. Recognizing this, the federal government recently provided unprecedented funding to spur rapid adoption of clean energy and now we—advocates, philanthropists, policymakers, and the private sector—must invest in the local implementation of those resources.

Local communities are the backbone of any successful clean energy project. Their early and active involvement ensures not only the acceptance but the long-term durability of projects. For example, communities can generate their own clean energy through technologies such as rooftop solar and storage, which can allow for a more flexible and resilient electricity grid. Furthermore, community-level involvement in the energy transition can bring economic benefits—including jobs and reduced energy costs—in a way that bridges political divides.

That has led The Pew Charitable Trusts to launch an initiative to rapidly accelerate the deployment of distributed energy sources (DERs) across the United States. These sources include rooftop solar panels, energy storage systems, and microgrids—a grouping of electricity sources that can operate independent of the broader electric grid and can keep critical community services online during major power outages.

DERs can empower communities to generate and manage their own energy, enhance grid resilience, and increase energy security. They also offer a cost-effective, durable pathway to reducing carbon emissions; in fact, in one model, researchers looked at ways the U.S. could achieve at least a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and found that by using DERs, along with large-scale renewables, the country could save $109 billion.

Joining Pew in this effort to democratize energy production are two respected energy sector leaders. Audrey Zibelman is a former chair of the New York State Public Service Commission, where she oversaw massive regulatory reform of the electric industry to support a decarbonized grid. She was also CEO of the Australian Energy Market Operator, where she launched a national strategy to more than double the country’s DERs by 2040. Pat Wood has long championed the decentralized, decarbonized, dependable, democratized, and digitized future of power, and served as the chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas and of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission under former President George W. Bush.

Pew’s bipartisan initiative—which will also include other industry and regulatory experts, equity- and community-centered organizations, and utility representatives—will develop a roadmap on how the nation can rapidly accelerate the growth of DERs across the country.

We’ve seen the value that DERs can provide through a pilot project in Texas, where the grid operator is successfully harnessing hundreds of DERs as “virtual power plants” to supply the grid with energy during times of high demand. It’s shown such early promise that state regulators are looking to expand this pilot. DERs and microgrids have also proven their value to communities during extreme weather events like Hurricane Sandy, when a microgrid kept the power on at Princeton University, allowing the campus to be a staging ground for first responders and a refuge for community members during a multiday grid outage.

The potential of DERs is vast, but there are many barriers for customers to access them and for widespread community adoption. Through this initiative, we hope to give policymakers the tools needed to scale the use of DERs, and to equip communities with the resources needed to ensure equitable access to the financial and environmental benefits of clean, distributed energy.

This new initiative builds upon Pew’s U.S. climate initiatives, which focus on removing barriers to clean energy deployment, accelerating the pace of grid modernization, and using nature-based solutions to absorb carbon and create resilient landscapes and communities. The U.S. cannot afford to rely on an electric grid that was built for the demands—and the weather—of last century. The future is here, and our country must meet it with the best and most efficient technologies possible.

Tom Dillon is a senior vice president and oversees The Pew Charitable Trusts’ environmental work. Laura Lightbody is a director and leads The Pew Charitable Trusts’ energy modernization project.