Cancellation of Solar For All program "deeply disappointing" say advocates

The US Environmental Protection Agency has cancelled the Solar For All program, a $7 billion initiative that supported nationwide programs to provide solar energy for low and middle-income homeowners, which experts say may negatively affect the solar industry in general.

The cancellation was announced on 8 August by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Lee Zeldin in a YouTube video, calling the program a "boondoggle" and citing "middlemen taking their own cut" as part of the reason for the termination.

Beneficiaries of the program have already been given notice of the termination.

"The current administration has sent notices terminating the federal Solar for All program," said Alicia Brown, director of Georgia BRIGHT Communities Coalition, a non-profit that provides services such as free solar panel installation.

However, it is unclear if the cancellation will reverse previously decided upon funding decisions, and organisations such as BRIGHT plan on pushing back on the decision.

"We are deeply disappointed and fully prepared to use every avenue legally available to us to regain access to the funds," said Brown.

"In taking this action, the EPA would prevent 16,000 Georgians with low incomes from saving hundreds of dollars per year on their utility bills at a time of soaring energy costs, and they are putting at risk hundreds of good-paying, local jobs just as unemployment has begun to rise."

First rolled out in 2022 under president Biden, the Solar for All (SFA) program was part of green energy provisions under the Inflation Reduction Act, which dedicated $370 billion in federal funding towards items such as clean energy.

The Solar for All grant program awarded 60 non-profit, state-wide and multi-state initiatives to "create new or expand existing low-income solar programs".

"There's less money for intentional design around renewable energy"

New York-based renewable energy educator Alex Nathanson said that the SFA cancellation means that there's "less money " in the renewable industry across the board.

"There's less money for intentional design around renewable energy [and] for accessibility," Nathanson told Dezeen. "We're in a climate crisis, and the people who are most affected are also the people who historically have not had access to the ways to address the crisis."

"The Trump regime has many draconian anti-poor, racist policies. And this is yet another example of that."

Other programs that may face a lack of funding are the Massachusetts SFA state program, which promotes education on solar power and workforce training for the industry.

Hope Enterprise Corporation, which was awarded SFA grants to service statewide programs for Arkansas and Mississippi, said it is "now working to understand its obligations moving forward" following the termination.

EPA calls SFA a "grift"

According to a statement from Zeldin provided by the EPA press office, the program was a "grift".

"One of the more shocking features of Solar for All was with regards to the massive dilution of the money, as many grants go through pass-through after pass-through after pass-through after pass-through, with all of the middlemen taking their own cut – at least 15 per cent by conservative estimates. What a grift!" said Zeldin.

"Furthermore, the Biden-Harris Administration exempted this program from the Build America, Buy America law that requires federal agencies to use American workers, American products, and American infrastructure for projects using American taxpayer dollars. That's great news for China, not so much for the USA."

Awards were granted in April 2024, and many of the planned programs had not yet gone into effect. The funding cancellation was announced via letter to the grantees, according to the New York Times, which also stated that only around $53 million from the program had been spent.

The EPA confirmed that much of the money allotted under the program had not been spent.

"While this program was stood up in 2024, very little money has actually been spent. Recipients are still very much in the early planning phase, not the building and construction process," said Zeldin.

National trade association for solar energy industries SEIA noted that while solar installations have steadily grown, residential installations were down in 2024 – the lowest levels since 2021. While SEIA predicted continued growth in the sector, it is unclear how the federal mandate will affect residential solar power installation in general.

"State-level initiatives and corporate demand will gain more relevance and drive solar development, potentially mitigating the impact of federal mandates," said SEIA in its 2025 projections released earlier this year.

The program cancellation comes with other recent rollbacks and restrictions on clean energy infrastructure by the Trump Administration, such as heightened review of "unreliable, subsidy-dependent" wind and solar energy facilities.

The photography is via Wayne National Forest. 

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