essay on affordable and clean energy

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) invests in high-impact research, development, and demonstration to make clean energy at least as affordable and convenient as traditional forms of energy. Part of DOE’s mission is to ensure the benefits of clean energy reach all Americans, especially those historically underserved by the energy system and overburdened by pollution.

The Inflation Reduction Act includes provisions that reduce pollution, advance environmental justice, and lower energy costs. Through tax credits and other financial incentives, consumers can now pay less for more energy-efficient appliances , cleaner cars and trucks , and home upgrades.

DOE invests in projects and activities to make clean power more accessible and affordable. Check out some of the latest efforts:

Accessible, Affordable Solar Energy

Community solar provides clean power to consumers who subscribe to a nearby, shared solar energy system. It’s a low-cost option for those who can’t install solar panels on their rooftops. The Solar Technologies Office (SETO) hosted its third annual  National Community Solar Partnership Summit  on January 19   in San Diego, California, and virtually, with roundtable discussions about community solar markets, accessible financing, customer acquisition, and access to capital. 

That day, SETO also launched the  Community Power Accelerator , a platform that connects solar developers, investors, philanthropists, and community-based organizations to finance and deploy more community solar projects. The Accelerator will build a pipeline of credit-ready community solar projects, especially those benefiting underserved communities, connecting them with investors and philanthropic organizations to fund projects. 

SETO also announced the winners of the $100,000 Sunny Awards for Equitable Community Solar prize competition, which recognizes solar projects and programs that use or develop best practices to increase equitable access to community solar for subscribers and their communities. Read more about the summit .

Accessible, Affordable Wind Energy, Transportation, and More

The Wind Energy Technologies Office recently released a $28 million funding opportunity to bring more wind power to more Americans by breaking down barriers to deployment. About $20 million will fund research projects to improve technologies that transmit large amounts of electricity from offshore wind over long distances; improve permitting processes to make distributed wind more accessible to communities where it can be equitably deployed; and to better understand the impacts of offshore wind development on communities. The remaining funding will support projects that reduce the impacts of wind technologies on wildlife.

About one-third of U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions come from the transportation sector, affecting millions of Americans, particularly those from disadvantaged communities. Transportation costs are the second-largest annual household expense in the country, and for the poorest Americans, the financial burden is disproportionately and unsustainably high.

Every American can advocate for renewable energy by becoming a Clean Energy Champion. Both small and large actions make a difference.

Join the movement .

On January 10, the Departments of Energy, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and the Environmental Protection Agency announced the U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization , a pathway to a clean transportation sector that improves air quality, lowers transportation costs, and creates better-paying manufacturing jobs.

Furthermore, EERE’s new Clean Energy to Communities program helps communities transition to clean energy. It connects local governments, electric utilities, community-based groups, and others with national lab experts and tools to meet each community’s unique needs and interests.

The Importance of Energy Efficiency

Approximately one-third or more of the energy used by buildings goes to waste, costing as much as  $150 billion  annually. On January 18, EERE's Building Technologies Office (BTO) launched the $22 million Buildings UP prize to increase the capacity of subnational teams to develop and implement building upgrades that create more energy-efficient buildings and clean-energy-ready homes, commercial spaces, and communities.

BTO also launched $45 million BTO Benefit 2022/23 funding opportunity to reduce the cost of building decarbonization and improve quality of life for building occupants. Selected research projects will focus on innovations in heating, ventilation, air conditioning, water heating, thermal and battery energy storage, and more.

And the $2.4 million American-Made Equitable and Affordable Solutions to Electrification Prize (EAS-E prize) incentivizes innovators to develop and deploy techniques to make electrification cheaper and easier for contractors to implement and for homeowners to afford in diverse communities and all housing types.

While these are some of our more recent efforts to improve energy accessibility and affordability, all EERE’s work takes energy accessibility and affordability into account.

Energy Affordability and Accessibility News

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How to make clean, affordable energy available to everyone

The global energy system must be transformed into one that is more sustainable and equitable Image:  Anastasia Palagutina/Unsplash

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Listen to the article

• The global energy system must be reinvented if we're going to address climate change, poverty, and inequality.
• Almost 1 in 10 people, globally, still don't have access to electricity.
• UNDP, through partnerships, aims to provide clean, affordable energy to at least 500 million additional people over the next four years.

Hot on the heels of COVID-19, the world faces more turmoil. This year, Davos 2022 aptly focused on the tragic war in Ukraine and its ripple effect on global finance, food, and energy systems. The current state of the world reminds us to what degree energy underpins our aspirations for a more sustainable future for all - and how broken the global energy system is.

The energy sector accounts for three-quarters of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, making it the leading driver of the climate crisis. The current geopolitical context is incentivizing some countries to revert to this dirty diet. Meanwhile, existing energy systems fail to deliver. Close to 1 in 10 people – 733 million people globally – still lack access to electricity, locking them into poverty and out of the opportunities it brings. One-third of the world still relies on polluting fuels for cooking and heating their homes at significant health costs. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed progress towards universal access to electricity . Without decisive action, 670 million people will remain without electricity by 2030 – 10 million more than projected last year.

