Transforming our Built Environment

We’re advancing the transformation of buildings and the electrical grid with energy-efficient and distributed energy resources

CSE’s work in sustainable energy helps modernize the human-made structures that make up and define the world we live in. We design and administer programs that integrate distributed energy resource technologies and upgrade building performance so that our built environment is transformed into a decarbonized, grid-interactive environment.

Execution with national impact

Our work falls into three broad areas: Program Administration, Energy Equity and Demonstration and Validation.

Program Administration

We support renewable energy, distributed generation and demand reduction with strategies and programs that help everyone from consumers and local communities to community choice aggregators, utilities and statewide agencies reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing (SOMAH)

CSE is a key partner on a team of clean energy and affordable housing nonprofits selected by the California Public Utilities Commission to administer an up to $1 billion program to install 300 megawatts of solar electric panels on multifamily affordable housing over the next ten years. Learn More

“CSE has a long history of implementing large-scale consumer programs, giving us a deep understanding of the many aspects required for success from program design and stakeholder engagement to secure processing and ongoing evaluation.”

Vallerie Gonzalez-Byrum

SOMAH Project Manager

Energy Equity

Communities and people with the least resources often face the worst impacts of air pollution and climate change – and are the last to benefit from clean technologies. CSE promotes programs that equitably expand sustainable energy access and put communities at the center.

Solar for All

Under the $7 billion federal Solar for All grant program, awardees nationwide will enable over 900,000 disadvantaged and low-income households to benefit from solar energy. CSE is supporting them based on our experience and expertise in designing, marketing and administering solar equity programs. Learn More

“Programs to equitably expand access to solar need to have ongoing engagement with their communities from day one. Doing so calls for a transparent, collaborative and continuous engagement process that ensures local needs are built-in, yielding better program design and more invested program participants.”

Gabrielle Stebbins

Director, Distributed Energy Markets

Demonstration and Validation

Before you can go big or go fast, you need to make sure you will get the results you want. CSE analysts and program managers work closely with you and technology providers to test and verify energy efficiency, electrification, microgrid and other technologies. The goal: a blueprint for future resilience, reliability, and greenhouse gas reduction.

Helping Lower-Income Families Achieve Cost and Energy Savings

CSE has been awarded a block grant of up to $93.7 million to launch and administer a large-scale residential direct install program delivering no-cost, high-efficiency electric technologies to low-income households in under-resourced communities across central California. Funded by the California Energy Commission, the Equitable Building Decarbonization Direct Install Program offers a range of electrification retrofits and electric appliances to reduce carbon emissions and advance energy equity for both homeowners and renters.

"Reducing carbon emissions to improve air quality can align with the need for affordable household energy bills. CSE leads a team that will rigorously analyze energy consumption and determine which households would benefit from no-cost installations of technologies like induction ranges, electric clothes dryers, and electric heat pumps."

Jin Zhu

Senior Project Manager, Distributed Energy Resources