Biden-Harris Administration Announces Over $156 Million to Deliver Residential Solar, Lowering Energy Costs and Advancing Environmental Justice Across Arizona
Publilshed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Today, as the Biden-Harris Administration celebrates Earth Day, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the Executive Office of the State of Arizona has been selected to receive $156,120,000 through the Solar for All grant competition. With this funding, Arizona will develop long-lasting solar programs that enable low-income and disadvantaged communities to deploy and benefit from residential solar. This award is part of the historic $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, developed under President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act to lower American families’ energy costs, create good-quality jobs in communities — including historically disadvantaged communities, advance environmental justice, and tackle the climate crisis.
The Arizona project is a transformational opportunity to bring the benefits of the state’s abundant solar resources to Arizona’s low-income and disadvantaged communities. Arizona is one of the sunniest states, with one of the nation’s fastest-growing solar markets. Yet the benefits of solar markets are not currently distributed fairly across Arizona’s diverse communities. This investment will create innovative market mechanisms that accelerate distributed solar deployment in low-income and disadvantaged communities on rooftops, neighborhood solar projects, and solar-plus-storage systems. The benefits of these programs will include more equitable and just long-term solar development in the state, bringing the benefits of solar energy to communities in urban, rural, and Tribal areas. The program will provide significant immediate savings on electricity bills for recipients of solar energy benefits and extensive reductions of greenhouse gas emissions from the state’s electricity sector.
“For years, the benefits of household solar – such as the significant savings on energy bills – have been out of reach for too many in Arizona,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Martha Guzman. “With this new EPA investment of $156 million, residents across Arizona, including those in our disadvantaged communities, will now be able to adopt solar and reap the advantages of this climate change-fighting technology.”
The grant to the Executive Office of the State of Arizona is among 49 state-level awards the EPA announced today, totaling approximately $5.5 billion. Six awards to serve Tribes total over $500 million, and five multistate awards total approximately $1 billion.
The EPA also selected Hopi Utilities Corporation to receive $25,120,000. Hopi Utilities Corporation and partners Arizona State University and Hopi Renewable Energy Office will deploy residential solar and storage systems on the Hopi Reservation. The Hopi Tribe is a coal-impacted community that suffers from high poverty rates and extreme energy inequity. Thirty-five percent of Hopi households do not have electricity access, and grid-connected households suffer from frequent and extended outages. This program will directly benefit low-income and unelectrified households, mobilizing additional financing and tax—all at no up-front cost to residents.
The EPA Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund’s Solar for All website provides a complete list of the selected applicants.
The Solar for All program advances President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, which set the goal that 40% of the overall benefits of specific federal climate, clean energy, affordable and sustainable housing, and other investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution. All the funds awarded through the Solar for All program will be invested in low-income and disadvantaged communities. The program will also help meet the President’s goal of achieving a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035 and a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.
EPA estimates that the 60 Solar for All recipients announced today will enable over 900,000 households in low-income and disadvantaged communities to deploy and benefit from distributed solar energy. This $7 billion investment will generate $350+ million in annual savings on electric bills for overburdened households. The program will reduce 30 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions cumulatively from over 4 gigawatts of clean energy capacity. Solar projects funded by this program will generate over $8 billion in household savings over the 25-year lifetime of the assets. Solar and distributed energy resources help improve electric grid reliability and climate resilience, which is especially important in disadvantaged communities that have long been underserved.
Solar for All will also deliver on the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to creating high-quality jobs with the free and fair choice to join a union for workers across the United States. This $7 billion investment in clean energy will generate an estimated 200,000 jobs nationwide. All selected applicants intend to invest in local, clean energy workforce development programs to expand equitable pathways into family-sustaining jobs for the communities they are designed to serve. At least 35% of selected applicants have already engaged local or national unions, an engagement that demonstrates how these programs will contribute to the foundation of a clean energy economy built on strong labor standards and inclusive economic opportunity for all American communities.
The 60 selected applicants nationwide have committed to delivering on the three objectives of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund: reducing climate and air pollution, providing benefits to low-income and disadvantaged communities, and mobilizing financing to spur additional deployment of affordable solar energy. Solar for All selected applicants are expanding existing low-income solar programs and launching new programs. In 25 states and territories nationwide, Solar for All is launching new programs and opening new markets for low-income, residential solar by providing subsidies and low-cost financing so households in low-income and disadvantaged communities can build and access affordable solar energy for the first time.
Review and Selection Process Information
The 60 selected applicants nationwide were chosen from 150 Solar for All competition applications. The selectees were chosen through a robust competition review process. This multi-staged process included hundreds of climate experts, power markets, environmental justice, labor, and consumer protection from across EPA, the Department of Energy, Housing and Urban Affairs, the Department of Treasury, the Department of Agriculture, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Labor, Department of Defense, and the Department of Energy’s National Labs – all screened through ethics and conflict of interest checks and trained on the program requirements and evaluation criteria.
EPA anticipates that awards to the selected applicants will be finalized in the summer of 2024. The selected applicants will then begin funding projects through existing programs and expanding community outreach programs to launch new programs. Selections are contingent on resolving all administrative disputes related to the competitions.
Informational Webinars
EPA will host informational webinars as part of the program’s commitment to public transparency. Registration details for this week’s webinar are included below, and information on other Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) webinars can be found on EPA’s GGRF webpage.
- Solar for All webinar: Monday, April 29, 2024, 4:00– 4:30 pm ET. Register for the webinar here.
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Read the full article at: https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/biden-harris-administration-announces-over-156-million-deliver-residential-solar-0
