DC's Solar For All: The pioneering program that cuts electric bills in half

I wrote my first article about Washington, D.C.’s Solar For All program in June of 2020, when the city’s Department of Energy and Environment was gearing up its groundbreaking low-income solar initiative literally under President Donald’s Trump nose. 

The D.C. Council had set its first renewable energy target — 50% by 2032 — in 2016 and then upped it to 100% in 2018, with 10% of that clean power to come from solar projects located in the city itself. Part of the original 2016 package, Solar For All was established with the ambitious goal of ensuring that at least some of that in-city solar would be used to cut electric bills in half for 100,000 low-income residents.

“What we did was we put it out to bid,” former DOEE Director Tommy Wells said, during a webinar that was the inspiration for that first article. “We said to the solar developers, to the community, whoever wanted to bid on it, ‘This is what you have to achieve; you have to show us how you are going to deploy solar.’ We ended up with nine successful bidders, and they all came up with creative ways to provide the equivalent of half a year’s power bill to residents.”

Those first projects put solar on the roofs and parking canopies of 24 public housing complexes across the city, as well as on the side of a downtown office building, an installation that cut electric bills for 47 low-income households.

Since that time, SFA has installed 424 community solar projects in D.C., totaling 57.9 MW of electricity and cutting bills for more than 10,000 low- and moderate income residents — considerably less than 100,000 but still significant. It also served as a model for the $7 billion federal Solar For All program that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin is trying — illegally — to shut down.

Even so, the D.C. program has largely flown under the public’s radar. An unabashed fan, I have written at least six articles about SFA, all for industry trade publications. Both D.C. and the program itself have never received the wider recognition they deserve for showing how community solar can be a force for innovation, local economic development and a wide range of benefits for low-income communities. 

And for having the courage to keep building low-income solar across the nation’s capital regardless of who’s in the White House.

D.C.’s solar success story

Community solar emerged in the 2010s as a way for people who could not have solar on their roofs — like renters, low-income homeowners or those with shaded roofs — to still get some of the electric bill savings solar could provide.

These customers could sign on as subscribers to small, local solar projects and get bill credits for the power produced either from panels they bought or from blocks of power they reserved. Community solar’s potential to provide benefits to low-income households and communities was one of its early selling points, but D.C.’s Solar For All took the concept to new levels.

To begin, the city came up with a super-smart financing scheme. D.C. has an unregulated retail power market, meaning residents can choose from dozens of retail electricity suppliers. But these companies must provide a certain percentage of their power  — in 2024, 3.65% — from solar located in the city. 

Those that don’t must pay hefty “alternative compliance” fees, which provide a fluctuating amount of millions each year for Solar For All — most recently, just shy of $4 million. That money is used to provide incentives and access to low-interest financing for local developers. 

In addition, the program benefits from D.C.’s robust market for solar renewable energy certificates — SRECs — the saleable credits representing solar’s environmental attributes. One megawatt-hour of power produced by a solar project equals one SREC, and in D.C., they are worth around $400 each, the highest in the nation. 

Selling community solar SRECs allows local solar developers to keep their prices low, grow their businesses and provide a range of community benefits to the low-income residents participating in SFA projects.

For example, my second SFA article, from August 2020, reported on a project that put 497 kW of solar on five buildings at George Washington University (see photo above), producing $1.50 in benefits for every $1 of electricity generated. The money was split three ways: 50% to cut utility bills for low-income residents, 15% for an emergency fund for households facing power shutoffs and 35% for area nonprofits working on solutions to homelessness in the city.

The program also provides free rooftop solar for low-income homeowners, in some cases slashing monthly electric bills from three to one or two figures. An early study on SFA’s benefits found that participants’ electric bills had dropped by an average of $450 to $500 or more per year, depending on the project.

Job training was part of the D.C. program as well. From 2016 to 2023, DOEE collaborated with nonprofit installer GRID Alternatives on an SFA job training program, Solar Works DC, targeting low-income youth in the city. 

According to the GRID website, that program provided hands-on training for 384 residents from the D.C. region, and 126 were hired for clean energy jobs. 

Zeldin’s war on SFA

The Inflation Reduction Act provided $7 billion for the federal Solar For All program, with grants ranging from $30 million to just under $250 million going to state, municipal and nonprofit agencies across the country. At this writing, the list of awardees is still available on the EPA website.

Scrolling through the list, what is abundantly clear is that the federal program was set up to allow states to design low-income solar programs that would reflect their regional, economic and political priorities. The key requirements were that they put solar on rooftops and in communities where it would cut electric bills for low-income households by at least 20%.

SFA grants went to all 50 states, red and blue, plus tribal organizations. Kentucky intended to channel its $62 million to integrate rooftop and community solar into existing low-income and disaster relief programs. For example, families receiving help with their energy bills through the federally funded Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, might also be enrolled in community solar projects to help them reduce those bills. 

D.C. also received $62 million, which DOEE announced would be used to more than double the number of low-income residents who could look forward to cutting their electric bills by $500 per year. Building on the current program, DOEE was planning to set up a revolving loan fund to make low-cost financing more easily available for local solar developers. 

In another program expansion, some of the federal dollars would go toward critical upgrades for the district’s older low-income homes — such as new roofing and electrical panels — to bring them up to code and make them ready for new solar installations. 

Federal SFA funding was one of Zeldin’s early targets in his review of IRA grants administered by EPA. He froze the program in February, unfroze it in March and then announced its termination on Aug. 7.

In a post on X, Zeldin argued that because the program was eliminated in the Republicans’ Big Beautiful Bill, “EPA no longer has the statutory authority to administer the program or the appropriated funds to keep this boondoggle alive.”

In an Aug. 11 letter to Zeldin, Democratic leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee countered that the SFA grants were “obligated” — that is, the government had legally binding contracts with awardees — and the new law only applies to unobligated funds. 

Collateral damage 

Whether states and clean energy advocates will challenge the termination in court remains uncertain. Some states have issued statements condemning Zeldin’s actions (see Maine’s here and Nebraska’s here), while others, including DOEE, are refraining from any comment. 

Both the Solar Energy Industries Association and the Coalition for Community Solar Access, national trade groups, released statements slamming the Treasury Department’s revised rules limiting projects’ eligibility for solar tax credits, but thus far have remained mute on the SFA termination.

Update: Following publication of this post, I received an email from CCSA, saying the organization “is concerned at the EPA’s attempt to dissolve the program, and we’re working with our partners to determine what steps can be taken.”

Given Trump’s recent attacks on D.C. government — and his attempted takeover of the city’s police department — DOEE’s silence is disappointing but understandable. Still, that community solar has become such a loaded and controversial issue reflects how deeply Trump’s bullying and blatant power grabs have penetrated our political and cultural ethos. 

At a time when electric bills are going up, community solar should be a central tool for protecting our most vulnerable citizens from having to make hard choices between feeding their kids and paying their electric bills. Zeldin’s clawback of SFA funding is yet another example of the administration’s scorched-earth campaign against clean energy, in which low- and moderate-income households are collateral damage.

D.C. may be keeping its head down, but its Solar For All program remains in operation, building solar, cutting bills and showing how local action can stand up to even the fiercest opposition.