Building Resilience: A case study collection on clean energy and climate resilience
How clean energy companies strengthen economic, physical, and social resilience for the customers they serve.
- Report
- Renewable energy
- Cross region
- 2026
Weathering the shock: evidence from the field
Climate disruptions are already reshaping livelihoods: Floods interrupt transport, heat cuts working hours, droughts undermine agricultural production, and unreliable infrastructure raises the cost and uncertainty of earning a living. For low-income households and small businesses, these are not isolated events but recurring pressures on income, food security, and health.
Distributed renewable energy (DRE) and electrification are often framed as access or climate-mitigation stories. Our experience points to something more. They make communities more resilient to an increasingly volatile climate. Over the past 25 years, Acumen has invested $116 million across 53 electrification and DRE companies, and we have watched these businesses do far more than deliver power. They help farmers irrigate through drought, cut spoilage for market vendors, lower costs for informal workers, and strengthen the social fabric through reliable lighting, safer homes, and the basic services that hold daily life together when other systems fail.
Drawing on 11 studies reaching 2,327 people across four regions and two continents, we examine one question: how does DRE and electrification strengthen resilience for customers and communities? Three distinct patterns emerge as the strongest resilience builders.
Resilience is the condition in which a person or enterprise can anticipate climate threats, adapt where possible, absorb disruption, and recover swiftly. The studies in this collection were conducted with the use of data from 60 Decibels.
1. Resilience is strongest when energy protects or grows income.
The clearest pathway is economic. When a product cuts costs, lifts productivity, preserves inventory, or steadies earnings, customers absorb and recover from shocks more easily. Examples range from e-mobility lowering fuel costs to irrigation providing steadier harvests to cold chains reducing spoilage.
2. Technology works best when it is bundled with service, support and protection.
A product alone doesn’t make someone resilient. The strongest outcomes pair hardware with financing, maintenance, training, market linkages, customer support and transparent terms. Resilience is built through systems, not individual devices.
3. Solar homes play a key role in strengthening social resilience.
Even entry-level systems become foundational resilience infrastructure: reliable lighting, phone charging, and small-appliance use improve safety, health, and preparedness when other systems fail. Across five companies, 92% of customers reported improved safety and 55% reported greater preparedness for climate-related shocks.
Learn more by downloading Building Resilience: A case study collection on clean energy and climate resilience.
Acknowledgements
This report was authored by Acumen using studies, data and statistics from 60 Decibels. We would like to thank our Partners of the Pioneer Energy Investment Initiative PLUS (PEII+): IKEA Foundation, Autodesk Foundation, Distributed Power Fund and the UK government’s Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) through its Global Research and Technology Development (GRTD) via the Transforming Energy Access (TEA) Platform.
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