Have you read?

Here's how the private sector can lead the global energy transition, five ways to jump-start the renewable energy transition, rewiring the financial system to double down on the energy transition.

The war in Ukraine is compounding inequalities with fuel and food prices soaring to record levels. This is without counting the looming debt crisis that leaves low-income countries with little to spend on social protection to cushion these shocks.

Solutions discussed at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2022 showed that we can reach a net-zero global energy target while providing access to energy to everyone currently without it. We do not have to choose. We must and can do both at the same time. However, for this to happen, all countries need to re-set their energy systems with people at their centre to ensure cleaner, more secure, more resilient, and more affordable energy for all. This transformation relies on three pillars.

Rethinking energy to drive systems-level change

We spent decades arguing that decarbonising our economies constrained development. Now development through decarbonisation is poised to become humankind’s greatest driver of economic progress and also a re-awakening about how to live in harmony with our planet.

To this end, the international community must provide countries with the tailored support and cutting-edge tools and technology they need to drive a just energy transition to clean energy that works for their economies. That includes assisting the fossil fuel industry to shift to new green jobs. Globally, it will bring concrete socio-economic and welfare benefits, adding 85 million green jobs by 2030 .

The Fostering Effective Energy Transition 2023 report showed that after a decade of progress, the global energy transition has plateaued amid the global energy crisis and geopolitical volatilities.

The World Economic Forum’s Centre for Energy and Materials is driving the transition to a “fit for 2050” energy system. It is a cross-industry platform building new coalitions and delivering insights required for a sustainable, secure and just energy future.

Learn more about our impact:

• Clean energy in emerging economies: We are advancing country-specific renewable energy finance solutions for four of the biggest emerging and developing economies : India, Brazil, Nigeria and Indonesia. In the latter, a new solar and battery initiative is bringing 15MW of clean energy to the East Sumba region – enough to power 4,000 homes and avoid 5.5KtCO₂ yearly emissions.
• Energy Transition Index: We have measured the progress of 120 countries on the performance of their energy systems, enabling policymakers and businesses to identify the necessary actions for the energy transition.
• Mining and metals blockchain : We released a proof of concept to trace emissions across the value chain using blockchain technology, helping accelerate global action for country-specific financing solutions.
• Clean power and electrification: We are accelerating the adoption of clean power and electric solutions in the next decade to help increase clean energy consumption threefold by 2030.

Want to know more about our centre’s impact or get involved? Contact us .

A massive uptake in public and private investment to support low-carbon technologies

Achieving universal access to electricity will require between $35 billion and $40 billion every year up to 2030 . At the same time, the global net income from oil and gas production in 2022 is anticipated to be nearly $2 trillion higher than in 2021 and two-and-a-half times the average of the past five years. Our road towards a clean energy future and greater energy security could be paved with these funds if they were invested in net-zero societies built on innovative energy systems. Indeed, many investors are at risk of stranded assets if they continue to invest in the fossil fuel industry.

For energy access and the energy transition to boost prosperity and leave no one behind, we urgently need to increase capital flows to developing economies. For instance, Africa, where roughly 600 million people lack electricity, only received 2% of global investments in renewable energy in the last two decades.

We need to crowd-in public and private finance by creating environments that de-risk clean energy investments by working with governments to help them implement the policies and regulations and that bring the finance to all countries, not just a few selected ones. Organizations such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have the policy expertise and on-the-ground networks to provide tailored, context-specific technical assistance to governments to put these enabling environments in place.

UNDP has set an ambitious aspiration to help mobilise $1 trillion in public and private investment towards the Sustainable Development Goals over the next four years, including towards clean energy by 2025.

Strong strategic energy partnerships in support of innovative approaches

The energy transition must be built on investment in new technologies and innovation; novel business models; and ground-breaking financial mechanisms.

To this end, there is a pressing need for new partnerships and more multilateral engagement to advance the sheer scale of what lies ahead. For example, through its Sustainable Energy Hub, UNDP aims to catalyse solutions-driven partnerships that will help to provide clean, affordable energy to 500 million additional people over the next four years.

It also means supporting key areas like standards and certification, regulatory frameworks, research, and innovation faster and bigger than ever before. And a comprehensive set of cross-cutting, structural policies covering all technological avenues and energy transition objectives is needed to achieve game-changing deployment of clean energy technologies.

Davos 2022 has a unique ability to bring together global leaders who, if they would align on priority actions, can make a difference. Alliances and partnerships between multilateral organizations, the private sector, and governments will drive the energy transition at this historic tipping point.

In many ways, the decisions that major emitting countries make over the next months and years will decide the fate of people and planet. Crucially, providing support to developing countries so that they can be part of the clean energy revolution should not be a choice that needs a long deliberation. It is the only way to decisively slow the steady march of climate change, lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and ensuring that our world does not struggle from this unprecedented global turmoil to an even bigger one.

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