Gary will be one of four Indiana cities to benefit from an over $117 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that will fund solar rooftop solar installation for low-income and disadvantaged families.
The grant, announced by the EPA on Monday, is part of the agency's $7 billion Solar for All program, funded through the the Inflation Reduction Act’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
Indiana Solar for All Indiana, a partnership between municipal governments, statewide organizations and community entities in Gary, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis and Columbus, was one of 60 applicants selected for funding. The awardees included, which span the whole country, include 49 state-level projects, six tribal initiatives, and five multistate partnerships.
The coalition is led by the Indianapolis-based Indiana Community Action Association, with other members including Black Sun Light Sustainability in partnership with Indiana State Conference of the NAACP, the Indiana Energy Independence Fund, Energy Matters Community Coalition, Faith in Place, Solar United Neighbors Indiana, Earth Charter Indiana.
"Solar for All offers an unprecedented opportunity to equitably expand access to the benefits of local solar energy to more Hoosiers than ever before," Indiana Solar United Neighbors Program Director Zach Schalk said in a press release. "This investment will empower families around the state to save money and take control of where their energy comes from."
Indiana Community Action Association Ed Gerardot told The Times that SFAI initially planned to install rooftop solar panels on 9,000 low-income Indiana homes. Because the agency did not award all of the $188 million that the coalition requested, however, the actual figure will be significantly lower.
During the competitive application process for Solar for All Funds, the EPA received funding requests totaling more than $38 billion.
"We've got a scale everything back," Gerardot said. "There's a lot of work to be done before this thing rolls out."
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