Financing Rooftop Solar for Single-Family Rental Properties

The Disaster Resilience Value of Rooftop Solar in Residential Communities

10.31224/osf.io/r4nmy ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Siddharth Patel ◽

Luis Ceferino ◽

chenying liu ◽

Anne Kiremidjian ◽

Ram Rajagopal

Keyword(s):

San Francisco ◽

Single Family ◽

Residential Communities ◽

Energy Needs ◽

Irradiance Data ◽

San Carlos ◽

Energy Sharing ◽

The Impact ◽

Rooftop Solar

Distributed energy resources can enhance community resilience to power outages in the aftermath of natural disasters. We develop a method to quantify the resilience value that rooftop solar can provide to residential neighborhoods. We group homes into geographical clusters and simulate the effect of a disaster that disables the electric grid and damages some of the homes. We then use historical energy consumption and solar irradiance data to estimate the likelihood that each cluster could meet its own energy needs given a defined level and pattern of rooftop solar adoption. As a case study, we apply the method to single family homes in San Carlos, California, subjected to an earthquake based on the 1906 San Francisco event. We characterize the impact on resilience of increasing adoption of rooftop solar and of grouping homes into resilience clusters for energy sharing. Policy intervention can ensure more geographically uniform adoption of solar and therefore more even resilience. We evaluate the effect and cost of such an intervention, finding that a modest subsidy can make a notable difference in evening out resilience across a community.

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Exploring Residential Rooftop Solar Potential in the United States by Race and Ethnicity

Frontiers in Sustainable Cities ◽

10.3389/frsc.2021.666411 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

Author(s):

Tony G. Reames

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Ethnic Disparities ◽

Energy Transition ◽

Clean Energy ◽

The United States ◽

Single Family ◽

Census Tracts ◽

Communities Of Color ◽

Racial Ethnic ◽

Rooftop Solar

Over the last decade, the United States has experienced continued growth in residential rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) adoption. However, solar adoption disparities have been shown across household income, homeownership status, and more recently racial and ethnic demographics. A key component to ensuring a just clean energy transition is understanding the existing landscape to establish realistic goals. Motivated by studies on solar adoption disparities, this descriptive study aims to evaluate the distribution of estimated single-family rooftop potential across racial and ethnic majority census tracts to discern whether rooftop potential disparities may justify solar adoption disparities. Across all census tracts, the median rooftop potential was 80%. Three-fourths of all census tracts had a rooftop potential >72%, regardless of racial/ethnic majority. Compared to majority-white census tracts, majority-Black, majority-Hispanic, and majority-Asian census tracts had slightly lower rooftop potential, 6, 7, and 9%, respectively, while majority-American Indian census tracts had an 11% higher rooftop potential. The slightly lower rooftop potential in communities of color compared to majority-white and non-racial/ethnic majority census tracts, alone, was not of the magnitude to justify documented racial/ethnic disparities in solar adoption. This study concludes, that while a majority of homes in communities of color are solar suitable, an equitable clean energy transition is only possible with policies, programs, and incentives that center on racial equity while recognizing the interplay between race, income, and homeownership status.

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The disaster resilience value of shared rooftop solar systems in residential communities

Earthquake Spectra ◽

10.1177/87552930211020020 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 875529302110200

Author(s):

Siddharth Patel ◽

Luis Ceferino ◽

Chenying Liu ◽

Anne Kiremidjian ◽

Ram Rajagopal

Keyword(s):

San Francisco ◽

Single Family ◽

Solar Systems ◽

Energy Needs ◽

Different Seasons ◽

Irradiance Data ◽

Disaster Scenario ◽

San Carlos ◽

Rooftop Solar

Distributed energy resources can enhance community resilience to power outages in the aftermath of natural disasters. This article presents a method to quantify the resilience value that rooftop solar systems can provide to residential neighborhoods. Homes are grouped into geographical clusters to simulate the effect of sharing energy when a disaster disables the electric grid and damages some of the homes. Historical energy consumption and solar irradiance data are used to estimate the likelihood that each cluster could meet its own energy needs, given a defined level and pattern of rooftop solar adoption. As a case study, the method is applied to single-family homes in San Carlos, California, subjected to a disaster scenario representing the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The case study shows how higher rooftop solar adoption levels increase postearthquake power accessibility during different seasons of the year. It also demonstrates that policy intervention can ensure more geographically uniform solar adoption and, therefore, more even resilience. Finally, the article evaluates the effect and cost of such an intervention, finding that a modest subsidy can make a notable difference in evening out resilience across a community.

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Comparisons of Auditory Brainstem Responses Between a Laboratory and Simulated Home Environment

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2020_jslhr-20-00383 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 63 (11) ◽

pp. 3877-3892

Author(s):

Ashley Parker ◽

Candace Slack ◽

Erika Skoe

Keyword(s):

Home Environment ◽

Signal To Noise Ratio ◽

Auditory Brainstem ◽

Auditory Brainstem Responses ◽

Single Family ◽

Adult Participants ◽

Simulated Home Environment ◽

Brainstem Response ◽

Research Populations ◽

Response Consistency

Purpose Miniaturization of digital technologies has created new opportunities for remote health care and neuroscientific fieldwork. The current study assesses comparisons between in-home auditory brainstem response (ABR) recordings and recordings obtained in a traditional lab setting. Method Click-evoked and speech-evoked ABRs were recorded in 12 normal-hearing, young adult participants over three test sessions in (a) a shielded sound booth within a research lab, (b) a simulated home environment, and (c) the research lab once more. The same single-family house was used for all home testing. Results Analyses of ABR latencies, a common clinical metric, showed high repeatability between the home and lab environments across both the click-evoked and speech-evoked ABRs. Like ABR latencies, response consistency and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) were robust both in the lab and in the home and did not show significant differences between locations, although variability between the home and lab was higher than latencies, with two participants influencing this lower repeatability between locations. Response consistency and SNR also patterned together, with a trend for higher SNRs to pair with more consistent responses in both the home and lab environments. Conclusions Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of obtaining high-quality ABR recordings within a simulated home environment that closely approximate those recorded in a more traditional recording environment. This line of work may open doors to greater accessibility to underserved clinical and research populations.

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