How the Termination of Solar for All Left Southern Communities Scrambling

A federal program called Solar for All, funded through the Inflation Reduction Act, was set up to bring rooftop solar and home weatherization (sealing and insulating homes to cut energy waste) to low-income communities, along with job training for local workers. Earlier this year, the EPA gutted the $7 billion program, canceling grants that had already been awarded in places like Georgia and Mississippi.

In Georgia, the nonprofit Capital Good Fund had received $156 million to bring solar and energy upgrades to about 800 homes in Atlanta, Decatur, Savannah, Augusta, and southwest Georgia. In Mississippi, the nonprofit Groundswell had won the same amount for the Mississippi Delta. Both grants also funded training programs meant to move local workers, many of them Black residents underrepresented in the clean energy field, into solar installation and weatherization jobs paying far more than typical local wages. When the funding was pulled, newly trained workers lost job placements, and community groups that had spent years building trust and organizing participants had to shut the programs down almost overnight.

For homeowners in these areas, this means a planned source of no-cost or low-cost solar and weatherization upgrades, along with the local workforce meant to install them, is no longer available. The organizations involved say they hope similar funding will return someday, but nothing is currently in place to replace it. If you live in a low-income community that was counting on this program, it's worth checking with local nonprofits or your state energy office about what other rebates or assistance programs might still exist.