If the US is going to meet its climate goals and electrify, well, pretty much everything, homeowners will need to get on board with solar panels, heat pumps, electric vehicles and more.
In place of the gas and oil we’ve long used to fuel our cars and heat our homes, technology powered by clean electricity promises to get the job done without any of the planet-warming emissions.
But an energy transition of this scale is easier said than done. “A big element of this [is] transitioning the residential sector, and it looks very different in rural areas,” said Erin Mayfield, an assistant professor at Dartmouth College.
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She recently studied clean-energy adoption in rural communities and found unique dynamics that have big implications for public policy. “We do have to treat rural areas differently. Geography matters, and the nature of the built environment matters. Also, the political environment matters,” Mayfield said.
Here’s what the energy transition looks like in rural America right now — and what needs to change to speed it up.
Reasons for adopting (or avoiding) clean energy in rural areas
Perhaps not surprisingly, Mayfield’s study found that adoption of clean energy tech in rural areas is correlated with a few key demographic factors.
“We were able to find that adoption of these technologies is highly related to income,” Mayfield said. “We also find that education is also a main factor of these technologies.” In other words, rural Americans with higher incomes and more education are more likely to put solar panels on their roof or buy a heat pump.
