This coverage is made possible through a partnership between BPR and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it was ending a big funding source for state-level solar projects. The program, called Solar For All, allocated $7 billion to 60 grantees across the country. It was intended to help lower-income people get access to renewable energy.
North Carolina was granted $156 million from the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund for this work. It would have been distributed over five years to EnergizeNC, a statewide coalition led by the Department of Environmental Quality and a number of statewide clean energy nonprofits.
Solar For All, along with other programs in Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, were intended to broaden access to renewable energy and reduce both fossil fuel-related climate pollution and low-income Americans’ electric ills.
EnergizeNC has been in a design phase for the past year. Its mission is to subsidize clean energy businesses so they can provide solar energy to low income communities and homeowners, although much of its specific program requirements are still to be determined, The program was supposed to launch in earnest late this year aiming to help 12,500 North Carolina households reduce their utility bills.
Now, its future is uncertain.
In a letter to the NCDEQ shared with BPR, the EPA told EnergizeNC that its funding was cut off. The letter was sent to Solar For All funding recipients across the country.
“The EPA has been weighing options for the future of the Solar for All program and has made the decision to terminate the SFA program and existing grants because the EPA no longer has a statutory basis or dedicated funding to continue administering and overseeing the nearly $7 billion outlay to approximately 60 grant recipients,” the letter said.
In a post on X, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin called the program a “boondoggle”.
As a part of its closeout, DEQ is required to submit final financial, technical, and programmatic reports to the EPA. The letter acknowledged that some programs may have already spent Solar For All funds, and allows organizations to request payment for some costs.
“The solar energy industry employs more than 9,000 people across more than 200 businesses statewide,” DEQ spokesperson Josh Kastrinsky said in an emailed statement. “The resilience benefits of this program are particularly important in North Carolina after recent extreme weather events. Termination of this program puts economic prosperity and energy security at risk for all North Carolinians.”
Sugar Hollow Solar was on a list of solar contractors that helped the EnergizeNC coalition plan and design their program, along with Murphy-based Carolina Mountain Solar, Weaverville-based Sundance Power Systems, and others from across the state. “It's unfortunate that, you know, that funding just kind of got pulled out,” Sundance Power Systems vice president Brian Hollister said. “We were pretty far into the process.”
“It really was going to serve the low to moderate income folks that don't really have the opportunity to go solar without some help,” he added.
The solar industry is strong in North Carolina, and especially in Western North Carolina, said Democratic Sen. Julie Mayfield, who represents Buncombe County. A program called Solarize that effectively crowdfunded solar installations, saw a lot of support locally. Mayfield said that of 180 local governments participating in Solarize, Asheville-Buncombe saw the most uptake. “Asheville hit it out of the park,” Mayfield said.
Mayfield said Solar For All was effectively a subsidy for low-income families to get a piece of that pie as the solar industry grows. But she’s observed political divides sharpening in recent years. “It has become much more partisan. But helping low-income customers live comfortable, healthy, and safe lives by enabling them to generate and store their own energy should be a program that everybody can get behind,” Mayfield said.
North Carolina Republican Sen.Thom Tillis and U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards (R- 11) and all Republican state representatives representing Western North Carolina, did not return requests for comment.
Despite the cuts and other recent setbacks to the solar industry, Sundance Solar’s Hollister said solar companies remain optimistic.
“I know all of us in the industry are working together to figure out the next steps to continue to serve people by being able to install solar,” Hollister said.
“Whether there's federal funding for it or not, there are ways that we can create programs to incentivize people to do this,” he said. “People have been installing solar long before it made any financial sense to do so and it was motivated by wanting to own and create their own power.”
