Christine E. Boyle, PhD is a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Environmental Finance Center. Dr. Boyle investigates new models for sustainable local water and energy provision.
In the world of energy efficiency programming, relatively few programs have focused on the unique challenges that rural, low-income electricity cooperatives face in managing residential demand and lowering customer bills.
In 2012, the Environmental Finance Center carried out a quantitative impact evaluation of one such program, Clean Energy Durham’s community-based workshops and trainings in Warren County, North Carolina. We evaluated how attending a Clean Energy Durham workshop impacted households’ energy consumption, by comparing electricity bills before and after the workshops in these households, with households that did not attend. Continue reading