In Los Angeles County, transitioning to clean, renewable energy will improve air quality and reduce the overall carbon footprint in California’s most populous region. With a $638,878 award from California Climate Investments through the Climate Change Research Program, a partnership led by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Liberty Hill Foundation is helping to make this transition equitable, affordable, and beneficial for people living in the area’s priority populations. That means engaging these communities at all stages of the research.
Community solar enables renters to purchase power generated by local photovoltaic systems, helping to overcome some of the energy‑transition barriers under‑served communities face. Resilience centers serve community members by providing energy services during grid outages. To identify high‑potential sites for community solar and resilience centers, UCLA and Liberty Hill collaborated with seven community‑based organizations (CBOs) representing under‑served communities to develop the Community Solar Opportunities Tool. The new interactive, web‑based analytical tool uses cutting‑edge data and analytics to identify, filter, and prioritize potential sites. Additionally, UCLA developed an “Energy 101” curriculum for CBO partners, containing key information about both technical and governance aspects of the energy system in California.
To determine whether these tools met the communities’ needs, the research leads hosted a series of engagement workshops and events with regional, energy‑oriented CBOs, learning about community‑specific attitudes, interests, and concerns about sustainable energy system transformations.
“The workshops were a transformative experience for me to understand the current structures of our utility system,” said Jeshow Yang with the Asian Pacific Islander Forward Movement. “I'm excited to take the next steps in using the tool to find potential sites for solar panels that would contribute to our Sustainability and Climate Action Plan.”
UCLA and Liberty Hill’s collaborative research model included fully compensating the partner CBOs: the Asian Pacific Islander Forward Movement, Active San Gabriel Valley, East Los Angeles Community Corporation, East Yard Communities, Pacoima Beautiful, Redeemer Community Partnership, Social Justice Learning Institute, and Tenemos Que Reclamar Y Unidos Salvar La Tierra (TRUST) South LA.
As a result, these tools — informed by deep insights from under‑served Angelenos — will help communities develop plans or case studies to support implementation of energy transitions in their own neighborhoods.