Solar energy is accelerating as more corporations adopt clean energy goals. However, at its current trajectory, the emerging clean energy economy, specifically the rapidly expanding solar market is making the same disparities as the old fossil fuel-based one.
It is important to keep the check and balance, from who leads the companies that are investing in and operating solar projects; to who has access to solar savings; to the location where solar projects are built. Last year’s Solar Industry Diversity Report (PDF), from the Solar Foundation, put many of these challenges in sharp relief.
For solar, some of these challenges are inherent as the market works on incentives that can be accessed only by wealthy people and companies with sufficient income and financial capital to be able to use tax credits.
Systems produce outcomes according to the investment, and national incentives for solar and other renewable value reducing taxes for the wealthy. Hence, wealth is hold by white people and vastly more companies, including solar companies, led by white people.
Therefore, the result of the solar market incentives structure is to make the same companies and people wealthier. Although women, African-Americans and other people of color are able get jobs, ownership is constrained to those who already have capital.
Solutions, therefore, must be at the local level. It is important to inject scalable models aimed to deliver equity by leveraging the full scope of solar value chains rather than incentivizing the richer only. It’s hard, and it takes time to do right, but it’s worth the work today to have the futures we want tomorrow and in the decades ahead.
The decisions we make about how we do our work will determine whether we are delivering on the promise of energy equity and solar, and sustainability, for all. Countless pioneers out in the world already are showing the way. You may not be aware of their work because it tends to be local and focused on the long term, so not very visible unless you live next door or happen to be looking.
We all have an important role. Corporate sustainability and clean energy leaders, bankers and investors, policymakers, nonprofit advocates and advisers, and the army of people out there building clean energy projects every day.
That's what this series is all about. From case studies on corporate leadership to detailed research, we’ll explore "how to" together and celebrate the stories of people getting good things done.