Community Energy Planning: Best Practices and Lessons Learned in NREL's Work with Communities

Whether driven by local goals and actions, external market forces, or both, the clean energy transition is accelerating. The associated increase in clean energy deployment occurs on the ground in communities. As a result, communities increasingly need technical expertise and assistance in planning for and managing the energy transition. Building on decades of work with state, local, and tribal jurisdictions, NREL's work providing modeling, analysis, and technical expertise to enable more data-driven community energy planning is expanding. To inform and enhance NREL's capabilities in community energy planning and provide a resource for others working in this space, NREL developed this best-practices document through interviews with seasoned NREL practitioners and a review of the literature on equitable community planning. Findings include five best practices for community energy planning that NREL practitioners can apply to increase the impact of their work.