Solar for All

AEA and AHFC Selected for $62.5 million U.S. EPA Solar for All Grant

In spring 2024, the Alaska Energy Authority (AEA) and the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC) were selected for a $62.5 million Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Solar for All grant aimed at making solar electric energy accessible to underserved Alaskans. Income-qualified individuals and communities will benefit from residential and community solar projects, with no cost matching required of applicants! Sign up here for email updates to learn more as the program progresses.

Award from the U.S. EPA Solar for All Program

In spring 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the conditional award of a $62.45 million Solar for All grant to lead-applicant AEA, and its partners. A workplan was submitted by AEA to the EPA in October 2024, and funding is expected to be released to AEA in January of 2025.

The Solar for All program is a $7 billion competitive grant program through EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Fund authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act. It is designed to deploy residential and community solar photovoltaic (PV) projects benefiting underserved, low-income households, with no cost matching required from the grantees.

Solar for All in Alaska

Once fully funded by the EPA, AEA’s Alaska Solar for All (AKSFA) program will begin a two-pronged approach to supporting solar PV development in Alaska, supporting community solar installations and residential solar PV systems for low-income and disadvantaged households.

Furthermore, the Alaska Tribal Solar for All (ATSFA) program, under a separate EPA grant, will be led by Tanana Chiefs Conference. Planning efforts for both grants will be underway until summer of 2025.

Statewide Programs: Alaska Solar for All (AKSFA)

AEA will run two sub-programs of AKSFA, focusing on community-scale solar and single/multifamily residential solar installations, respectively.

  • The Community Program is centered around the construction of community-scale solar PV projects that benefit low-income and disadvantaged communities.  The primary focus of this this federally funded sub-program will be to administer a statewide grant program to develop community solar arrays in remote areas of Alaska, including battery energy storage systems, which benefit customers in disadvantaged communities.
  • The Residential Rooftop Program with the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation will run a sub-program focused primarily on residential/multifamily solar developments. Under both ATSFA and AKSFA programs, AHFC will administer statewide residential solar programs which provide subsidized residential solar PV installations for disadvantaged households where net metering applies, with ATSFA specifically concentrating on Alaska tribal households.

AEA and AHFC's Proposal Details

More info on AHFC’s Solar for All Residential Rooftop Program, under ATSFA and AKSFA grants, and related programs, can be found here.

Expected AKSFA program launch date: July 2025

Tribal Programs: Alaska Tribal Solar for All (ATSFA)

Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC), under their federally funded Alaska Tribal Solar for All (ATSFA) program, separate from AEA’s AKSFA grant but also working with AHFC’s residential solar program, is working with its partners to implement two further sub-programs:

  • The Railbelt Tribal Community Solar program, administered directly by TCC, will award grants for Community Solar projects to qualifying tribes and Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act regional tribal non-profit organizations along the Alaska Railbelt.
  • Finally, ATSFA’s Community Solar program, administered by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, will create an equity-based program to build community scale solar and battery energy storage systems for Tribes in rural Alaska. The goal of this program is to empower Tribes to meet their clean energy goals and generate revenue as Independent Power Producers to reduce the high cost of living in rural Alaska. 

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