August 12, 2015
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm CT
Free & open to the public
Register here
Closing the Solar Income Gap: Greater Access, Proven Policies, and Community Engagement
Continued and precipitous cost reduction combined with improved financing options and regulatory processes, the solar boom continues with a record 40GW of solar power added to the world’s grids in 2014 bringing the global cumulative capacity to over 178GW. The U.S. also celebrated a record year with the largest PV installation in a single year. However, the benefits of such solar momentum seem yet to spread across the spectrum of U.S. household incomes. More than 49 million households that earn less than $40,000 of income per year make up 40 percent of all U.S. households, but represents less than 5 percent of solar installations.
Efforts to close such solar income gap are already underway. On Tuesday, July 7, 2015 the Obama administration announced an initiative to help low- and middle-income Americans gain access to solar energy, and “triple the capacity of solar and other renewable energy systems it installs in federally subsidized housing by 2020.” To contribute towards and accelerate the effort of bringing more solar energy to low-income communities, ICLEI Local Governments For Sustainability USA will convene a panel of experts and practitioners in this webinar to discuss and share existing low-income solar projects, policies, and best practices with the aim to encourage solar power growth in under-served communities who can benefit from solar energy the most yet have the least means to go solar without targeted policy and financing support.
Moderator: Chad Tudenggongbu, Resources Efficiency & Renewable Energy Program Officer, ICLEI USA
Speakers: Chris Jedd, LEED AP BD +C, Portfolio Energy Manager, Denver Housing Authority, Zach Franklin, Vice President of Development and Communications, Grid Alternative, Danielle Baussan, Managing Director of Energy Policy, Center for American Progress
This hour-long FREE webinar session is brought to you as part of the SunShot Solar Outreach Partnership’s continued solar outreach effort. To learn more about solar outreach partnership (SolarOPs), please visit solaroutreach.org. SolarOPs also provides free technical resources and assistance. We invite you to direct your questions, requests, and comments to .
