The People’s Solar Energy Fund (PSEF) is a Massachusetts-based advocacy group that promotes the deployment of weather restricted solar energy systems. PSEF claims to be a “community-owned” project and uses “resource commons” of capital and technical assistance to reach its goals, which it claims are “centered on BIPOC” communities. ¹

Programs

The People’s Solar Energy Fund promotes projects to expand the use of solar energy in minority communities. Programs include “community-owned solar,” member benefits to third-party groups, and technical assistance. The community-owned solar program gives people access to solar panels on a collective basis, but the program also promotes “democratic decision-making” and the “building political power.” ² Member benefits include access to financing for solar projects and technical assistance, among other things. Member groups must adhere to “the mission of PSEF” and must have a structure that is “responsible to and represented by at least one clearly identifiable low-income or working class and/or Black, Indigenous or People of Color (BIPOC) communities.” ³

Opposition to Nuclear Energy

The People’s Solar Energy Fund was a co-signer on an April 2021 letter to President Joe Biden that asked the administration to promote weather-dependent wind and solar power systems and “end the fossil fuel era.” The letter also advised the president to “Phase out nuclear energy as an inherently dirty, dangerous and costly energy source.” ⁴

Nuclear power plants do not produce carbon dioxide nor any other greenhouse gas emissions, and from 1990 until 2021 accounted for 20 percent of American electricity production—the largest source of zero carbon electricity in the United States. ⁵ An October 2018 proposal from The Nature Conservancy noted that zero-carbon nuclear plants produced 7.8 percent of total world energy output and recommended reducing carbon emissions by increasing nuclear capacity to 33 percent of total world energy outpu. ⁶ A 2020 analysis from Our World in Data reported that nuclear energy “results in 99.9% fewer deaths than brown coal; 99.8% fewer than coal; 99.7% fewer than oil; and 97.6% fewer than gas,” making it “just as safe” as wind and solar power production. ⁷ The U.S. Department of Energy has concluded that “nuclear energy produces more electricity on less land than any other clean-air source” and that it would require “more than 3 million solar panels to produce the same amount of power as a typical commercial reactor or more than 430 wind turbines.” ⁸

Funding

Top financial contributors to People’s Solar Energy Fund include the Builders Initiative Foundation, ImpactAssets, and the Amalgamated Charitable Foundation, which gave $280,000, $232,500, and $130,000 respectively, to the People’s Solar Energy Fund in 2022. ⁹ The Builders Initiative Foundation had revenues of $189,732,780 and assets of $1,117,727,346 in 2022. ¹⁰

ImpactAssets is a donor-advised fund that funds third-party organization in promotion of left-of-center policies such as expansionist immigration, left-wing voter outreach, abortion expansion, environmentalism, and critical race theory. ^{11 12} ImpactAssets had revenues of $382,327,423 and assets of $2,191,122,674 in 2022. ¹³

The Amalgamated Charitable Foundation, also a donor-advised fund, supports other progressive organizations, and sponsored a campaign targeting social-conservative and immigration-restrictionist organizations. ¹⁴ Amalgamated Charitable Foundation had revenues of $219,934,501 and assets of $160,739,477 in 2022. ¹⁵

People

Mmakgantsi Mafojane is the co-director and board president of People’s Solar Energy Fund. Mmakgantsi has a background in law, working as an associate for an international law firm based in South Africa, and working as an intern for UNICEF. ¹⁶

1. “People’s Solar Energy Fund (PSEF): Community-Owned Solar.” People’s Solar Energy Fund, July 11, 2024. https://psef.network/.
2. “Community-Owned Solar.” People’s Solar Energy Fund, January 25, 2024. https://psef.network/community-owned-solar/.
3. “PSEF Membership.” People’s Solar Energy Fund, July 15, 2024. https://psef.network/psef-membership/.
4. Center for Biological Diversity, et. al. Letter to “The Honorable President Joseph R. Biden.” RE: NOW IS THE MOMENT TO ACCELERATE THE JUST, RENEWABLE ENERGY FUTURE AND END THE FOSSIL FUEL ERA. April 27, 2021. Accessed August 11, 2024. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/energy-justice/pdfs/2022-4-27_Letter-to-Pres-Biden-re-End-Fossil-Fuel-Era-Accelerate-Transtion-to-Renewable-Energy.pdf
5. “Nuclear explained.” U.S. Energy Information Administration. Accessed August 11, 2024. https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/nuclear/us-nuclear-industry.php
6. “The Science of Sustainability.” The Nature Conservancy. October 13, 2018. Accessed August 11, 2024. https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-insights/perspectives/the-science-of-sustainability/
7. Ritchie, Hannah. “What are the safest and cleanest sources of energy?” Our World in Data. February 10, 2020. Accessed August 11, 2024. https://ourworldindata.org/safest-sources-of-energy
8.  “3 Reasons Why Nuclear is Clean and Sustainable.” U.S. Department of Energy. March 31, 2021. Accessed August 11, 2024. https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/3-reasons-why-nuclear-clean-and-sustainable
9. “People’s Solar Energy Fund.” Cause IQ. Accessed August 11, 2024. https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/peoples-solar-energy-fund,843011433/.
10. “Builders Initiative Foundation.” Cause IQ. Accessed August 11, 2024. https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/the-builders-initiative,821503941/.
11. “Donor Advised Fund.” ImpactAssets. Accessed August 11, 2021. https://www.impactassets.org/our_products/donor-advised-fund.
12. “2021 Impact Report.” ImpactAssets. Accessed August 11, 2021. https://docsend.com/view/6w4he9nwzyfffqxd.
13. “ImpactAssets.” Cause IQ. Accessed August 11, 2024. https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/impactassets,262048480/.
14. “Hate Is Not Charitable Campaign,” https://www.amalgamatedfoundation.org/hate-is-not-charitable
15. “Amalgamated Charitable Foundation.” Cause IQ. Accessed August 11, 2024. https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/amalgamated-charitable-foundation,821517696/.
16. “Mmakgantsi Mafojane.” LinkedIn, Accessed September 9, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmakgantsimafojane