The Importance of Cities in the Shift to Renewable Energy

From rampant inflation and energy shortages to extreme temperatures and wildfires, recent months and years have seen a collection of high-profile events that threaten to disrupt daily life. While it would be inaccurate to name a single force at the root of all these challenges, there are certainly common threads—namely, fossil fuels. For both economic and ecological reasons, our widespread reliance on oil and gas must be broken in pursuit of a brighter, more stable future.

Realistically, the effort to move a nation away from its long-established and deeply entrenched dependence on fossil fuels is monumentally difficult. Success will require commitment at every level.

The federal government recently strengthened its ability to take action on our energy systems with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. At the other end of the spectrum, opportunities for individual residences and businesses to adopt clean energy are more accessible and affordable than ever, from hosting solar (with or without battery backup) to a free community solar subscription. Still, there’s another constituency that can effectively bridge the gap between individuals and large-scale government programs, all while pursuing tangible progress toward a cleaner future: American cities and their leaders.

Cities across America, large and small, hold a unique power to accelerate the adoption of clean energy. With an increasing sense of urgency to combat climate change and technological advancements making it easier to quantify progress—plus new opportunities made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act—city leaders have plenty of incentives to place greater focus on minimizing environmental impact and strengthening climate resilience.

As they embrace their role in addressing climate change, cities become a linchpin in the national effort to implement clean energy sources. Individual action has its limits; at the same time, our country is too large and complex for one sweeping set of policies to serve us optimally. Since they possess ground-level policy resources and expert knowledge of their jurisdictions, city leaders are uniquely positioned to set goals, develop strategies, and plan communications that encourage relevant climate action within their own communities.

To be clear, climate as a motivator for local action is incredibly important—but it isn’t the only reason municipalities should want to make a change. The decision to increase a community’s access to local rooftop renewable energy also brings new economic benefits to area businesses.

Inflation has been a persistent economic concern for more than a year, to the detriment of many local companies. Plus, energy shortages have sprung up around the country, leading to unpredictable outages and increasingly frequent calls for power preservation. While each of these issues threatens the success of any business, new energy systems can directly address both. By moving power production away from a few key sources of fossil fuel and toward technologies that operate in a decentralized manner, inflation-driven spikes in energy costs can be avoided. More affordable (and more predictable) monthly power bills have the potential to bring a lot of relief to small and midsize businesses.

As for those outages, effective local renewable energy sources eliminate the need to depend on a massive, complex network of wires and machinery that stretch across vast portions of the country. Simply stated, the physical infrastructure needed for local renewables to operate is more streamlined and less cumbersome, leading to a significantly reduced risk of failure and prolonged complications during periods of extreme demand.

And it’s not just us acknowledging the holistic benefits of rooftop renewable power for cities and their businesses. In its list of the top five ways cities are addressing climate change , the National League of Cities (an organization that provides guidance to city leaders) mentions improvements to the energy efficiency of buildings first. This includes the implementation of renewable power within existing structures. Importantly, the piece notes that cities like Chicago have recognized the significant economic advantages of energy-efficient structures.

Renewable power is less expensive, less prone to price spikes, more insulated against inflation, and more resilient against outages. For these reasons and more, a city’s decision to actively pursue clean energy is a move in favor of a stronger economic climate as well as a healthier planet.

So what does it look like to make a region more open to the financial and environmental benefits of renewable power, and who are the city leaders responsible for implementing a change?

Just like any project as wide-ranging as this, it’s a community effort, and we aren’t using the term “city leaders” to exclusively refer to local government officials. Business owners, activists, entrepreneurs, nonprofit executives, and other stakeholders should also have a seat at the table when cities are charting a path forward on climate and renewable energy. It’s a topic that affects each of us, often in substantially different ways, and varied perspectives will lead to better outcomes.

Specifically, small and midsize companies should take advantage of their distinct, important place within the fabric of a city. They have an essential impact on the local economy and culture, creating jobs and sustaining industries that can define a region’s ethos. The experts who provide daily guidance to those businesses can be compelling advocates for more serious action on renewable energy.

Again, members of the local business community also have a specific opportunity to embrace and advocate for the economic promise of renewable energy. The choice to adopt a source of clean power is obviously a responsible move for the environment, but it can’t be emphasized enough that it’s also a wise choice from a financial perspective.

As companies in your area see their budgets benefit from historically low prices on energy from sources like solar and wind, it’s important to provide opportunities for them to share the financial advantages of their new power plan. (The chance to save money will always be one of our most powerful motivators!) It will quickly become apparent that the entire city stands to benefit from a widespread movement in favor of renewables, strengthening the financial resilience of your business community—a fundamentally important advantage in a time period characterized by ongoing inflation and lingering supply issues.

American cities stand to benefit in countless ways from new and clean sources of energy, and business leaders can play a key role in the movement. Later this month, we’ll have more inspiration and practical resources that can help you partner with local officials to develop a region’s climate-forward existence.