Clean energy, like so many commodities in this country, is not evenly or evenly distributed. Disadvantaged communities have much less solar panels ranked over their roofs as higher income areas. The federal government just took a big step to cross that divide.
President Joe Biden announced Monday the 60 organizations that will receive a combined $7 billion in grants under the administration’s Solar for All program to bring residential solar power in low-income neighborhoods. The funding will flow to state, municipal and tribal governments as well as nonprofit organizations to support existing programs for low-income solar and battery storage installs and incentivize new ones. Such efforts are expected to bring affordable clean energy to 900,000 households.
While the climate and environmental benefits of this effort are critical, the households poised to benefit will feel the most immediate impact on their pocketbooks.
“Low-income families can spend up to 30 percent of their paychecks on their energy bills,” Biden said as he announced the funding in Virginia. “It’s outrageous.”
That reality is central to the administration’s program, which will cut energy costs for those families who monitor their spending to ensure they can make it to the end of the month. By bringing rooftop and community solar power to communities in need, Solar for All can save energy-burdened families an average of $400 per year.
The 60 recipients were selected by dozens of review panels composed of experts from across the executive branch. The Environmental Protection Agency will finalize contract details in the coming days and weeks, and awardees are expected to receive the funding in the summer to begin implementing their efforts.
Without the low-income solar programs that will be established and expanded with these funds, most families cannot afford to put energy-producing panels on top of their homes. The most roof installations costing tens of thousands of dollars, and even with a long-term loan and the promise of a year-end tax credit to help cover a hefty upfront cost, putting the technology out of reach for many Americans.
As Solar for All brings energy savings to low-income and disadvantaged families nationwide — furthering Biden’s Justice40 initiative, which aims to ensure that at least 40 percent of climate investments directly benefit frontline communities — it will also accelerate progress toward the administration’s goal of reaching 100. percent clean energy nationwide by 2035. The EPA estimates that the $7 billion will underwrite 4 gigawatts of solar installations nationwide, enough to power more than 3 million homes. The program is expected to prevent more than 30 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from ever entering the atmosphere, while also creating 200,000 jobs and providing tribal lands with an improved path to energy sovereignty.
For years, indigenous communities were all over America use solar power and other renewable energy to liberate themselves of an energy system polluting their air and establishing something they own. With $500 million earmarked specifically for tribal governments, Solar for All can help accelerate these efforts. One such grant for more than $135 million will go to the Northern Plains Tribal Coalition, a partnership of 14 Native nations brought together by the Native-led nonprofit Indigenized Energy and the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation.
“This is a once-in-a-generation award that will begin to transform how tribes achieve energy sovereignty,” Cody Two Bears, executive director of the Native-led nonprofit Indigenized Energy, said in a press release . “The shift from extractive energy to regenerative energy systems will be the legacy we leave for our future generations.”
