Modeling the potential effects of rooftop solar on household energy burden in the United States

Forrester, Sydney P.; Montañés, Cristina Crespo; O’Shaughnessy, Eric; Barbose, Galen

doi:10.1038/s41467-024-48967-x

Modeling the potential effects of rooftop solar on household energy burden in the United States

Journal Article · Sat Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2024 · Nature Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-48967-x· OSTI ID:2375478

Forrester, Sydney P. ^[1]; Montañés, Cristina Crespo ^[1]; O’Shaughnessy, Eric ^[1]; Barbose, Galen ^[1]

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

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.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 2375478

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 15; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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