Jun 5, 2025 07:36 PM
California’s solar market faces seven forms of corruption -- including “sex for solar"
https://www.bu.edu/igs/2025/06/04/califo...for-solar/
EXCERPTS: Solar power is growing by leaps and bounds in the United States, propelled by climate mitigation policies and carbon-free energy goals — and California is leading the way as the nation’s top producer of solar electricity. A new study in Energy Strategy Reviews has revealed a dark side to the state’s breakneck pace for solar investment, deployment, and adoption, taking a first-time look at patterns of public and private sector corruption in the California solar market.
Researchers at the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS) have identified seven distinct types of corruption abuses and risks in California solar energy. Among them, favoritism in project approvals, including a high-profile incident at the senior ranks of the U.S. Department of the Interior involving an intimate relationship with a solar company lobbyist. To fully realize a just energy transition, the authors call for major solar reforms in California as the U.S. increasingly relies on solar energy to decarbonize its electricity sector.
“In this groundbreaking study, we find that efforts to accelerate solar infrastructure deployment in California end up contributing to a sobering array of corruption practices and risks. These include shocking abuses of power in the approval and licensing phases as well as the displacement of Indigenous groups, and also nefarious patterns of tax evasion or the falsification of information about solar projects,” says lead author Benjamin Sovacool, who is the director of IGS and a Boston University professor of earth and environment. “It’s a wake-up call that the solar industry cannot continue on its current trajectory of bad governance and bad behavior.”
[...] They point to a blend of public, private, social, and political patterns of corruption in the California solar energy market:
1. Clientelism and favoritism: Hiring friends or family over others for solar projects and unfairly allocating government contracts or permits to project developers, which in one instance led to an investigative report questioning the influence of a sexual relationship.
2. Rent-seeking and land grabbing: Redirecting public funds or lands to benefit private developers and taking communal or public land from Indigenous peoples or other groups for energy infrastructure siting.
3. Service diversion: Withholding local benefits, such as lower electricity bills, or distributing locally generated power only to higher-paying parts of the state.
4. Theft: Forceful removal of flora or cultural artifacts, or disturbing animal habitat, to build solar project sites.
5. Greenwashing: Misleading the public about a solar project’s environmental benefits; using flawed environmental or cultural impact assessments to evaluate project impacts, such as pollution of nearby waterways; and overriding environmental protections to fast-track solar infrastructure expansion.
6. Tax evasion and avoidance: Not paying or underpaying taxes, or governmental authorities strategically failing to adequately allocate project funds to communities impacted by solar project development.
7. Non-transparency: Hiding, manipulating, or failing to disclose relevant or important information surrounding solar projects, such as the local economic benefits and environmental impacts... (MORE - missing details)
https://www.bu.edu/igs/2025/06/04/califo...for-solar/
EXCERPTS: Solar power is growing by leaps and bounds in the United States, propelled by climate mitigation policies and carbon-free energy goals — and California is leading the way as the nation’s top producer of solar electricity. A new study in Energy Strategy Reviews has revealed a dark side to the state’s breakneck pace for solar investment, deployment, and adoption, taking a first-time look at patterns of public and private sector corruption in the California solar market.
Researchers at the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS) have identified seven distinct types of corruption abuses and risks in California solar energy. Among them, favoritism in project approvals, including a high-profile incident at the senior ranks of the U.S. Department of the Interior involving an intimate relationship with a solar company lobbyist. To fully realize a just energy transition, the authors call for major solar reforms in California as the U.S. increasingly relies on solar energy to decarbonize its electricity sector.
“In this groundbreaking study, we find that efforts to accelerate solar infrastructure deployment in California end up contributing to a sobering array of corruption practices and risks. These include shocking abuses of power in the approval and licensing phases as well as the displacement of Indigenous groups, and also nefarious patterns of tax evasion or the falsification of information about solar projects,” says lead author Benjamin Sovacool, who is the director of IGS and a Boston University professor of earth and environment. “It’s a wake-up call that the solar industry cannot continue on its current trajectory of bad governance and bad behavior.”
[...] They point to a blend of public, private, social, and political patterns of corruption in the California solar energy market:
1. Clientelism and favoritism: Hiring friends or family over others for solar projects and unfairly allocating government contracts or permits to project developers, which in one instance led to an investigative report questioning the influence of a sexual relationship.
2. Rent-seeking and land grabbing: Redirecting public funds or lands to benefit private developers and taking communal or public land from Indigenous peoples or other groups for energy infrastructure siting.
3. Service diversion: Withholding local benefits, such as lower electricity bills, or distributing locally generated power only to higher-paying parts of the state.
4. Theft: Forceful removal of flora or cultural artifacts, or disturbing animal habitat, to build solar project sites.
5. Greenwashing: Misleading the public about a solar project’s environmental benefits; using flawed environmental or cultural impact assessments to evaluate project impacts, such as pollution of nearby waterways; and overriding environmental protections to fast-track solar infrastructure expansion.
6. Tax evasion and avoidance: Not paying or underpaying taxes, or governmental authorities strategically failing to adequately allocate project funds to communities impacted by solar project development.
7. Non-transparency: Hiding, manipulating, or failing to disclose relevant or important information surrounding solar projects, such as the local economic benefits and environmental impacts... (MORE - missing details)
