Technical Assistance for Communities and Organizations From the Solar Energy Innovation Network
June 24, 2024 by Kamyria Coney, Alex Kramer, Scott Belding, Tucker Oddleifson
The Solar Energy Innovation Network's (SEIN's) Innovation at SCALE (Solar Community Assistance for Local Equity) initiative provides technical assistance to those who adapt and apply insights developed through SEIN.
One of the main objectives of SEIN is to assist multi-stakeholder teams in identifying and addressing barriers to solar adoption. As a community-focused assistance program, Innovation at SCALE provides an opportunity to share tools, lessons learned, and frameworks that have been developed through SEIN with additional communities and organizations throughout the United States who may encounter similar barriers to solar adoption.
Topics From Solar Energy Innovation Network Round 2: Commercial-Scale Solar and Solar in Rural Communities
Launched in July of 2022, the Innovation at SCALE initiative focused on topics from three SEIN Round 2 projects: Breaking Barriers, Clear Sky Tampa Bay Decision Support Toolkit, and Rhode Island Interconnection Tools. Through direct outreach and Innovation at SCALE's open request portal, more than 25 organizations received assistance through the program. This effort prioritized meeting organizations and communities where they are, and the provided technical assistance reflected communities' needs to begin or continue their clean energy transition.
Assistance included informational resource sharing, identification of community goals, memoranda on solar benefits and technologies, project planning, analysis and training for NREL's REopt model, presentations, and so much more.
More than anything, assistance provided by Innovation at SCALE served those facing barriers to solar by advancing their decision-making and increasing their access to potential solar energy deployment pathways. In some cases, the assistance provided was useful far beyond the community that received assistance. For example, the NREL report Community Resilience Options: A Menu for Enhancing Local Energy Resilience was initially a resilience memo developed for National Grid in Massachusetts and became a resource for many other communities who will benefit from these resilience options.
Organizations and Cities Adapted Solutions to Solar Barriers Based on Solar Energy Innovation Network Round 2 Topics
The Breaking Barriers project, led by Groundswell, designed solar and battery storage projects to improve energy resilience at four historically Black colleges and universities on an adjoining campus in West Atlanta, as well as within the surrounding energy-burdened community.
Innovation at SCALE sought to assist other universities and organizations with similar goals for resilient clean energy deployment. Florida Memorial University (FMU), located in the Miami area, requested assistance navigating their abundant solar potential alongside the region's exposure to natural disasters, as well as the university's priority of reducing energy costs. FMU sought to save money on energy bills through solar while also transforming into a model campus for resilience services to benefit the students, staff, and surrounding communities, but with so many potential solar sites, FMU wanted to know where to start.
NREL researchers leveraged the experience of the Breaking Barriers project as well as the capabilities of the REopt™ platform to compose guidance memoranda on resilience capabilities, model solar production at sites across campus, and to characterize FMU's path to solarization.
In addition, Innovation at SCALE supported the Clear Sky Tampa Bay Decision Support Toolkit. The Clear Sky team, led by the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, developed a toolkit that provides local governments and community partners with resources for assessing the siting prioritization and feasibility of solar-plus-storage facilities for disaster resilience.
NREL's partner in delivering technical assistance, Converge Strategies, received a request from the City of Providence, Rhode Island, to implement concepts from the Clear Sky Tampa Bay Toolkit, which included a resilient solar siting checklist for city planning purposes. Converge Strategies gathered case studies and resources and presented findings to Providence leadership, and then helped the city develop a resilient solar and storage siting checklist to meet their needs.
The SEIN Rhode Island team was led by the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources. This SEIN Round 2 team developed an analytical approach to identifying alternative options for distribution system-connected photovoltaic systems in hosting capacity-constrained environments. The project used novel modeling approaches and economic analysis to simulate how these projects could manage interconnection costs and streamline interconnection timelines.
NREL researchers contacted the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) and found that the work of the Rhode Island SEIN Round 2 team aligned with PANYNJ's need to understand the impacts of increased solar deployment on their electrical network. PANYNJ were especially interested in how the SEIN team responded to challenges the team identified that addressed requirements for costly and time-consuming electricity grid upgrades.
Through collaboration with NREL researchers, PANYNJ was able to better identify its assessment needs and forecast potential stressors on its airport electricity networks to successfully interconnect their ambitious planned solar deployment.
Innovation at SCALE Lessons Learned and Best Practices
As the Innovation at SCALE effort continues to provide technical assistance from the findings of SEIN multistakeholder teams, it's important to reflect on lessons learned and continue to refine best practices and deliver beneficial technical assistance.
Some best practices we've learned so far:
Meet communities where they are in the solar deployment process. Communities may be early in their solar journey, where SEIN's Innovation at SCALE effort is one of their first conversations about solar adoption. It is important that Innovation at SCALE provides the types of assistance that are most useful to communities, even though their introductory status might limit the depth of technical assistance NREL is able to provide.
Technical assistance at this early stage may focus on building familiarity with solar energy, goal setting, and strategic planning.Project scope conversations may coincide with relationship-building, highlighting the importance of committing appropriate time and resources to these conversations. Some communities may have a mistrust of federal programs due to legacies of energy injustices in their communities or negative past experiences. During relationship building it is essential to engage with the community with transparency and benefit the relationship in a meaningful way.
These scoping conversations can provide context for communities to feel seen and heard early in the program. Active listening, flexibility, cultural competency, and patience are all part of NREL's role for engaging these communities in place-based technical assistance.
Stakeholder alignment around the community's priorities is crucial. As a program, SEIN highlights the effectiveness and importance of engaging multiple stakeholders to achieve local clean energy goals. In working with individual entities or organizations through Innovation at SCALE, sometimes the most effective form of technical assistance can be in helping to build and align a coalition of stakeholders.
If all stakeholders are not familiar with each other's approach or goals, then project selection may be a muddled or delayed process. These experiences have underlined the role NREL may play in facilitating discussions around priorities, planning, and decision support, while providing technical assistance to support those conversations, such as data analysis, mapping, or energy education.Interested in applying SEIN insights and best practices in your community? Check out the Innovation at SCALE webpage to request technical assistance from NREL researchers and partners.
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