Environmental Protection Agency is launching a $7 billion Solar for All competition — designed to spur the deployment of residential distributed solar energy to lower energy bills for millions of Americans and catalyze transformation in markets serving low-income and disadvantaged communities.
Donor Name: Environmental Protection Agency
State: All States
County: All Counties
Territory: Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline:
- District of Columbia and Puerto Rico: 07/31/2023
- The Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands: 08/14/2023
- Tribal governments and Intertribal Consortia: 08/28/2023
Size of the Grant: up to $400 million
Grant Duration: 5 years
Details:
Solar for All will tackle the financial and non-financial barriers that limit the ability of low-income and disadvantaged communities across the country to benefit from the rapid growth in distributed solar capacity, thus advancing the Biden-Harris Administration’s climate and environmental justice goals.
This competition will award up to 60 grants to states, territories, Tribal governments, municipalities, and eligible nonprofit recipients to expand the number of low-income and disadvantaged communities primed for distributed solar investment—enabling millions of low-income households to access affordable, resilient, and clean solar energy. Grantees will use funds to expand existing low-income solar programs or design and deploy new Solar for All programs nationwide. EPA will not fund individual projects under this competition.
EPA’s $7 billion Solar for All competition will help deliver on the climate and environmental justice goals of the United States. To achieve these goals, Solar for All grantees will provide subsidies and other financial assistance to residential rooftop and residential-serving community solar projects in and benefiting low-income and disadvantaged communities in addition to project-deployment technical assistance such as workforce development, community outreach, and other project-deployment support (e.g., interconnection technical assistance, siting and permitting support) to help overcome barriers to solar deployment.
GGRF Solar for All Program Objectives
Solar for All will advance the three overarching GGRF program objectives:
- Program Objective 1: Reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants. GGRF program grantees will support projects, activities, and technologies that reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants that harm communities and contribute to climate change. As part of the GGRF program, the Solar for All program grantees will deploy and enable deployment of residential-serving solar, storage, and enabling upgrades across the country, directly supporting the climate goal of the United States to achieve a carbon pollution-free electricity sector by 2035.
- Program Objective 2: Deliver benefits of greenhouse gas- and air pollution-reducing projects to American communities, particularly low-income and disadvantaged communities. GGRF program grantees will invest in projects that directly benefit American communities. All Solar for All funds will enable low-income and disadvantaged communities to deploy and benefit from distributed solar. EPA expects Solar for All grantees will deliver meaningful benefits, such as household savings, quality jobs, and community ownership to American communities and households. EPA expects Solar for All grantees to maximize the breadth and diversity of households served in the program, including rural, urban, and suburban communities; energy communities; and persistent poverty counties, while prioritizing investing in the most disadvantaged and low-income households in the communities the program is designed to serve.
- Program Objective 3: Mobilize financing and private capital to stimulate additional deployment of greenhouse gas- and air pollution-reducing projects. GGRF program grantees will facilitate market transformation by addressing the barriers to mobilizing private capital into clean technology projects in undercapitalized markets. Grantees will catalyze additional investment in underinvested project types critical to achieving climate goals and in underinvested communities that have long faced barriers to accessing capital. Solar for All grantees will stimulate additional deployment of solar by strengthening the overall market for residential-serving solar by not only providing access to low-cost capital but also providing project-deployment services, such as community outreach and workforce development. Solar for All will catalyze the deployment of residential distributed solar by developing favorable market environments for low-income and disadvantaged communities to deploy and benefit from solar across the country.
Funding Information
- EPA anticipates awarding approximately $7,000,000,000 under this announcement, depending on Agency funding levels, the quality of applications received, agency priorities, and other applicable considerations.
- EPA anticipates making up to 60 awards under this announcement—up to 56 awards for each state/territory eligible in this competition, up to 5 awards set aside to serve American Indian and Alaska Native Communities, and up to 10 awards for multi-state programs. EPA aims to maximize geographic coverage across all three award options. The award options, eligible applicants, and scope of work are explained below.
- Award option #1 – up to 56 awards to serve state and territory geographies: All eligible applicants (i.e., states, territories, Tribal governments, municipalities, and eligible nonprofit recipients, as defined in Section III.A.) can apply to serve a single state or territory. Geographic areas that Solar for All can serve include each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Applicants interested in serving more than one state and/or territory and not serving similar communities in multiple states as described in award option #3 should submit one application for every geography they aim to serve. EPA is requiring applicants to submit one application per geography to ensure differences in state energy market policies are evaluated in context. A coalition of municipalities in the same state/territory should apply under award option #1. Note: programs under this award option do not need to serve the entirety of the state or territory, yet EPA will evaluate applications that maximize geographic coverage more favorably.
