Our Insights
Clean Energy Solutions, Inc. (CESI) has been engaged for some years in the practice of funding, organizing, staffing, operating, and advising Local Energy Alliances (LEAs) around the country. This recitation of “Best Practices and Lessons Learned” is intended to contribute a special perspective to the growing library of such advice: that of founding and managing on-the-ground community delivery organizations. For purposes of this document, such organizations will be called “Local Energy Alliances” or LEAs.
This study reflects that “on the ground” experience, and does not attempt to cover comprehensively the expert disciplines being promulgated by DOE in its various webinars, publications, or technical assistance teams. Rather the focus of this set of drafts is very specific problems and solutions: how to effectively organize a neighborhood canvass for a residential program, what workforce development strategies have been most effective, what financing strategies are working for which market sectors, etc.
This work has been supported in part by the Kresge Foundation; the Cambridge Energy Alliance, the Greater Cincinnati Energy Alliance, the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance, and Hamilton County, Ohio. Clean Energy Solutions is solely responsible for the content of the documents.
