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The effect of residential solar on energy insecurity among low- to moderate-income households

Nature Energy volume 10, pages 569–580 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Each year, millions of Americans experience energy insecurity, or the inability to afford enough energy to meet their basic needs. This study evaluates whether residential rooftop solar can serve as a preventative solution to energy insecurity among low- to moderate-income households. Using a national, matched sample of solar and non-solar households based on detailed and address-specific data, we find that solar leads to large, robust and salient reductions in five indicators of energy insecurity. Moreover, the benefits of solar ‘spill over’ to improve a household’s ability to pay other energy bills. The results suggest that rooftop solar may be an effective tool for policymakers who seek to reduce energy insecurity.

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Fig. 1: Geographic distribution of survey respondents in sample by county and treatment arm.
Fig. 2: Estimated effect of solar on energy insecurity outcomes.

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Data availability

The data collected by the survey and analysed in the study are available via Dataverse at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/4HUD1Q. Any identifiable information has been removed from survey responses.

Code availability

The code used to analyse the survey data is available via Dataverse at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/4HUD1Q.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the US Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy under Solar Energy Technologies Office agreement number 38444 and contract no. DE-AC02-05CH1123, received by G.B. The Energy Justice lab at Indiana University and the University of Pennsylvania was funded through a subcontract with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, received by S.C. and D.M. The authors also acknowledge that access to CoreLogic data was supported by a grant from the Racial Justice Research Fund at Indiana University, and that high performance computing resources were provided in part by Lilly Endowment, Inc., through its support for the Indiana University Pervasive Technology Institute.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Madeline Yozwiak & David M. Konisky

  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Galen Barbose, Sydney P. Forrester, Cristina Crespo Montañés & Eric O’Shaughnessy

  3. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Sanya Carley

  4. University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, USA

    Trevor Memmott

Authors
  1. Madeline Yozwiak
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  2. Galen Barbose
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  3. Sanya Carley
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  4. Sydney P. Forrester
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  5. David M. Konisky
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  6. Trevor Memmott
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  7. Cristina Crespo Montañés
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  8. Eric O’Shaughnessy
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Contributions

S.C., D.M.K. and G.B. conceived of the project. M.Y. led the analysis and writing. G.B., S.C., S.P.F., D.M.K., T.M., C.C.M. and E.O. contributed to the analysis and writing.

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Correspondence to Madeline Yozwiak.

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Nature Energy thanks C. Clase, S. Farrar and A. Harker Steele for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Note, Tables 1–16 and Figs. 1–3.

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Yozwiak, M., Barbose, G., Carley, S. et al. The effect of residential solar on energy insecurity among low- to moderate-income households. Nat Energy 10, 569–580 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-025-01730-y

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