Simplify Clean Energy Explanations, And More People Will Understand How Renewables Can Improve Their Lives
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When I was an early stage doctoral student, our professor asked each of us to turn to someone in the room and explain our upcoming dissertation idea. Whoa! That was tough, as our colleagues didn’t necessarily share our disciplinary background knowledge nor the jargon that we took for granted in our field. We soon realized that we needed to simplify and clarify our language so that our message would be clear and digestible.
Such a linear model of communication, in which information flows one way from sender to receiver, is the method that most renewable energy information is disseminated. Experts in the clean energy field know an enormous amount about energy production, efficiency, power, reliability, cost-of-investment, abundance, scalability, competitive supply chains — and so much more. And they’re happy to tell us all they know!
But there are lots of other communication models and approaches, and the new audiences for renewables do need a less top-down approach. If we want to infuse greater renewable energy understanding in others, we must be self-reflective about the way we talk — from how we frame a thought to how we present arguments. Each of us has space to improve our communicative methods so we can most efficaciously reach audiences.
The straightforward approach: State the key finding first: “Offshore wind can reduce the need for peaker plants.” Then explain why it matters: “Gas-powered peaker plants spin up when demand is especially high. By adding more energy supply, offshore wind helps make sure those peaker plants don’t have to turn on, which keeps the overall wholesale market price down.” Then provide supporting context: “New Englanders pay some of the highest electric rates in the country. If offshore wind energy is added to the grid, the cost would be much lower.”
Just delete the jargon: Evidence-based science experts don’t recognize how much specialized language they incorporate into their conversations. To resist this, think about explaining a renewable energy topic to a middle schooler. Here’s a starting point. “Electro-efficiency is the inbuilt efficiency of electric technology compared with fossil fuels.” Glazed eyes, right? To an expert, the terms “electro-efficiency,” “inbuilt efficiency,” and “electric technology” may seem self-explanatory. But to a lay person, slowing down the discourse would help. As our CleanTechnica colleague, Michael Barnard, explains, “Primary energy is raw energy entering the system… But final energy is still not what the economy gets.” To simplify that statement one step further, electricity reaches a user’s equipment and turns it into useful work — efficiency — much more quickly than fossil fuels do.
Tell a story: Narrative engagement is a term that describes how feeling connected to a story world tends to be more meaningful to information consumers than does listening to facts. Humans relate to other humans, so characters in a story bring new concepts to life. Researchers have found that storytelling in science leads to new ways to think about science, connections to science, and greater scientific knowledge gain. Interestingly, these outcomes occur regardless of demographics.
Post on social media: Online platforms offer good opportunities to simplify scientific ideas about renewable energy by translating concepts into everyday language. Being concise and even including visual representations can attract attention and have a broad reach.
Repeat, review, reframe: First year teacher candidates grasp early on what scientists take a long time to learn: repetition matters. People are more likely to understand a concept if they hear about it frequently and in a variety of ways. Stopping to summarize across different moments is how instructors scaffold unfamiliar ideas into familiar ones.
Draw on sensory perceptions: Throughout our lives we learn abstract concepts through examples, especially when they evoke sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. When I tell people how much I enjoy driving my electric cars, their eyes occasionally squint in disbelief. When I compare how arduous it used to be for me to pump gas on the way to work, dripping droplets of gas on my fancy shoes,and then smelling fuel fumes all day in the classroom, they get it. Smell is a powerful instructor, and a battery electric vehicle doesn’t have any.
Use keywords and stylistic markers: In the same way that this article has bold short summaries before each section, written renewable energy articles should give readers the opportunity to flick back to the beginning to reinforce the content’s main idea. It’s known as commonly accepted generic conventions.
Final Thoughts to Simplify Renewable Energy Messaging
“Spiritual investigation requires that you pay attention to the world, and paying attention to the world often leads you to love the world.”
— Mary Oliver —
Researcher John A. List, writing in Nature, suggests that studying people in their natural lives (and following strict ethical rules) can reveal patterns relevant to each group. List explains, “In real-world settings, decisions occur inside webs of reputation, relationships, and consequence. Generalizing from settings that mute these influences can lead to erroneous inference and flawed policymaking.”
Scientists seek this generalizability — how much results obtained from a sample can be used to draw conclusions about a specific target population. Problems arise with generalizability, though, because human behavior differs across populations and situations.
Populations chosen to be studied differ, and so will results. People live in complex social environments in which labels, stakes, and scrutiny shape every decision. But those contexts are often overlooked. What might work for one group might not apply to other populations. For instance, polls have historically looked for voting patterns in predominantly middle-aged white men, whose results were then applied to women and other groups — yet those groups might differ substantially in their world views.
We each draw upon different cultural models and domains; sometimes this is known in communication studies as a “swamp.” This swamp is a problem for clean energy advocates because many of the cultural models and domains aren’t consistent with the science of anthropogenic climate change. Moreover, the behaviors required to transition to clean energy are distinct from those long-carried norms.
Yet, instead of arguing with people who deny or resist climate change as a reality, we need to recognize that cultural models and domains are widely shared and durable and that audiences filter renewable energy conversations through those mindsets. Cultural models structure everyday thinking and actions. Understanding the prior knowledge that an audience brings to clean energy controversies is crucial to effective messaging about renewables.
References
“Five things that make science easier to understand.” Creative Science Alliance. June 10, 2026.
“Make science more reliable: Study people as they go about their lives.” John A. List. Nature. June 22, 2026.
“Storytelling in science film: Narrative engagement relates to greater knowledge, interest, and identification with science.” Emily L. Howell, et al. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. August 14, 2024.
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