Resources

This page collects reliable sources on clean energy, incentives, and siting. We check each source before we add it. The list will grow as members send more.

Incentives and policy

DSIRE, the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency, lists the programs that pay for clean energy and efficiency. It covers federal, state, local, and utility incentives, and you can browse by state or search by ZIP code. The Massachusetts page includes the Renewable Portfolio Standard and the SMART solar program. The N.C. Clean Energy Technology Center at North Carolina State University has run the database since 1995, first under its earlier name, the North Carolina Solar Center.

Data and tools

The MassCEC Solar Costs Comparison Tool shows what solar installations actually cost in Massachusetts. It draws on the state's Production Tracking System, the database of installed PV systems that records project cost, location, equipment, and installer for each system, and it lets you filter and compare across them. MassCEC published the dashboard in 2020 and last updated it in January 2025. The agency's solar costs and performance page carries the underlying dataset as a downloadable report.

Research and publications

The National Laboratory of the Rockies, formerly the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), is the federal government's renewable energy lab. Its solar publications page gathers the lab's work on photovoltaics, concentrating solar power, and grid integration, and a keyword-searchable database of the full research output sits behind it. The lab kept the NREL name until the Department of Energy renamed it in December 2025, so older nrel.gov links may no longer resolve.

Our own work

John Pepi's talk The Hidden Costs of Solar Delay, with his Statement of Methodology and Calculations and his calculation worksheets.

John Pepi and Keith Hastie joined Brian Adams on WHMP's Talk the Talk on August 5, 2026, for a segment on where to site solar arrays, whether wind belongs in Western Massachusetts, and what local opposition does to both. The full episode carries three other segments.

Juniper Katz joined the same program on February 4, 2026, for a segment on renewable energy siting, and on the local and state decisions that determine where onshore wind and solar projects get built. She wrote up what the segment covered. The full episode is on the station site.