Image: Solar array by Sebastian Ganso from Pixabay 

​

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. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

​

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