As California races to meet its clean energy goals, the rooftops of large commercial and public buildings like colleges and hospitals may offer untapped potential for solar power in disadvantaged communities, where experts said residential solar adoption is slowest. Stanford University researchers found that installing solar on nonresidential buildings in these communities, where most residents are renters, could help fill what they call a solar equity gap. However, solar advocates argue that current state policies block this from happening.
“Incentivizing nonresidential solar is really, really valuable if you’re worried about access to solar energy in disadvantaged communities,” said Ram Rajagopal, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford and an author of the study. “Alongside that, we definitely need to demand and incentivize the extension of these solar [utility] systems into microgrids that can power communities.”
Energy consumption in homes and businesses was responsible for an estimated 31% of the nation’s total greenhouse gas emissions in 2022. In San Francisco, 43 of the highest 100 energy users that year were office buildings — the largest group — many sitting vacant since the COVID-19 pandemic increased remote work.
In a recent study published in Nature Energy, Rajagopal and his colleagues evaluated data from DeepSolar, an innovative public database created by researchers at the university that analyzes satellite images to identify where solar photovoltaic panels are located across the U.S.
The research team estimates that 63% of the nation’s disadvantaged communities, as identified by the federal government for lack of investment and pollution, can support 20% of household electricity demand. That’s if rooftop solar panels were installed on buildings over 10,000 square feet. Rajagopal noted that, when placed on schools and hospitals, these solar installations would benefit these institutions by bringing costs down. He also said they should be connected to households through microgrids so nearby residents could receive electricity directly. A neighborhood with a microgrid can isolate itself from the main grid during a power outage, making the energy system more resilient to disruptions.
