Sharing power has individual and community benefits

image: groundswell

You see "equity" and "equitable" everywhere these days. And sometimes, those touting these principles use the words to attract attention but deliver nothing substantive.

Not Maxine Burkett, professor of law at the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii, and Michelle Moore, CEO of (APACC member) Groundswell. At VERGE 2018 along with Frederick Redell, energy commissioner for Maui County (Hawaii), Burkett and Moore discussed how community power projects can specifically help the poorest community residents.

Staying power: renewables, resilience and redefining beauty with community energy describes the inequitable individual-level economics of traditional power and ways that the current situation can change. GreenBiz wrote,

On average, the poorest 20 percent pay the most for electricity — that’s 10 percent of total household income. Community power and community storage will transform access to affordable clean energy for low-income households if we deploy equitable project finance models that scale with the market instead of depending on subsidies.

(Burkett, Redell, and Moore) spoke of the need for equitable community development in new project deployment and finance models in order to transform the economic and energy landscape in low-resourced communities.

Watch the conversation in the video Sharing power: renewables, resilience and redefining beauty, also below. If you prefer, listen to the audio version: The power struggle: fighting for equity in community renewable energy.