A new study from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) published in Nature Energy in November 2020 found that three of the five policy and business models studied increased adoption of solar photovoltaics (PV) among low- and middle-income households—defined as households that were earning less than the median income in counties where they were located—thus increasing adoption equity.[1] The study, titled “The impact of policies and business models on income equity in rooftop solar adoption,” was led by Eric O’Shaughnessy, a Berkeley lab affiliate researcher, and co-authored by Galen Barbose, Ryan Wiser, Sydney Forrester, and Naïm Darghouth, all of Berkeley Lab’s Electricity Markets & Policy group, which conducts research to inform decision-making in the U.S. electricity sector.

According to the study, as much as 42% of the U.S.’s rooftops that could accommodate solar panels are in low- to moderate-income housing but many solar programs are not bringing these households in the rooftop solar market which could "decelerate" the solar industry and slow emission cuts. The study evaluated the effects of five types of programs or business models on adoption equity: financial incentives targeted at low- and middle-income households; leasing, which reduces upfront costs; Property Assessed Clean Energy Financing (PACE), a program to finance PV through property tax payments that is only available in California, Florida, and Missouri; financial incentives offered to customers of any income level; and Solarize, a community initiative to recruit a coalition of prospective PV adopters. Their analysis found that the first three types of interventions – targeted incentives, leasing, and PACE – are effective at increasing adoption equity.

[1] https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2020/11/09/how-to-accelerate-solar-adoption-for-the-underserved/