Solar for All State Support Initiative
Solar for All was a $7 billion competitive grant program run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It funded states, tribes, nonprofits, and other eligible recipients to expand residential solar for low-income households and disadvantaged communities. Congress appropriated the funds to support solar deployment from 2024 through 2029.
In August 2025, EPA sent termination letters to all Solar for All grantees. Those terminations have been challenged in several federal courts, and the litigation is ongoing.
CESA assisted 40+ states in applying to Solar for All. After awards were made, CESA gave grantees one-on-one technical assistance and ran Solar for All working groups on best practices for program design, development, and implementation. That support included:
- Training on publicly available modeling tools
- Regulatory and strategic program design support
- Help drafting contracts, requests for proposals (RFPs), guidelines, and other program documents
- Other technical assistance on request
CESA also convened grantees from across the country to share ideas and learn from one another.
CESA produced templates, white papers, and other resources to help grantees design and run effective Solar for All programs, covering topics from program design to regulatory compliance. All CESA’s Solar for All resources are available for free here. Highlights include:
- Solar for All Public Information: links to awardee websites, public contact information, proposal summaries and public proposals, maps of multistate awardees’ service areas, and sample requests for proposals (RFPs) and job descriptions
- Single-family Resources: Program Design Guidance, an RFP Template for LMI Solar Lease Programs, and LMI Solar Lease Consumer Disclosure Form Template
- Multifamily Resources: Multifamily Program Design Guidance
- Community Solar Resources: Community Solar Program Design Guidance, and
LMI Community Solar Resource Database
- Federal Compliance Primers: Build America Buy America and Domestic Content and Davis Bacon
- Empowering Tomorrow: a qualitative summary of Solar for All programs nationwide
- List of Programmatic Functions: a comprehensive list functions needed to launch an LMI solar program
- Solar for Manufactured Homes Series: Volume 1—the national manufactured housing stock, barriers to solar, suitable technologies, and nine case studies;
Volume 2 and Appendix—opportunities in 14 states; and Volume 3—recommendations for using Solar for All and other federal funding, with a focus on community solar
- Resources on Out Reach and Engagement: Community Outreach on Solar Equity: A Guide for States, Best Practices for Equitable Stakeholder Engagement in State Solar Programs, and Selected Resources on Stakeholder Engagement for States
- Resources for Community-Based Organizations (CBOs): National Database of Community and Renewable Energy Organizations and Directory of Free Technical Assistance for CBOs
- Energize You Impact: a guide for philanthropies supporting community institutions that serve LMI communities
Photo courtesy Resonant Energy.
There are no upcoming Scaling Up Solar for Under-Resourced Communities Webinars or Events.