The $7 billion Solar for All program, created under the Inflation Reduction Act, awarded millions of dollars to 49 states, including Pennsylvania, to help households in low-income and disadvantaged communities benefit from solar projects. But for Pennsylvania to access the funds, state lawmakers must take action by May. Even if they do, President Trump has frozen the ‘Solar for All’ money, along with billions in other federal money committed to the state.
LISTEN to the story
One program is already doing this
When Mark Gorman and Kate Walker moved from Virginia back to Pittsburgh a few years ago, they could finally afford to buy a home. He’s retired; she’s the minister at a local church. They wanted to live their values.
“We try to reduce our carbon footprint as much as we can,” Gorman said.
They bought a hybrid car, built a native plant garden and started composting. But they couldn’t afford solar panels.
“We never got an estimate because we just assumed it was out of our price range,” Walker said.
That changed last fall when their application was accepted to Pennsylvania BRIGHT, a program that is working with 160 low and middle-income families in southwestern and southeastern Pennsylvania to install solar panels on their homes. BRIGHT constructs and owns the panels and leases them to homeowners.
Standing outside his 1920s brick home, Gorman pointed up to where he expects to see a dozen solar panels in the next few months. “There’ll be several on the roof here on the porch roof and the gables as well,” he said.
Since the solar energy they generate will reduce their utility bills, Gorman doesn’t expect the panels to cost them much.
“It’s pretty much a break-even proposition,” he said.
Bright is privately funded (including from The Heinz Endowments and the Pittsburgh Foundation, which also support The Allegheny Front.)
- Biden-era solar program for lower-income homeowners could be ‘in jeopardy’ under a Trump administration
- Pa. to receive millions for solar energy projects that will benefit residents with low income
A wrinkle in state law
The new federal Solar for All program also aims to help people in lower-income households and disadvantaged communities install and upgrade solar projects and associated battery storage and, in some cases, participate in community solar projects. Last spring, the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority [PEDA], along with the Philadelphia Green Capital Corp., was awarded $156 million.
According to the Department of Environmental Protection, which will provide oversight, that money will fund solar installations for 14,000 households throughout Pennsylvania over 5 years, not only in historically disadvantaged areas but also in energy communities, where a significant number of jobs and local tax revenue are tied to fossil fuel-related energy production.
The authority will use the money to fund workforce development to train former fossil fuel workers for jobs in the solar and energy efficiency fields.
“I like this program because it is a targeted stream of taxpayer dollars coming back into the hands of the people who struggle the most on a monthly basis to pay their energy bills,” said state Representative Elizabeth Fiedler, a Democrat from Philadelphia, who is chair of the House Energy Committee.
Even though the state energy development authority has a contract with the federal government for the Solar for All money and planned to launch the program early this year, there’s a wrinkle: A line in last year’s state budget that requires special legislative approval to access the funds.
Solar for All debate in Harrisburg
Fiedler led a committee hearing earlier this month on House Bill 362, which is meant to do just that.
Emily Schapira, President and CEO of the Philadelphia Energy Authority, which works on clean energy projects, was among those who testified. She encouraged members of the energy committee to make sure that Pennsylvania takes advantage of the federal money.
“The Solar for All Grant is a massive opportunity to bring long-term utility affordability to…households across Pennsylvania,” Schapira testified. “And to develop a job-creating solar market in all communities.”
Others testified about the benefits to solar installers and other businesses from this federal money.
But Republicans, like Representative Jamie Barton of Berks and Schuylkill counties, were not sold on solar. During the hearing, Barton said that more renewable energy would force fossil fuel plants to close and called solar an unreliable, weather-dependent power source.
“Why in heaven’s name would we continue to invest taxpayer dollars, whether it’s state or federal?” he asked Schapira. “Why would we invest in unreliable energy sources?”
Schapira responded that while solar energy is variable, that does not mean it’s unreliable and that it can enhance, not undercut, other sources of energy.
“We’re not suggesting that anything else needs to go away. What we are suggesting is that there’s an economic opportunity here that Pennsylvania is really missing out on,” she said.
The energy committee could vote on this issue when lawmakers return to Harrisburg in March. The Republican-controlled state senate would also need to approve it, and Governor Josh Shapiro would need to sign a bill by a May 1 deadline.
Solar for All funds frozen
But now, since the Trump administration has put a halt on the Solar for All funding nationwide, there’s a question of whether it will be available at all.
Governor Josh Shapiro filed a lawsuit on February 13 against the Trump administration for withholding Solar for All and billions in other federal funds from the Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan infrastructure law.
Pittsburgh homeowner Kate Walker calls this all “shocking” — not only the federal funding freeze but the possibility that the Pennsylvania legislature might not pass the necessary bill to accept the Solar For All money if the spigot is re-opened.
“If our taxpayer money is really the barrier, then I think those who are questioning that perhaps have the wrong vision of what taxpayer money is for,” she said. “It’s to create a safer world.”
Since the solar project at her house is not reliant on federal money, installation is expected to begin in the next couple of months.
