Clean Energy Group, Inc.
Advancing Equitable Climate Solutions
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Clean Energy Group (CEG) works at the forefront of clean energy innovation to enable a just energy transition to address the urgency of the climate crisis. CEG's mission is to accelerate an equitable and inclusive transition to a resilient, sustainable, clean energy future.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Resilient Power Project
Through its Resilient Power Project, Clean Energy Group (CEG) accelerates the equitable deployment of solar+storage technologies in historically marginalized and underserved communities. CEG supports and promotes the advancement of inclusive resilient power investments nationwide by offering technical assistance to community-serving organizations that are exploring and developing solar+storage projects, by supporting community energy resilience capacity building, by advancing policies and programs that ensure more equitable access to solar+storage technologies, by preparing and disseminating information and resources, and by amplifying community voices through close collaboration with partner organizations and promoting partner successes. CEG's Technical Assistance Fund supports community organizations, service providers, affordable housing, and first responders by providing one-on-one technical guidance and small grant funding for solar+storage feasibility assessments.
Energy Storage Policy and Regulation
Clean Energy Group is actively engaged in the advancement of energy storage markets and deployment of energy storage solutions to advance climate, economic development, and public health goals. CEG provides support to and collaborates with state and federal agencies, policymakers, nonprofit advocates, utilities, regulatory agencies, energy industry experts, and community-based organizations to advance the development and implementation of accessible and inclusive energy storage policies and regulations. CEG provides information, technical guidance, policy and regulatory design support, and independent analysis to help break down the numerous barriers to energy storage deployment, from information gaps to interconnection delays, which prevent or delay the adoption of energy storage as a tool to achieve local, state, and federal climate, environmental, economic, and social justice goals.
Phase Out Peakers
Clean Energy Group’s Phase Out Peakers initiative is a collaborative effort to support local community and environmental justice groups across the country in their battles to phase out fossil-fuel peaker power plants and replace them with clean renewables and battery storage technologies. Replacing peaker power plants with clean energy solutions represents one of the most important environmental justice opportunities in the country. The Phase Out Peakers project works to accelerate the retirement of polluting, peaker power plants and to advance the deployment cost-effective alternatives, such as energy storage, renewable generation, transmission, energy efficiency, and demand response. It is the first national effort to systematically demonstrate with analysis and technical assessments how communities can harness clean non-combustion alternatives to meet peak electricity demand and capture local health and wealth benefits.
Hydrogen Information and Public Education
To equip communities, advocates, regulators, and policymakers with unbiased facts to critically evaluate hazardous hydrogen proposals, Clean Energy Group has developed a repository of research on issues related to the production and use of hydrogen. Much of the hype around hydrogen, particularly hydrogen made from zero- or low-carbon sources (also known as green or blue hydrogen, respectively), relies on false claims regarding its safety, emissions potential, scalability, and cost. When hydrogen is misguidedly used to extend the life of fossil fuel assets and to delay decarbonization efforts, it impacts low-income communities and communities of color already overburdened by fossil-fuel emissions the most. Clean Energy Group works in collaboration with environmental justice advocates and community-based organizations to equip communities with the information they need to push back against these spurious hydrogen proposals.
Technical Assistance Fund
Clean Energy Group’s Technical Assistance Fund (TAF) fills a critical resource gap by equipping community-serving organizations with the information they need to advance a resilient solar and battery storage project toward the next stage in development. The TAF provides dedicated one-on-one support to help organizations gain a better understanding of solar+storage and its benefits, along with targeted funding to engage technical expertise to produce a solar+storage feasibility assessment for a proposed project. Clean Energy Group serves as an advisor throughout the process to ensure that each organization’s questions are answered and their unique energy resilience, economic, and community goals are prioritized. The TAF supports organizations that provide essential services to low-income and underserved communities, environmental justice communities, and communities of color so that they can develop resilient power solutions for critical community service in the event of a power outage.
