Issue: Solar

Solar United Neighbors designed and implemented a low- and moderate-income solar program that empowers D.C. residents to benefit from rooftop and commmunity solar. Lessons learned from the work necessary to build and run an effective program include: Start small, then scale up; Build trust in the community; Leverage key partnerships; Expand customer base through referrals; Work to simplify the process; and Be flexible and creative in the communications process.

Use emotionally positive images of climate change solutions to grab people’s attention. Using experiments with undergraduate students that measure individuals’ reaction time, researchers found that positive images of climate change, like windmills and solar panels, were better at grabbing participants’ attention than negative images of causes (smokestacks, air pollution) and effects (glaciers melting) of climate change. In fact, using negative images of climate change was no more attention grabbing than images irrelevant to climate change. The use of positive images may be even more important for grabbing the attention of those who are least disposed to care about the environment and climate change. So, when developing media and communication information, consider using positive images of climate change solutions.             

At least 7 in 10 New Jerseyans support each of the six key components of the Clean Energy Equity Act, a bill that aims to help low-income New Jersey families benefit from solar, storage and energy efficiency.