Households as Energy Investors and Other Good Economic Signals for Distributed Energy

By Elisa Wood, Energy Changemakers

Household investment in energy is rising as consumers install more distributed energy resources (DERs) in their homes. This is one of several good economic signals for DERs we’ve picked up in recent reports.

Household share of energy investment has doubled since 2015 — largely due to those with higher incomes adopting rooftop solar, energy efficiency improvements, heat pumps, and electric vehicles, according to a report by the International Energy Agency.

Here are a few other encouraging metrics that indicate health in the distributed energy market:

• In New York, a good model for workable DER policies, distributed solar deployment is now outpacing utility-scale renewables, averaging 31% annual growth over the last decade. This growth has created 5.7 GW of distributed solar, including nearly 1 GW in 2023 alone. Community solar represents much of the growth.
• Research shows that household solar panels save money and reduce energy burden—the percentage of household income that goes toward energy bills. After evaluating 500,000 households, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that solar panels can generate a median savings of $691 a year. when all costs are considered. Solar reduced the rate of high or severe energy burden from 67% to 52% for all low-income households.
• Electric vehicles (EVs) appear to be an area where the federal government’s equity attempts are succeeding. The Center for American Progress (CAP) analyzed 100 congressional districts and found that lower-income communities receive a large share of federal money for batteries and EV charging. About three-quarters of US EV battery and charger investment has occurred in communities with median household incomes below the national median of $74,755.

Read the full article on EnergyChangemakers.com.