WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Coalition for Community Solar Access (CCSA) announced it has hired seasoned community organizer and advocate Stephanie Burgos-Veras as its Senior Manager of Equity Programs. Stephanie is charged with leading CCSA’s equity-related initiatives in community solar markets across the U.S., including working with state governments and community advocates to ensure existing and future community solar programs are benefiting underserved communities.
“We expect community solar to serve at least four million low- to moderate-income people in America by 2030, so Stephanie’s work will be paramount in the coming years to ensure these customers have a good experience and are receiving meaningful benefits,” said CCSA’s CEO Jeff Cramer. “Her previous work advancing and expanding clean energy programs and working with disadvantaged communities across New York state will benefit our industry as we continue to bring community solar programs to more communities across the country.”
Burgos-Veras brings a wide range of advocacy experience to the role, having served as the Senior Campaign Manager at Joule Assets, a company that works with municipalities in New York to provide their customers access to community solar and other clean energy. In her role, Stephanie led Joule’s clean energy legislative initiatives and coalition building efforts bringing together local community groups, business partners, and environmental groups to participate in active energy-related regulatory proceedings. Prior to joining Joule Assets, Stephanie was the Organizing Manager at the Riders Alliance, a non-profit organization working for reliable and affordable public transit in New York City. She led the #BetterBus campaign, successfully designing and executing a city-wide grassroots campaign to adopt a six point-policy agenda to improve buses for two million New Yorkers as a means to increased access to economic mobility and freedom.
“I look forward to working with community solar stakeholders and communities across the country to build bridges that will increase access to affordable solar energy and unlock the many benefits of community solar,” said Stephanie Burgos-Veras. “My passion is to organize people from different constituencies to bring about the change they want to see in their communities, and community solar is an ideal vehicle to bring about energy equity and justice in communities that need it.”
Community solar refers to local solar facilities shared by multiple community subscribers who receive credits on their electricity bills for their share of the power produced. Community solar provides homeowners, renters, and businesses equal access to the economic and environmental benefits of solar energy generation regardless of the physical attributes or ownership of their home or business. Community solar expands access to solar for all, including low-to-moderate income customers, and is increasingly being used by policymakers as a tool to bring bill savings and energy equity to disadvantaged communities that have historically been left out of the transition to clean energy.
Burgos-Veras joins CCSA at a time when community solar is experiencing rapid growth. Over 22 states have some form of competitive community solar policy and the amount of community solar on the grid has grown by over 3,000% since 2015 to reach approximately 5 GW of installed capacity today.
