YOUNG SCIENTIST LECTURE
Speaker: DR. Ekundayo Shittu
Title: Equitable Accessibility in Solar Deployment
Speaker bio : His research focuses on the interplay between public policy, competition and energy investments, and has been supported by the NSF, DOE, TMF, etc. He was a Lead Author for AR5 of the IPCC. He holds a B.Eng. in Electrical Engineering, an M.S. in Industrial Engineering, and a Ph.D. in IEOR.
Supporting institution: The George Washington University and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Mälardalen University
Abstract: Several policies have been enacted to promote the adoption of renewable electricity leading some incumbent utilities to embrace the transition. Yet, the scale of consumer adoption appears to be limited by accessibility. The underlying factors inhibiting accessibility are exacerbated with low- and middle-income (LMI) consumers who not only have substantial income disparities but also make up a significant proportion of a utility’s customer base. The first of this two-theme talk examines democratizing access to solar technology by investigating the barriers and drivers of investment in community solar programs (CSP) in the U.S. The second theme dives deeper to extract contributions to distributional effects of environmental policy by evaluating utilities’ efforts to provide consumer access to clean energy. Reviewing solar initiatives of utilities, as reflected on their website enhanced with secondary archival data, we find that the role of accessibility particularly for LMI households, either through CSPs or rooftop solar installations, is shaped by complementary factors.