Stakeholder and Community Engagement

Expanding the use of PV energy production coupled with energy storage in local communities has been recognized as one of the most promising solutions to not only increase energy resilience, but also lower electricity costs and thereby reduce the energy burden of socially vulnerable communities. However, various challenges remain to be addressed, such as identifying the most vulnerable communities, creating polices to encourage the investment of these resources, and establishing optimal placement strategies considering the physical network constraints. This is a truly interdisciplinary challenge that requires inputs from various scientific fields as well as stakeholders for effective optimization.

For this subtask, UCF researchers and IDEAS For Us, a non-profit organization in environmental advocacy, are partnering together to facilitate multiple opportunities for residents, community-based organizations, technology groups, and local government to share important feedback on the research design, communication strategies, and barriers to solar + storage in their community.