EGN NEWS DESK
One of the Inflation Reduction Act’s most probably transformative applications is near being finalized — and now we’ve a window into the way it might take form.
States are vying for a share of a historic $7 billion in federal funding to assist low-income households entry clear solar energy. This program, Solar for All, is poised to profit greater than 700,000 low-income households throughout the nation, in response to a new evaluation from the nonprofit Clean Energy States Alliance, shared solely with Canary Media.
Solar for All is a aggressive grant program created below the IRA’s $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Solar for All goals to ship the financial savings, resiliency and well being advantages of small-scale photo voltaic and solar-plus-storage methods to low-income households and households in deprived communities.
“This is the largest low- and moderate-income photo voltaic funding in U.S. historical past,” Vero Bourg-Meyer, CESA senior challenge director, mentioned. “It has the potential to be actually transformational.”
Inequity has been a long-standing situation relating to residential photo voltaic adoption. In 2022, the median revenue for a photo voltaic family was about $117,000 per 12 months — or 70 % increased than the U.S. median family revenue of $69,000, in response to analysis from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Low-income households additionally spend a better proportion of their revenue on power payments: on common, 8.6 %, or practically thrice increased than different households. That’s a burden rooftop photo voltaic or group photo voltaic might assist alleviate.
To assist shut the solar-equity hole, the EPA plans to announce as much as 60 awards subsequent month to help Solar for All applications throughout the U.S. that might assist contributors save 20 % or extra on power payments. States, territories, tribal governments, municipalities and eligible nonprofits submitted their purposes final October. (EPA has not disclosed the whole variety of purposes acquired, in response to CESA.)
CESA’s new report, which analyzes Solar for All purposes from 33 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, is the primary to point out how candidates plan to make use of the funds to advance power fairness. CESA centered solely on state- and territory-wide applications, which it says will be capable of leverage assets, expertise and present applications that make them probably recipients.
There’s no assure that each software CESA analyzed can be funded, but when they have been, right here’s what it will seem like: The $6 billion in statewide applications would unleash 2,917 megawatts of latest solar-generation capability, serve 711,068 low-income and deprived households, and save them $2 billion over the subsequent 5 years.
Most candidates plan to create low-income photo voltaic applications — or develop present ones — that embody single-family, multifamily and group photo voltaic, the latter of which lets clients reap photo voltaic financial savings by subscribing to offsite arrays.
