RESEARCH AREAS

APPRISE conducts research and evaluation on low-income energy usage reduction programs, bill payment assistance programs and policies, and market transformation initiatives. The following links describe the variety of research techniques that we employ in each area and specific projects where we have applied those methodologies.

• Low-Income Usage Reduction Programs: These programs provide energy education and energy-saving measures such as air sealing, insulation, heating system replacement, and appliance replacement to low-income households. These federal, state, and utility programs aim to reduce energy usage and improve energy affordability.
• Low-Income Bill Payment Assistance Programs: These federal, state, and utility programs provide monthly or one-time discounts or credits on energy bills for low-income households.  They aim to reduce the percentage of income spent on energy and improve the affordability of energy bills and other household necessities.
• Renewable Energy Programs: These programs provide incentives to residential customers and businesses to promote the installation of renewable energy resources.  Our research has included work on single-family distributed generation, multi-family distributed generation, community solar, solar for nonprofits and public facilities, commercial solar, and solar financing.  Programs are targeted to residential customers, businesses, nonprofits, low-income populations, and Environmental Justice communities. They aim to provide clean energy sources, transform the market for renewable energy, increase affordability for low-income households, provide job training opportunities, and achieve other non-energy benefits.
• Market Transformation Programs: These programs promote the manufacture, purchase, and use of energy-efficient technologies through customer, manufacturer, and installer education, incentives, rebates, and tax credits. The goals of these programs are to overcome market barriers to the adoption of energy-efficient technologies, increase the penetration of such technologies, reduce energy usage, and reduce peak energy demand.