Michael S. Regan 16th Administrator, United States Environmental Protection Agency | Official Website
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that the Executive Office of the State of Arizona has been selected to receive $159,000,000 through the Solar for All grant competition. This funding aims to enable low-income and disadvantaged communities in Arizona to benefit from residential solar energy and lower their energy costs. Martha Guzman, EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator, expressed, "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. With this new EPA investment of $159 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 initiative is part of the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which was established under President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act to address climate change, create jobs, advance environmental justice, and reduce energy costs for American families. The program will focus on developing innovative market mechanisms to accelerate distributed solar deployment in low-income and disadvantaged communities in Arizona, including rooftops, neighborhood solar projects, and solar-plus-storage systems. This investment is expected to bring more equitable and just long-term solar development to the state, benefiting communities in urban, rural, and Tribal areas while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector.
In addition to the grant for Arizona, the EPA also selected Hopi Utilities Corporation to receive $25,600,000 to deploy residential solar and storage systems on the Hopi Reservation, benefiting low-income and unelectrified households. The Solar for All program aims to enable over 900,000 households in low-income and disadvantaged communities nationwide to deploy and benefit from distributed solar energy, resulting in significant savings on electric bills and reductions in carbon dioxide emissions.
The Solar for All program aligns with President Biden's Justice40 Initiative, which aims to direct benefits from federal investments in climate, clean energy, and sustainable housing to marginalized and disadvantaged communities. It also supports the administration's goal of achieving a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035 and a net-zero emissions economy by 2050. Additionally, the program is expected to generate an estimated 200,000 jobs nationwide in the clean energy sector.
The EPA anticipates finalizing awards to selected applicants by the summer of 2024, with projects expected to begin shortly thereafter. Informational webinars will be held to provide transparency and engage the public in the program's progress.
