Massachusetts should increase distributed solar to reach climate goals: reports

Massachusetts should decarbonize its electrical grid by increasing the use of behind-the-meter solar and storage, advocates behind a recent set of reports said, adding that the transition requires restructured state policies and the use of renewable energy certificates to fund projects in historically burdened communities.

A coalition of clean energy and scientific advocacy groups has released two reports estimating the state's highly suitable technical potential for distributed solar paired with storage at 40 gigawatts. This capacity far exceeds future peak demand forecasts but remains largely inaccessible to environmental justice neighborhoods without targeted financial mechanisms like high-impact RECs.

As electrification drives up power demand across the US, the findings highlight a broader national challenge: modernizing the grid requires shifting from centralized power to decentralized, community-based assets. For Massachusetts, achieving its net-zero mandates will depend on transforming niche equity programs into central pillars of its energy strategy to ensure widespread affordability.

"This is not a single-state issue," Todd Olinsky-Paul, senior project director at Clean Energy Group, told Platts, part of S&P Global Energy. "To modernize the grid, you have to look at aggregated distributed energy resources working together."

The Electrification with Equity reports, released May 5, were prepared by the Applied Economics Clinic, a nonprofit organization specializing in energy, environment, and equity research, on behalf of Clean Energy Group, Vote Solar and the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Statewide BTM solar, storage

The first of the two reports, The Opportunity for Behind-the-Meter Solar and Storage in Massachusetts, focuses on the statewide opportunity to offset forecast peak demand through distributed resources. The analysis estimates that the 40 GW of highly suitable technical potential for behind-the-meter, or BTM, storage paired with solar is more than 1.5 times Massachusetts' forecast 2050 peak demand of 24 GW and 254 times the state's current BTM storage capacity of just 157 megawatts.

"Technology is not the barrier to bringing clean energy to scale; the barrier is unambitious policy and program design," Olinsky-Paul said. "Massachusetts can and must revise its distributed energy programs to take advantage of the enormous technical potential."

As the state shifts toward heating with electricity, peak demand is expected to double by 2050, the groups said in the report. Meeting that demand equitably will require electrifying in concert with storage and solar, allowing consumers to participate and control their own energy consumption, they said.

Environmental justice potential

The second report, Scaling Behind-The-Meter Solar and Storage in Massachusetts Environmental Justice Neighborhoods, narrows the focus to the specific capacity and benefits within historically burdened areas, estimating a technical potential of 31.3 GW of solar, enough to power nearly 3 million homes and 13.4 GW of paired storage in environmental justice neighborhoods within the state.

Siting BTM solar and storage in these areas could significantly reduce electricity bills.

"The average energy burden in Massachusetts is 3%, but in lower-income neighborhoods, it rises to 10% or more," Paula García, senior manager-energy justice research and policy with the Union of Concerned Scientists, told Platts.

García added that programs supporting BTM solar and storage in Massachusetts often lack equity components, and existing initiatives like the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target, or SMART, program are not always effective at reaching vulnerable populations.

"These are currently treated as niche programs, but they need to be made central to the state's energy strategy," García said. "This is the future of the grid."

Massachusetts RECs

To unlock the 31.3 GW of solar potential in environmental justice neighborhoods, state policymakers may need to introduce higher equity adders or facilitate corporate procurement of "high-impact" RECs, according to Olinsky-Paul and García. These specialized contracts allow corporate buyers to pay a premium for attributes beyond simple carbon reduction, directly funding projects that provide local health, economic and resilience benefits, they said.

In Massachusetts, renewable projects typically monetize their environmental attributes through the state's Class I REC market or the solar-specific SMART program. While Class I RECs provide a baseline revenue stream for broader non-solar renewables like wind, distributed solar relies heavily on SMART program tariffs, which offer fixed base compensation rates for specific project types like low-income community solar.

Platts last assessed Massachusetts Vintage 2026 Class I RECs on May 7 at $38.25/megawatt-hour, while the Massachusetts Solar REC class 2025 vintage closed at $234.10/MWh. REC prices in the NEPOOL region have shown steady price dynamics for the first half of 2026.

"Massachusetts Class 1 non-solar [REC] prices are currently just under $39/megawatt-hour," a US-based trader told Platts. "I expect these prices to rise as the market approaches the Q4 trading period, reflecting increasing demand."

The pattern for these environmental attributes is shifting alongside the grid itself.

"While historically generated through utility-scale projects, the growing adoption of virtual power plant programs across many states, including Arizona, Utah and Texas, highlights the evolving role of RECs in supporting distributed energy resources and advancing clean energy commitments in homes, businesses and communities nationwide," Olinsky-Paul said.

The coalition plans to detail the reports' findings and outline specific policy recommendations during May 19 and May 26 webinars.

The Massachusetts Department of Energy Sources did not respond to a request for comment.