- Award option #2 – up to 5 awards to serve American Indian and Alaska Native Communities: Tribal governments and/or eligible nonprofit recipients can apply for this award option. Eligible nonprofit recipients must have Tribal leadership at the senior management level (e.g., Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, at least one Member of the Board of Directors) and experience serving American Indian and Alaska Native Communities to compete under this award option. EPA aims to maximize the ability of this program to serve the broadest population of American Indian and Alaska Native Communities, and EPA will evaluate applications on the extent to which they maximize the number of households served and geographic coverage.
- Award option #3 – up to 10 awards to serve similar communities across multiple states: Tribal governments, municipalities and eligible nonprofit recipients can apply for awards to serve municipalities in multiple states. Applications for award option #3 should explain how the program proposes to address similar market challenges specific low-income and disadvantaged communities face in many states. Grantees will be expected to coordinate with state governments and regulators where applicable. Given the limited number of grants EPA can award under this competition, EPA will evaluate applications that maximize geographic coverage more favorably.
- EPA expects award amounts to vary based on geography and proposed program deployment goals ranging from $25 million to $400 million, broken down by small, medium, and large-sized programs as described below.
- Small Programs: $25 million up to $100 million
- Medium Programs: Greater than $100 million and up to $250 million
- Large Programs: Greater than $250 million and up to $400 million
- EPA anticipates the start date for programs funded under this funding opportunity will be July 2024. All activities funded with the initial grant award must be completed within the negotiated program performance period of up to five years, meaning all program grant funds must be deployed as described in the application.
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible applicants for this competition include: states (including territories as defined below), municipalities, Tribal governments, or eligible nonprofit recipients. Applicants are required to be eligible applicants at the time of application. The definitions of a state, municipality, Tribal government, and eligible nonprofit recipient are described below.
- State: Section 302(d) of the Clean Air Act defines a state as a state, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
- Municipality: Section 302(f) of the Clean Air Act provides that a municipality is a city, town, borough, county, parish, district, or other public body created by or pursuant to state law. This term may include councils of government (COGs) created by or pursuant to the laws of one or more states even if a COG is incorporated as a nonprofit organization.
- Tribal Government: In defining this term, EPA will use Section 302(r) of the Clean Air Act, which defines “Indian Tribe” as any “Indian Tribe, band, nation, or other organized group or community, including any Alaska Native village, which is Federally recognized as eligible for the special programs and services provided by the United States to Indians because of their status as Indians.” 20 EPA includes Intertribal
- Consortia that meet the requirements of 40 CFR § 35.504 as an eligible applicant under this category pursuant to the authority in 40 CFR § 35.501(b) to issue guidance extending Intertribal Consortia eligibility to environmental programs established subsequent to the effective date of 40 CFR Part 35, Subpart B. As provided in 40 CFR 35.504(a) all members of the Intertribal consortium must meet the definition of “Indian tribe” in Section 302(r) of the Clean Air Act.
- Eligible Recipient (titled “Eligible Nonprofit Recipient”): Section 134(c)(1) of the Clean Air Act provides that an eligible recipient (a) is a non-profit organization; (b) is designed to provide capital, leverage private capital, and provide other forms of financial assistance for the rapid deployment of low- and zero-emission products, technologies, and services; (c) does not take deposits other than deposits from repayments and other revenue received from financial assistance provided using grant funds under this program; (d) is funded by public or charitable contributions; and (e) invests in or finances projects alone or in conjunction with other investors. The applicant must provide supporting evidence (including organizational documents, such as articles of incorporation or similar documents filed with a governmental authority as a condition of carrying out its activities; tax filings; financial statements; investment records; and/or any other information the applicant deems appropriate) demonstrating that it satisfies all the requirements listed below.
- Meets the definition of nonprofit organization set forth in 2 CFR § 200.121
- Has an organizational mission consistent with being “designed to provide capital, leverage private capital, and provide other forms of financial assistance for the rapid deployment of low- and zero-emission products, technologies, and services”
- Does not receive any “deposit” (as defined in Section 3(l) of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act) or “member account” or “account” (as defined in Section 101 of the Federal Credit Union Act)
- Is funded by public or charitable contributions
- Has the legal authority to invest in or finance projects.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
