US Local Governments Are Redefining the Clean Energy Blueprint

Recent federal policy decisions combined with rising energy demand are contributing to an immediate set of challenges for Americans: volatile electricity prices and growing concerns about affordability and reliability.

In this moment of uncertainty, local governments remain some of the most effective and trusted leaders that can tackle these challenges. Cities, towns and counties across the country are leading the clean energy transition to stabilize energy costs and deliver tangible community benefits. They are also returning to many of the same durable strategies that helped maintain momentum during previous periods of instability — leaning more on collaborative efforts with other jurisdictions and the private sector to secure clean energy for their communities.

Local governments are applying a range of strategies. They are leveraging municipal assets to host clean energy projects, streamlining local ordinance and permitting processes, making the most of limited remaining clean energy incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act for battery storage and geothermal projects, and exploring how to integrate localized energy generation and storage technologies to increase community and grid resilience. They are also working to maintain energy affordability by influencing state regulatory and legislative decisions, engaging utilities on program design and long-range planning and intervening in rate cases to help control price increases.

Here are five innovative ways cities, counties and towns in the U.S. are investing in people-centered clean energy solutions to build cleaner, safer and more affordable communities.

1) Repurposing Underutilized Public Land for Clean Energy

Cities, towns and counties are installing solar panels on municipal land and facilities, including commercial buildings, water treatment plants, airports and convention centers. To do so in a more streamlined and cost-effective way, they are increasingly phasing installation across a portfolio of municipal sites.

For example, Austin, Texas, recently sought bids for 30 megawatts of solar across an estimated 100 local sites — enough to power roughly 7,500 Austin households. This aggregated approach allowed the city to save $20 million over the project’s 25-year lifetime.

Local governments are also repurposing former industrial and polluted sites, known as brownfields, to scale clean energy. In Cincinnati, Ohio, the city is developing a retired landfill into a 10-megawatt solar farm. After 40 years of vacancy, this former landfill will soon be powering the equivalent of 1,200 homes, helping the city make meaningful progress toward building a cleaner, more affordable and more reliable power system.

2) Leveraging Remaining Tax Incentives for Geothermal and Battery Storage

While many federal tax incentives for wind, solar and electric vehicles were cut in 2025, tax credits for battery storage and geothermal remain in place through 2035. Local governments and public agencies like school districts and municipal utilities are responding by expanding their clean energy plans to include these technologies and updating capital improvement budgets to take full advantage of direct pay, which allows tax-exempt entities to access tax credit benefits.

In Washoe County, Nevada, the school district is incorporating geothermal ground-source heat pumps into their 15-year Facilities Modernization Plan. The district has already received $1.7 million in reimbursement through direct pay, with more on the way as projects continue. Going further, Menasha Joint School District in Wisconsin expanded a new middle school project to include ground-source heat pumps, solar and battery energy storage to take advantage of the financial benefits of direct pay. The effort paid off: The district received more than $5 million from the Internal Revenue Service in May.

In Boise, Idaho, and Hayden, Colorado, local governments are scaling affordable geothermal heating and cooling services through neighborhood-scale systems of water-filled pipes and heat pumps, commonly known as thermal energy networks. These locally owned systems are highly efficient, climate friendly and becoming more viable through a combination of tax incentives and supportive state legislation.

3) Removing Siting Barriers through Streamlined Zoning and Ordinances

Outdated local siting regulations and unclear permitting processes add time, costs and complexity to clean energy projects, slowing deployment and scale. Furthermore, many jurisdictions (particularly rural ones) are reacting to NIMBY (not in my backyard) backlash by increasingly passing restrictive ordinances that limit clean energy development.

Local climate leaders are bucking this trend by making it easier, faster and cheaper to install solar, wind, battery storage, EV chargers and more. They are reviewing zoning and ordinances, updating websites, and automating and digitizing permitting and inspection practices, often with technical support from WRI for the Department of Energy’s EnergyReady program.