Resilient Power Leadership Initiative
CEG's Resilient Power Leadership Initiative (RPLI) supports nonprofit community-based organizations in their efforts to build more resilient communities. Many community-based organizations face internal capacity and resource constraints, particularly when it comes to complex, resource-intensive activities like advancing energy initiatives. The RPLI aims to address this capacity gap by helping to seed long-term, community-led programs that further advance energy equity and environmental justice. Through this initiative, RPLI funds, typically $10,000 for one year, are awarded to BIPOC-led (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) nonprofit organizations working in the areas of environmental justice, energy equity, and sustainability. Funding recipients use the awards to develop local resilient power awareness and implementation strategies in the low-income communities and communities of color that they serve.
Where we work
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Our Sustainable Development Goals
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Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
CEG seeks to fill a critical resource gap by advancing new clean energy initiatives and serving as a trusted source of technical expertise and independent analysis in support of communities, nonprofit advocates, and government leaders working on the frontlines of climate change and the clean energy transition. We collaborate with partners across the private, public, and nonprofit sectors to accelerate the equitable deployment of clean energy technologies and the development of inclusive clean energy programs, policies, and finance tools.
Guiding Principles:
The work that we do is framed by four basic guiding principles:
1) Access to clean, reliable, and affordable energy is a basic human right.
2) No community should be disproportionately burdened by negative health, economic, and environmental impacts resulting from practices related to the extraction, production, and consumption of energy.
3) The transition from fossil fuels to an energy system based on clean, renewable generation must include and prioritize frontline and environmental justice communities, providing opportunities for economic advancement and equitable participation in energy decision-making processes.
4) Inclusive, collaborative, and equitable solutions are necessary to ensure a just transition to a sustainable clean energy future.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Clean Energy Group employs several strategies to achieve its mission.
• Partnership Development. CEG partners with affordable housing developers, environmental justice organizations, critical service and health care providers, community-based organizations, municipalities, state energy offices, and others to support local resilient power solutions. CEG assists diverse partner organizations working for energy resilience in their communities and tailors support to fit their needs, while also connecting our partners with each other to build national networks and help facilitate coalitions to fight for change.
• Provide Technical Expertise. CEG informs, coordinates, and assists in the planning and implementation of resilient power projects in underserved communities, providing one-on-one technical assistance for community leaders. To date, CEG has provided one-on-one technical support to over 175 community partners, representing efforts to develop resilient power solutions for more than 350 community-serving facilities.
• Knowledge Building and Information Sharing. CEG develops educational materials that serve a variety of partners, stakeholders, and decision makers, including informative materials such as a resilient power toolkit, webinars, reports and case studies. CEG has presented at webinars or hosted webinars on solar+storage for multifamily affordable housing, state officials, environmental justice groups on topics such as on energy storage for social equity; incorporating equity concerns into resilience planning; solar+storage as a tool for tribal energy sovereignty and resilience; community resilience hubs; financing resilient power in underserved communities; and overcoming barriers to solar+storage in critical facilities serving low-income communities, among other topics.
• State Energy Storage Policy. CEG supports the development and implementation of energy storage policy, programs, and regulations in New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and Southeast; provides state energy agencies with needed independent technical analysis in support of clean energy and equity goals; shares information with state policymakers, regulators, stakeholders, and ratepayers; provides technical support to ensure successful battery storage project deployments to benefit target populations.
• Energy Equity. In addition to our work to advance clean energy equity and accessibility through the Resilient Power Project, we collaborate closely with multiple frontline community-based organizations and environmental justice organizations through CEG’s Phase Our Peakers initiative.
