Empowering Communities to Build Their Own Clean Energy Futures

The Center for Strategic Policy Innovation (CSPI) has just launched its most ambitious and far-reaching initiative to date, AND WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Locally-sourced Solar Energy and Microgrids:

An NREL Modeling Tools Training Course

Nationwide Training and Resiliency Building

CSPI is launching a self-paced training course, building off our huge success with our first set of graduates!!

Our Goal

To empower cities, counties, tribal nations and community leaders to advocate for and to develop solar and microgrid projects in underserved communities across the country. We need you to help get us to our goal of ONE THOUSAND local champions trained and empowered to act.

18-MONTH GOAL: 1000 GRADUATES A FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND-PROGRAM

THE LOW-DOWN

The U.S. NEEDS a massive buildout of solar energy and microgrid resiliency projects at the local level over the next 10 years.

A GOLDMINE of these opportunities are just sitting there, not getting built.

Solar buildout at these sites PAYS FOR ITSELF, especially with new tax credit incentives

ADD battery storage and microgrid technology and 24/7 electricity can be available to power critical services even when the power grid is down

WE’RE COLLABORATING WITH THE BEST OF THE BEST

  • The course is facilitated in cooperation with the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

  • We utilize NREL’s publicly available  SAM and REopt Modeling Tools to create local Solar / Microgrid visioning capacity

  • The training is co-developed and offered through Arizona State University’s Microgrid powerhouse, the Laboratory for Energy And Power Solutions (LEAPS)

IMPACTS TO THOUSANDS OF CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE SITES

  • Community Resilience Centers

  • Critical Infrastructure, like Wastewater Treatment Plants

  • Police & Fire Facilities

  • Schools & Universities

  • Emergency & Disaster Response Centers

  • Hospitals & Nursing Homes

  • Food & Agriculture Infrastructure

  • And Many More

Our Solution

Locally-sourced Solar Energy and Microgrids: An NREL Modeling Tool Training Course

Developed by CSPI as part of a Pilot Project with the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Arizona State University’s renowned Laboratory for Energy And Power Solutions (LEAPS), our course provides hands-on proficiency training for the visioning and feasibility analysis of community-specific solar energy and energy resiliency/microgrid projects.

Kevin Daehnke

President, Center for Strategic Policy Innovation

This is a short video excerpt from the May 2, 2023 training session covering regulatory models for distributed energy resources implementation.

What Graduates Are Saying About Our Training

“Incredible CAPACITY BUILDING course - A must for anyone wanting to advocate for these projects”

“Game Changing”

“Empowering”

“Nobody else is doing this! It’s Awesome!”

We need to raise $50,000 in the next 45 days!

Immediate funding needs:

  • Training modification/update (for self-paced format)

  • Nationwide student outreach  

  • Scholarship monies (for tuition assistance)

  • Nonprofit registration in all 50 states

  • Expanded teaching/training support

Support the cause!

What makes our Training so impactful?

We provide the know-how and the tools to kickstart these solar anchored resiliency projects

Explore the links below to learn more about this game changing initiative.