The last decade has seen an explosion in the study of plasmonic materials, with current applications including surface-enhanced spectroscopy, imaging beyond the diffraction limit, solar energy harvesting, and ultrasensitive detection.  Our group has been working to characterize the near-field enhancements encountered upon excitation of the localized surface plasmon resonance. Recently, electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) in the scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) has emerged as a technique capable of mapping the energy and spatial distribution of localized surface plasmon modes in nanostructures.  Several applications of STEM/EELS to optically driven plasmonic applications are presented: single molecule SERS, mapping local field enhancements, and energy transfer in plasmonic solar devices.