Is Energy Independence Just for the Rich?

Rolling outages. Harmful environmental impacts. Increasing costs. Everywhere you look, people are finding motivation to work toward sustainability and energy independence in their own lives. And from electric vehicles to solar panels, the disconnection from traditional fossil fuels and the electric grid they power has never been easier or more affordable.

But as has always been the case with new technologies, the earliest adopters of clean energy and off-grid tech are those with the financial ability to do so. For most Americans, especially those who live near or below the poverty line, this kind of technology and energy independence can seem out of reach.

The coronavirus pandemic only exacerbated the gaps, with nearly 5 million households unable to pay at least one energy bill during the pandemic, according to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. A recent CNET survey showed that Americans remain anxious about their energy costs, with 78% saying they were concerned about home energy bills and 32% using borrowing and payment plans to pay those bills.

So without destroying their bank accounts or winning the lottery, what can regular people do to adopt more clean energy in their daily life, and work toward getting off the grid? Which options are emerging as potential solutions? And what are the barriers standing in the way?

In a country as geographically and demographically diverse as the United States, motivation for implementing clean energy or achieving energy independence varies greatly depending on where you live.

For residents of our most populous state, that motivation is easy to understand, and isn’t a new predicament.

“Every summer, we tend to either have rolling power outages in California or the threat of rolling power outages,” said Brian Goldstein, executive director of Energy Independence Now, an environmental nonprofit that focuses on advancing fuel cell EV tech, renewable energy storage and decarbonization. “So there’s always this question in the back of your mind, ‘How are you going to manage if the grid goes down for a little while?’”

That kind of uncertainty about the grid is one major factor driving people to look for solutions more than ever before. Last year, a record 5 million solar installations arrived at homes in the United States, and programs like community solar are giving access to some who didn’t have it previously.

It’s a trend away from the traditional grid that’s undeniable, even though not everyone can feasibly participate in the movement just yet.

“Ultimately, if we did have a lot of Americans thinking along these lines — more microgrids or the ability to turn our own home into microgrids — it seems pretty cool and efficient to be able to do that,” Goldstein said. “So I think there is a large appetite from Americans who want to do that, along with a bit of distrust of handing over the reins to that process to your local utility.”

Is the quest for energy independence reasonable for most Americans at this stage, or a misplaced aim? Ram Narayanamurthy, deputy director of the US Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office, said it “makes sense,” but maybe not in the way some might think.

“It’s just understanding what you really want out of that independence,” he said. “Let’s say a storm comes through and you need to be able to survive for 72 hours. There are ways to get there without having to go completely independent from the system … I think those goals are actually more achievable and reachable for most people.”

What’s in the way?

The appetite for independence and greener energy may be there, but that doesn’t make it easy to access. As is often the case, the first and largest barriers are money and difficulty of access.

While a renter or homeowner can make a quick phone call and gain quick access to traditional electricity and natural gas, it’s a trickier process to find off-grid options. Most Americans don’t know what community solar is, for instance, and only 20% have considered it. And for smaller-scale options like more efficient appliances and other electric items around the home, it’s simply a budgeting decision more often than not.

“How do you get somebody to install an efficient refrigerator when they own the place, but don’t live in it?” said Jesse Emge, a principal at Evergreen Economics, a Portland-based public policy organization specializing in research and analysis related to energy programs and economic impact. “They’re like, ‘Well, I’ll just put in the cheapest. I don’t pay the bill. Then the renter comes in, and it’s ‘I’m not going to do it. I don’t own this place.’”

Can government intervention help? Maybe. Solar incentives, for instance, have been helpful to some. But the upfront costs involved are still a barrier. “With any program related to a widget or electrification of the home…the incentives tend to work, but you’re still not getting to the hardest-to-reach people with them,” Emge said. “They’re just not overcoming those barriers.”