By taking a proactive stance on development, rather than reacting to specific projects, local governments can mitigate local opposition and lower developer costs and risks. Jurisdictions like Albemarle County, Virginia, have engaged communities to develop holistic siting frameworks that attract and approve solar projects aligned with community land-use priorities and climate goals. In 2025, the county passed its first solar ordinance, which allows small-scale solar and battery storage across the county and provides clear guidance for balanced utility-scale solar development in rural areas, including design and decommissioning requirements.

4) Expanding Community Clean Energy Access

Cities are uniquely positioned to ensure clean energy reaches residents, particularly those in underserved communities. Many are scaling distributed energy resources, localized energy generation and storage technologies like rooftop solar, electric vehicles and battery storage systems, to lower electricity bills and create green jobs.

In Denver, Colorado, the city government is installing community solar gardens at municipal sites around the city, including on schools. The power generated by these solar gardens is donated to families struggling to afford utilities. The solar arrays also reduce the amount of pollution that would otherwise result from traditional energy generation and provide additional shade to cool communities on hot summer days.

Similarly, flagship programs from the Philadelphia Energy Campaign like Solarize Greater Philadelphia and Built to Last have expanded access to energy efficiency and clean energy technologies across the region, particularly to low-income residents. Over the past decade, the Campaign — which is a partnership between the Philadelphia Energy Authority and City Council that invests in clean energy — has created more than 11,000 jobs, driven $1.3 billion in investment, generated over $1.4 billion in energy savings for residents and avoided 562,000 metric tons of carbon emissions. That is equivalent to avoiding the emissions from burning more than 2.2 billion pounds of coal.

Some cities, especially those with municipal utilities, are looking to manage rising electricity costs and aging grid infrastructure by developing virtual power plants, which aggregate coordinated distributed energy resources that can provide grid services like generating, storing and managing electricity. For example, in Michigan, the new Ann Arbor Sustainable Energy Utility will integrate a network of solar and batteries on residential homes, providing clean energy to both the homeowners and other utility customers in the community. Going forward, the utility aims to incorporate and scale other technologies, including microgrids and geothermal heating and cooling, to reduce grid stress, unlock new revenue streams and enhance resilience.

5) Developing Coalitions to Influence State and Regional Energy Policies

Maintaining affordable electricity and a reliable grid requires systemic reform at the state and utility level. Decisions by utilities, regulators and state legislators largely determine access to clean energy and the cost of electricity, yet local governments are often excluded from these decision-making processes.

As both major energy users and representatives of community experience, local governments are credible advocates for change. However, because this work is technical and resource-intensive, many local governments are forming coalitions to amplify their influence and drive policy and market reforms.

Many are engaging in regulatory proceedings like integrated resource and distribution plans that offer opportunities to incorporate energy efficiency, demand response, storage and distributed resources while advancing broader goals like equity and economic development. For example, 17 North Carolina local governments recently submitted joint comments on Duke Energy’s Carbon Plan and Integrated Resource Plan, calling for greater transparency in load forecasting and stronger investment in cost-effective, low-risk resources, including renewables, advanced transmission technologies, energy efficiency and demand response.

Local governments are also increasingly stepping up in rate cases, which directly shape customer bills and have broader implications for equity, clean energy deployment and reliability. In Westchester County, New York, 40 municipalities coordinated engagement in a Con Edison rate case, securing a lower rate increase and improvements in transparency and communication. 

Finally, cities and counties are building coalitions to advance wholesale market reforms that enable clean energy deployment. Groups like the PJM Cities and Communities Coalition and MISO Cities and Communities Coalition advocate for removing barriers to clean energy expansion across regional markets.

Local Leadership Matters More Than Ever

Local government leadership matters — now more than ever. With significant energy demand, trusted local leadership and proven tools at their disposal, cities are already driving the clean energy transition forward.

Despite shifting federal priorities and a challenging landscape, American cities, counties and towns show us that there is a durable, time-tested playbook available today. By focusing on practical solutions, protecting affordability and shaping policy beyond their borders, local governments can continue to deliver clean, reliable and resilient energy systems for their communities.