Redesigning the energy justice index for facility-contextualized distributive justice measurement: A case of U.S. utility-scale solar facilities

Efforts to evaluate the equity implications of the energy transition have increasingly relied on energy justice frameworks and associated measurement tools. Among these, energy justice indices are commonly used to prioritize communities based on socioeconomic vulnerabilities. However, existing approaches often overlook the contextual characteristics of energy facilities and the communities in which they are embedded. This study examines which contextual variables should be incorporated into distributive energy justice assessments for U.S. utility-scale solar facilities and what implications follow. Using a national dataset of utility-scale solar host communities in the U.S. at the census-tract level, the study identifies 12 out of 19 candidate technical and spatial variables that are significantly associated with socioeconomic conditions. It then constructs two energy justice indices, one based on socioeconomic variables and the other incorporating these additional variables. The two indices produce structurally different prioritization patterns that imply the need to consider redesigning energy justice measurement. Benchmarking both against EPA's EJScreen shows that the Expanded Index newly prioritizes 290 facilities and offers a better-grounded basis for prioritizing energy justice interventions under limited public resources.