The $7 billion Solar for All competition will provide up to 60 grants to states, Tribal governments, municipalities, and nonprofits to expand the number of low-income and disadvantaged communities that are primed for investment in residential and community solar—enabling millions of families to access affordable, resilient, and clean solar energy. EPA intends to implement this competition structure to maximize impact toward the three GGRF program objectives. While this competition description contains a broader set of expected competition details, below is a summary of the competition structure.

• Amount of Funding: $7 billion from Section 134(a)(1) of the Clean Air Act, which must be expended to enable low-income and disadvantaged communities to deploy or benefit from zero-emission technologies.
• Number of Awards: Up to 60 awards; depending on the quality of proposals, EPA intends to make at least one award per geographic area; these geographic areas will be defined as every state and territory; there will be a separate funding track for approximately 1–3 awards to directly serve Tribal nations; an applicant will apply to receive funds to serve one or more state/territory geographic area, and/or the Tribal track.
• Award Amounts: EPA expects selections will be made for each geographic area based on program need and vision including geographic factors, solar deployment potential factors, program design components and impacts, and other merit-based factors such as reduction in greenhouse gas intensity of the grid; impact to average low-income energy burden; the reach of the program across low-income and disadvantaged community population; quality and impact of program design; cost-effectiveness; timeline; a strategy to leverage existing federal, state, and local programs and subsidies to complement program deployment; program innovation; and other similar program design components, merit-based factors, and criteria.
• Types of Applicants: Applicants must be states, Tribal governments, municipalities, or eligible nonprofit recipients, submitting applications either as individuals or as lead applicants in coalitions; applicants are permitted to participate in multiple applications within this competition, as well as across GGRF competitions.
• Application Components: Before submitting the application, applicants will each submit a Notice of Intent (NOI), which will be described in the NOFO; in the application, applicants will each submit a program strategy—which details a program vision, deployment plan, and services plan—and a program administration plan—which describes the applicant’s plan to administer the program efficiently and equitably.
• Grant Activities: Grantees will use grant funds to expand existing low-income solar programs or design and deploy new Solar for All programs; grant funds may also be used for allowable program services and administration costs; additional details on allowable program costs will be released with the NOFO.
• Types of Projects: Grantees will enable low-income and disadvantaged communities to deploy or benefit from residential rooftop and community solar photovoltaic (PV) projects, associated storage, and enabling upgrades.
• Transparency: Grantees will be subject to robust reporting requirements on program activities as well as program impact outcomes.
• Justice40: Grantees will be expected to ensure that, in line with the Justice40 Initiative, 40% of benefits from this competition flow to disadvantaged communities.

EPA is not currently accepting applications for this competition. This competition description is intended to provide prospective applicants with information on potential application components and grant requirements, but this description does not supersede the text in the NOFO that will be posted on Grants.gov pursuant to 2 CFR § 200.204.

Prospective applicants should note that EPA intends to publish the NOFO as early as June 2023 to formally request applications.