The US Environmental Protection Agency has selected 60 applicants to share $7 billion for residential solar in low-income and disadvantaged households. On paper it reads as one national programme. In the award list it reads as a set of fixed bands, with dozens of very different recipients handed identical sums, and the size of a recipient often says little about the size of its cheque.
Key takeaways
- The US Environmental Protection Agency announced on 22 April 2024 that it had selected 60 applicants to share $7 billion of Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund grants for residential solar serving more than 900,000 low-income and disadvantaged households.
- Five selectees in the EPA's $7 billion residential solar programme received the largest awards, between $249.3 million and $249.8 million each: NYSERDA, California's IBank, GRID Alternatives, Harris County and Inclusive Prosperity Capital.
- Twenty-two of the 60 EPA residential solar selectees received an identical $156.12 million, together about $3.43 billion, or roughly half of the $7 billion programme.
- Eighteen EPA residential solar selectees received $62.45 million each, and the smallest award in the list is $25.12 million for Hopi Utilities Corporation.
- The EPA's $7 billion residential solar award makes up about 97 percent of the value of US solar government grants Enerdatics records for 2024, and about 27.5 percent of all US energy transition government grants it records that year.
What did the EPA actually award?
It awarded grants, not loans or tax credits. The money comes from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a pool created under the Inflation Reduction Act, and was run as a competition. Selectees are expected to deliver residential solar to low-income and disadvantaged communities, create jobs in places that have been left behind, and advance environmental justice.
The selectees are a mixed group. Many are state energy offices or state finance authorities. Others are counties, territories, tribal organisations, community lenders and non-profit installers. That mix matters because the award bands appear to cut across it rather than follow it.
Enerdatics logs the programme as a single government grant of $7,000 million for distributed solar under development, with the full list of selectees and their individual allocations.
How is the $7 billion split?
Into clear tiers. Reading the award list from the top:
- Five awards of roughly $250 million, totalling $1,248.4 million.
- Twenty-two awards of exactly $156.12 million, totalling about $3,434.6 million.
- Seven awards between $86.6 million and $156 million, totalling about $820 million.
- Eighteen awards of exactly $62.45 million, totalling about $1,124.1 million.
- Eight awards between $25.12 million and $62.33 million, totalling about $372.9 million.
The repeated figures are the tell. When 22 recipients receive the same amount to the cent, the number reflects a formula or a cap rather than 22 separate assessments of need. The same applies to the 18 awards at $62.45 million.
Who sits in each tier?
The top tier mixes two of the country's largest state energy bodies with a county and two national non-profits. NYSERDA, California's IBank and GRID Alternatives each receive $249.8 million. Harris County in Texas receives $249.7 million, and Inclusive Prosperity Capital $249.3 million.
The $156.12 million tier is mostly states. Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Tennessee, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, New Mexico, Louisiana, Missouri, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Washington and North Carolina sit in it, alongside Puerto Rico, the Clean Energy Fund of Texas, Groundswell, Growth Opportunity Partners, the Oweesta Corporation and the Solar and Energy Loan Fund of St. Lucie County.
The $62.45 million tier mixes smaller states with territories and tribal and rural groups: Connecticut, Vermont, Maryland, Kentucky, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Utah, the District of Columbia, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, the Alaska Energy Authority and the Tanana Chiefs Conference among them. Below that sit awards such as $43.51 million for New Hampshire and $25.12 million for Hopi Utilities Corporation.
Texas appears twice, through Harris County in the top tier and the Clean Energy Fund of Texas in the second. California appears through IBank, also in the top tier.
Tribal and Indigenous organisations appear in almost every band. The Oweesta Corporation sits in the $156.12 million tier. The Three Affiliated Tribes of the MHA Nation receive $135.58 million. GRID Alternatives' Western Indigenous Network programme and the Tanana Chiefs Conference receive $62.45 million each, the Midwest Tribal Energy Resources Association $62.33 million and Hopi Utilities Corporation $25.12 million. Their spread across bands shows the tiers did not simply track applicant type.
What does $7 billion mean per household?
Spread across the more than 900,000 households the programme targets, $7 billion works out at roughly $7,800 per household on Enerdatics' calculation. That is an average across very different delivery models. Some selectees will fund rooftop systems directly, while others run lending or community solar programmes, so the per household figure is a scale marker rather than a system price.
Enerdatics' data shows 25 US government grants for the energy transition in 2024, worth $25,445.4 million in total. Only three of them are for solar, worth $7,211 million, and the EPA award alone is $7,000 million of that, about 97 percent. Across all 25 grants it is the second largest by value, behind a $9,630 million electric vehicle award. Nine hydrogen grants total $3,492 million, about half the EPA programme spread across nine records.
What does the award signal for US residential solar?
It signals that federal support for small-scale solar has moved from tax incentives alone to direct grants delivered through state and local intermediaries. The same month, the Department of Energy allocated 48C tax credits to clean energy manufacturing projects, which run through company balance sheets. The EPA programme runs through public agencies and community lenders instead.
It also signals that the delivery layer, not the federal pot, will decide outcomes. A state office with $156.12 million and a county with $249.7 million face the same question: how fast they can turn a grant into installed systems on low-income roofs.
What stays unclear from the award list is the formula. The repeated amounts point to set allocation caps, but the list itself does not say how the tiers were set or why some large states sit in the same band as much smaller ones.
Frequently asked questions
How much did the EPA award for residential solar in April 2024? The EPA selected 60 applicants to share $7 billion of Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund grants for residential solar serving more than 900,000 low-income and disadvantaged households.
Who received the largest EPA residential solar awards? NYSERDA, California's IBank and GRID Alternatives received $249.8 million each, Harris County $249.7 million and Inclusive Prosperity Capital $249.3 million.
Why did so many selectees receive identical amounts? Twenty-two received $156.12 million and 18 received $62.45 million. Identical figures point to a fixed allocation band, although the award list does not set out the formula.
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