• Multi-stakeholder Engagement. CEG’s staff have experience in developing and managing multi-party projects and collaborative opportunities for information exchange. Staff have provided guidance to states, utilities, and private foundations to scale up solar development for low- and moderate-income (LMI) single-family homes, manufactured homes, affordable housing, and community facilities.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Since 1998, Clean Energy Group (CEG), a national, nonprofit advocacy organization, has worked to promote effective clean energy policies, develop low-carbon technology market development strategies, and create new finance tools to advance clean energy markets. CEG’s mission is to accelerate an equitable and inclusive transition to a resilient, sustainable, clean energy future. CEG concentrates on climate mitigation and clean energy issues at the local, state, and national levels as it works with stakeholders from the government, private, and nonprofit sectors. CEG assists states to create and implement innovative practices and public funding programs for clean energy project deployment; creates networks of U.S. policy makers to address climate mitigation and adaptation strategies; and advances effective ownership models and commercialization tools to expand clean energy markets, with a focus on solar photovoltaics (PV) and battery storage for resilient power.
Clean Energy Group’s projects include resilient power applications in disadvantaged communities and medical facilities, energy storage policies and programs, low-income solar access, and the replacement of fossil-fueled power plants. Above all, CEG also works to create comprehensive policy and finance strategies to scale up clean energy technologies through smart market mechanisms, commercialization pathways, and a focus on energy equity. Headquartered in Montpelier, VT, CEG’s staff includes state energy policy experts and offers expertise in finance, engineering, law, project management, managing multi-stakeholder processes, fund raising, and communications. CEG is funded is funded by major foundations, including The Kresge Foundation, The JPB Foundation, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, Surdna Foundation, Barr Foundation, and the New York Community Trust. CEG manages the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA), a national nonprofit coalition of public agencies and organizations working together to advance clean energy through public funding initiatives and renewable energy programs in the U.S. CESA’s membership includes energy agencies in 18 states, including California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington (state and D.C.).
For the last nine years, CEG and CESA have been working on energy storage policy and resilient power projects with the states, municipalities, industry, U.S. Department of Energy, national energy labs, and clean energy developers. We are well positioned to help expand energy storage markets, to assist states and municipalities to develop new policies, to work with battery storage companies to understand their challenges, to develop financing models to fund projects, and to bring energy storage technologies to a much broader and important set of clean energy applications.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Clean Energy Group has worked with low-income housing developers and community leaders on solar+storage projects and has assisted with energy storage policy and program development in numerous states, including California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Vermont. We have worked with agencies in several cities, including Baltimore, San Francisco, New York City, Boulder, and Duluth, to develop community resiliency plans and to install resilient power systems. We have provided technical assistance to ensure the successful deployment of resilient solar+storage systems in low-income affordable housing and for critical community facilities, including providing over $1 million in Technical Assistance Fund grants to support feasibility assessments for potential solar+storage installations. We have performed economic modeling for the economic benefits of solar+storage in multifamily affordable housing for several cities, including Chicago, Boston, Washington, DC, New York City, Charleston, Atlanta, Miami, New Orleans, and Wilmington, NC. CEG has developed an implementation strategy for resilient solar+storage for critical community facilities that includes not only technical aspects but also policy, financing, codes and standards, and other important aspects of market development. Thus, CEG has the finance, technical, and policy expertise to assist key stakeholders who want to install solar+storage projects in their communities.
In addition to our work on solar+storage through the Resilient Power Project, CEG, through its sister organization CESA, manages the Energy Storage Technology Advancement Partnership (ESTAP) program with U.S. DOE and Sandia National Laboratories. This puts both organizations on the cutting edge of all the state-based demonstration projects around the country. CEG is the only nonprofit in the country in such a position with regard to energy storage technology policy and development.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Clean Energy Group, Inc.
Board of directorsas of 10/26/2023
Mr. Brian Keane
SmartPower
Term: 2021 - 2025
Brian Keane
SmartPower
Kenneth Locklin
Impax Asset Management
Logan Atkinson Burke
Alliance for Affordable Energy
Seth Mullendore
Clean Energy Group
Shiva Prakash
Lime
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? No -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 08/06/2021GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.