One Houston-based nonprofit has turned a landfill into a solar farm. New research shows how nonprofits can lead the way.
To advance the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables in the United States, policy makers should turn to community-based organizations (CBOs) like the local Chamber of Commerce, community service centers and community foundations. New, peer-reviewed research from Texas LBJ School and University of Minnesota, published in Energy Research & Social Science journal, indicates community organizations have qualities –such as mission-driven frameworks and the leverage to convene and provide information to large groups of people – that give them a unique ability to facilitate the energy transition, if policymakers provide the right resources. Their community-based goals can help advance society-wide goals for decarbonization.
“Communities are the critical lynchpin between individuals and higher levels of governance," said Varun Rai, an energy scholar at the LBJ School. “The road to successful energy transition is paved through communities. In this paper we show how the unique features and motivations of CBOs offer a very potent mechanism to accelerate the transition while being more inclusive and operationally more sustainable.”
Just ask Efrem Jernigan, President of South Union CDC in Houston, Texas, a nonprofit solar classroom and community garden, built on what was once a landfill. South Union has grown to include activities like STEM education, solar tracking, aquaponics, meals and fellowship for the elderly and public events. Soon, Jernigan will open an outdoor kitchen to teach the community how to cook food from South Union’s garden.
“Sixty years ago, this was a landfill in a Black community,” Jernigan said. “We came up with an idea on how to reuse this land and now, a little boy built a 50-megawatt solar farm that feeds the community he grew up in. I love this chapter of my life.”
Despite what he’s accomplished, Jernigan said there’s still a lot of work to do.
“South Union is making this impact alone, and we could be making a lot more impact with the right support,” he explained.
“Policymakers need to support community organizations through actions like regional convenings, policy certainty and mission-based funding, to create the networks and organizational support for community activation,” said Matt Grimley, a research fellow at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs and a study author. “These types of policy support mechanisms mean moving beyond the idea that simple financial instruments or mandates can solve problems of community engagement."
The motivations of CBOs to participate in energy transitions, and the functions they can perform within energy transitions, are understudied. Using community shared solar (CSS) as a case study, researchers from the Humphrey School and LBJ School of Public Affairs introduce theories of organizational innovation to explain why and how community organizations participate to shape energy transitions. Researchers conducted two series of semi-structured interviews with leaders of community organizations that have engaged in energy transition projects in different ways across the United States, as well as those in Texas who have not yet engaged in the energy transition but show the potential to engage in the future.
Organizations who had traditionally not participated in the energy transition did so through two types of organizational innovation: the first type is internal innovation where, for example, organizations re-interpreted or expanded their mission to accommodate the goals of energy projects; and the second type is external innovation where, for example, organizations leveraged their convening abilities to facilitate outreach, education, or marketing for energy projects. By observing community organizations in Texas that have not yet participated in energy projects, researchersfound that they have some of the same qualities of the organizations that have, giving them the potential to participate as well.
“Community organizations engage in the energy transition mainly through self-determined functions, be they raising awareness, community development, or convening like-minded local organizations, that generate many non-energy, organizational and societal benefits,” said Vivek Shastry, a doctoral student at the LBJ School and an author of the study. “Policymakers and researchers have to do a lot more to recognize and support organizations in their own missions, but if they can do this, we’ll see benefits to local energy goals along the way and create opportunities for leveraging their capabilities to benefit local energy goals. Activating collaborations among energy organizations and non-energy organizations can push the energy transition to be more just and equitable.”
The research is the result of a collaboration between two of the top public affairs schools in the country. The complete collaborators from the project include Matthew Grimley, Vivek Shastry, Dilge Güldehen Kânoğlu-Özkan, Erica Blevins, Ariane L. Beck, Gabriel Chan, and Varun Rai.