The MI Solar for All Program the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy’s Office of Climate and Energy is offering grants for MI SFA pilot projects under the MI Healthy Climate Challenge: Solar for Savings initiative.
Donor Name: Michigan Department of Environment Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE)
State: Michigan
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 07/30/2025
Size of the Grant: $500,000 to $1 million
Grant Duration: 3 Years
Details:
The MI SFA program aims to help reduce energy costs and improve energy reliability and resiliency for low-income families and communities by implementing residential-serving community solar, residential rooftop solar, enabling upgrades, and energy storage projects that provide benefits to participating low-income households that are equivalent to an annual average 20% reduction on the average household electricity bill.
Program Objectives
- Help reduce energy burdens experienced by low-income households
- Increase access to wealth building opportunities and solar ownership
- Install new renewable energy generation and energy storage
- Seek partnerships and additional funding sources to expand the program’s impact and reach
- Reduce potential risks to program investment performance
- Support high-quality, high-wage careers
- Develop flexible community assistance and educational opportunities to support Michigan communities.
Project Priorities
- Eligible Households
- Geographical distribution
- Innovative and Scalable
- Energy Resiliency
- Cost Savings and Investment Opportunities
- Workforce and Contractor Development
- Community Assistance.
Funding Information
The Solar for Savings grant competition will provide $8,875,000 across the following categories:
- Residential-serving community solar: $6,500,000
- Residential rooftop solar: $1,000,000
- Enabling upgrades: $1,000,000
- Associated storage solutions: $375,000.
Grant Period
The OCE anticipates the grant period will begin by October 1, 2025, or earlier and will end August 30, 2028. Though it is expected that pilot projects will be completed sooner, pilot grant periods may be extended through January 31, 2029, given extenuating circumstances.
Eligible Projects
To qualify for funding, projects must meet the following criteria:
- Deliver at least an average annual 20% electric bill savings or the equivalent to eligible low-income households.
- Provide 100% of the benefits to eligible low-income households, or, for residential-serving community solar projects, at least 50% of the benefits to eligible low-income households.
- Support the deployment of the following technologies, as defined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Solar for All Terms and Conditions:
- Residential Rooftop Solar
- Residential-Serving Community Solar
- Associated Storage
- Enabling Upgrades.
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible entities include public and not-for-profit entities such as tribes, state and local government, non-profit, municipal and cooperative utilities, and educational entities like K-12 schools, colleges, and universities, and eligible property owners physically located in Michigan. For-profit entities are not eligible to apply but may be a partner on a project proposal, if an eligible entity is the proposed grantee.
- Eligible nonprofit organizations must not be nonprofit organizations exempt from taxation under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code that engage in lobbying activities.
For more information, visit DEGLE.