It appears that legislative options can only go so far. It might not make for fast progress, but in many ways new technologies simply need to continue to get cheaper, a process that’s very much underway.

And in the meantime, there’s room for legislators and community leaders to take a look in the mirror and ask themselves if decisions related to energy are actually helping the communities they seek to improve.

“I’m very idealistic about this energy transition; I grew up watching Captain Planet,” said Matthew Gonzalez, interim executive director of the Four Corners Clean Energy Alliance and executive director of the southwest branches of the Consumer Energy Alliance and HBW Resources. “But I also had the opportunity to serve as a mayor of a community I live in, and I served on city council, where my perspective changed a lot … A lot of times, [public policy] is not grounded in practicality.”

Finding solutions

If it’s not easy and sometimes isn’t feasible for the average American to attain complete energy independence, how can they start working toward that goal in their own lives? It’s still an investment, but solar panel technology is more affordable than ever before, and only getting cheaper.

Emge said he’s working on installing portable batteries for his own home. He said there are policies and programs that can help others follow that path, like Southern California Edison’s Critical Care Backup Battery Program, which offers free portable backup batteries that can power important medical devices during a power outage.

But on a larger scale — and especially for renters — the technology isn’t quite there yet. And for those enthusiastic about clean energy like Emge, it’s only a matter of time before it catches up.

“There has to be some sort of technology,” Emge said. “There has to be some way for a renter to own a solar system. Let’s just go full sci-fi: maybe it’s a box and they can plug it into their living room and point it out a window. But right now, there’s no way to incentivize them to buy a system that they, in theory, are going to have to leave on the roof.”

For many, limiting use of fossil fuels is a critical goal for the environment. That’s why organizations like Energy Independence Now are all-in on promoting EV tech, including that organization’s special focus on hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles. But like other technology, we’re not quite to the point where EVs are just as affordable as an entry-level internal combustion engine car. Yet we’re not far away.

“The biggest barrier or perception of a barrier is probably still cost, although it’s pretty remarkable…how the costs are coming down pretty dramatically,” Goldstein said. “In fact, there’s somewhat of a crash in the battery electric vehicle market right now where a lot of those vehicles’ prices have come down dramatically.”

One of the biggest factors holding back broader access to EVs is infrastructure, and Goldstein is very aware of that. Whether it’s plugs or even just dedicated parking or garages, even a state like California is not yet ready for most people to be driving EVs.

“A lot of the people driving these cars, the early adopters, are the kinds of folks that could afford to do it and had access to whatever infrastructure or resources they needed in order to change their lifestyles to fit the demands of a battery electric vehicle,” Goldstein said. “As we try to penetrate further and further into the population, that’s going to be more and more challenging to do. And then there’s going to be a large portion of the population that just won’t necessarily be able to accommodate those changes.”

How far away are we?

Narayanamurthy understands that utilities and energy providers are in desperate need of “working on the trust relationships” with their customers. He said the government is trying to help, and has had success in programs like heat pump introduction and other incentives.

But in the meantime — for the average American — it’s a challenge to go entirely off the grid.

“If you look at it from a customer’s perspective, unless you feel like you really have the skills to manage your energy system, it makes more sense for you to be connected and obtain some percentage of power from the utilities,” he said. “It’s probably going to give them more reliable and resilient energy.”

In the meantime, advocates are pushing for policies that make it easier for people to find energy independence.

“In California, the last 40 years of energy efficiency policy and demand-side management policy has largely worked,” Emge said. “I don’t know if it’s all been cost-effective, but it’s worked. We figured out how to replace every light bulb in the state, and I think that’s a function of those programs. So the money incentives work, and I think the things we do can work.”

It’s clear that a few incentives for otherwise high-priced technology here and there won’t move the needle for everybody.

“I have a passion for this, and I think all these things are solvable, I really do,” Gonzalez said. “But it’s going to take a lot of innovation. It’s going to take people getting to the table. It’s going to require every community to actually have some say.”