Identifying Themes in Energy Poverty Research: Energy Justice Implications for Policy, Programs, and the Clean Energy Transition

Abstract

Energy poverty affects numerous households across the globe and has several key implications and concerns for public health and social equity. Energy poverty is defined as “the lack of access to modern and affordable energy services”. Individuals or communities in energy poverty face limitations in accessing reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy. This review paper examines a focused subset of recent research on energy poverty highlighted by the “NSF 2026: Priorities and Research Needs for an Equitable Energy Transition” workshop and the United States Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Justice Policy and Analysis to help frame energy poverty’s impacts on policy, poverty alleviation, environmental impact, and social inequity. This review paper uses five themes to organize previous energy poverty work: (1) Energy Poverty and Justice Definitions and Metrics; (2) Behavioral Aspects of Energy Poverty; (3) Efficacy of Energy Assistance Programs; (4) Efficiency of Energy Efficiency Policy; (5) The Energy Transition and Environmental and Energy Justice. We found that the literature examined how comprehensive assessment of energy poverty requires going beyond standard statistics and metrics and must include an understanding of how underserved households interact with energy. We found strong optimism for the clean energy transition’s ability to significantly alleviate energy poverty, but only if policymakers include equity. Finally, we found that while there is plenty of work highlighting deficiencies there is a dearth of work examining successful implementations and how to replicate them which will be needed if the clean energy transition is to match its potential.

Lithium Supply Chain Optimization: A Global Analysis of Critical Minerals for Batteries

“…The impact new energy storage technologies can have is currently being hampered by the deficiency of their supply chains, which raises prices and lowers adoption, especially down the socioeconomic scale. While there is vast research on how to increase equitable adoption of technologies, like energy efficiency [30,31], vaccines [32,33] and solar [34], the main hindrance for equitable adoption in energy storage is the relatively nascent technology powering them and the cost of their supply chains.…”

Numerical Investigation of Innovative Photovoltaic–Thermal (PVT) Collector Designs for Electrical and Thermal Enhancement

“…Thus, searching for sustainable and eco-friendly alternative energy sources must be a primary focus. Renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and hydropower are sustainable options that do not emit damaging greenhouse gases [3][4][5][6]. Among many renewable energy resources, solar energy has gained significant attention due to its abundance, environmental friendliness, and being limitless [7][8][9][10].…”