The  federal government is pushing fossil fuels and trying to shut down  offshore wind. Northeastern Governors, including Governor Lamont, are  allowing methane gas expansions to move forward under the guise of  affordability, despite these expansions having the opposite impact. All  this, while climate change continues to worsen.

During the 2026 spring semester my classmate, Lena Stier, and I researched and wrote a white paper for Sierra Club Connecticut exploring the potential of distributed  energy resources (DERs) to meet the moment and move clean energy  forward, even in the challenging political environment we currently  face.

Distributed  energy resources are small-scale energy and storage resources located  on the distribution system (i.e. someone’s house or business) close to  sites of electricity use. Through our research we explored the potential  of DERs to increase clean energy on Connecticut’s grid, increase grid  resilience and reliability, and decrease costs and increase  affordability. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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In  particular, we considered residential solar, community solar, energy  storage, and load management and demand response. As we looked at each  of these areas, we examined the policies and programs that are run in  our neighboring states, as well as other states across the nation, who  are leading in the deployment of DERs. We compared their policies and  programs to those in Connecticut, and considered what changes we could  make to increase deployment.

Here were our key findings:

• Connecticut is not on track to meet the state’s climate and clean energy goals.

• DERs can  play a key role in helping Connecticut meet its decarbonization goals  while delivering benefits for energy affordability, grid reliability,  and resilience.

• Effective  DER policy can meet rising electricity demand while reducing energy  costs and promoting a more equitable distribution of the benefits of  DERs.

• Stronger  policy approaches are needed from Connecticut. We lag behind peer  states, especially in the areas of community solar and energy storage,  and additional policies and programs are needed to advance DERs at the  scale and pace necessary to meet the state’s clean energy goals.

We also  developed a range of policy opportunities to advance DERs, some of which  included: strengthening and expanding policies and programs that  support residential solar through providing upfront and production  incentives; providing stronger financial incentives, including access to  net metering, for community solar; requiring utilities to integrate  DERs into

their planning process; and establishing a consistent methodology for Connecticut to holistically value the benefits of DERs.

If you’re interested in learning more, please check out the recording of our webinar discussing the results of our work on Youtube, view our slides, or check out the full report.

Sena Wazer, Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator