Solar for All - Celebrations and Opportunities
When the news came out last week about the Environmental Protection Agency’s Solar for All awards, we were over the moon. Every single Hive Fund grantee partner that participated in an application was successful. Together, our grantee partners are participating in awards totaling over $1 billion for low-income and disadvantaged communities! These awards are the result of years of partnership-building, community organizing, and collaborative planning that the Hive Fund is proud to have supported.
WSR leader Doris Brown's home was equipped with solar and batteries to be a neighborhood resilience hub. Photo courtesy of SUN.
congratulations to the awardees!
North Carolina Clean Energy Fund, in collaboration with the state energy office, won funding to deploy distributed solar to low-income households across the state, with meaningful community and workforce participation. Read the press release.
Clean Energy Fund of Texas, in partnership with the Bullard Center at Texas Southern University will deploy solar and battery resources at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, and Tribal Colleges and Universities across the South, Southeast & Mid-Atlantic regions as well as surrounding neighborhoods. Texas Climate Jobs Project will also support job training and help ensure strong labor standards. Read the press release.
Residential and community solar and resilience hubs in low-income neighborhoods across Texas, modeled on pilots by Solar United Neighbors (SUN) and West Street Recovery (WSR) in Northeast Houston, are included in Harris County, Texas’ successful application. Read the news coverage.
Finance New Orleans participated in the State of Louisiana’s application to provide weatherization and rooftop and community solar in low-to-moderate income neighborhoods. Read the news coverage.
Roanoke Electric and EnerWealth Solutions are the North Carolina partners that will help deliver community solar and storage for the Southeast Rural Power Coalition.
Sustainable Georgia Futures (SGF) and Georgia Conservation Voters will be deployment partners in the Georgia BRIGHT Communities project in partnership with the Capital Good Fund and the cities of Atlanta, Decatur, and Savannah. SGF is already helping spread the word about coming solar opportunities through the WeatheRISE ATL program. Read the news coverage.
Supporting what’s next
Billy Briscoe (left) and Stephen Brown (right) of Clean Energy Fund of Texas with EPA senior advisor Jahi Wise at the Solar for All announcement event.
The first steps awardees will take is to negotiate contracts with the EPA. Because awardees across the board received significantly less than they applied for, these coalitions and partnerships will be making hard decisions about how to prioritize what’s included in the contracts — which are expected to be finalized in the coming month.
Simultaneously, awardees will be hiring and building internal capacity to manage the funds and finalize project plans. This phase of work is expected to evolve over the coming year. Continued and intensified philanthropic support over this period will be essential to ensure that communities of color and other disinvested communities are equipped to fully engage and move priority projects to the top of the agenda.
Finally, the EPA requires that projects must be implemented within five years.
We will be working with our grantee partners over the coming weeks to better understand their funding needs and help coordinate forums where we can align with other funders to share information and resource those needs. If you are interested in learning more and staying informed as this opportunity develops, please email nandini_at_ hivefund.org.