She said that such projects have been a “bright spot for climate action” for New York state in particular, which is falling far behind on its goals for installing utility-scale solar, wind, and battery storage projects. In 2024, New York met its 6-GW goal for distributed solar capacity a year ahead of schedule, driven largely by the proliferation of community solar.
“We’ve seen that [community solar] is scalable and deployable, whereas large-scale renewable energy programs have really been struggling,” Daniel added.
Despite that success, the broader community solar market has historically faced some major shortcomings: Lower-earning households — which stand to benefit the most from energy-bill savings — tend to represent only a tiny share of subscribers, as do people of color, studies show.
Steep enrollment fees, extensive credit-score checks, and other barriers can prevent many households from enlisting in projects. Instead, the majority of participants have been businesses, institutions, and higher-earning households that can absorb the upfront costs and paperwork. Small-scale and community-driven projects can also be more expensive to finance than larger, corporate-owned arrays, especially if banks see the former as risky investments.
To address this gap, nearly two dozen state and local governments have adopted policies that require or encourage the participation of low- and moderate-income residents. In New York, for example, developers can earn additional credits for projects that serve disadvantaged communities.
Those efforts are set to accelerate dramatically under Solar for All.
Last year, the Biden administration made a historic investment — funded by the Inflation Reduction Act — to support solar initiatives for low-income residents in every state.
Sixty selected programs should start receiving grants and low-cost financing this year to develop community solar or install panels on individual homes and multifamily affordable housing. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has already legally obligated the funding, meaning that Trump would face significant challenges were he to try and claw it back, experts say.
One of the winners, the Community Power Coalition, was selected for a $249.3 million grant to support more community-centered models similar in spirit to the Sunset Park Solar project, which also involves training and hiring solar installers within the neighborhood. Other approaches could serve residents in manufactured home developments or rural landowners.
“A handful of these models are happening in a couple of different places across the country, but not widely,” said Kerry O’Neill, CEO of Inclusive Prosperity Capital, a nonprofit financing platform that helped convene the Community Power Coalition.
The coalition plans to start offering financial assistance in the first quarter of this year, including grants to support planning and construction phases and bridge loans for tax credits. The group will also work to educate lenders and developers about community-driven solar projects, with the goal of bringing down prohibitively high financing costs.
“A big piece of our focus is supporting community ownership models … where the communities can determine their own energy sovereignty and what sort of projects they want,” O’Neill said.
While UPROSE didn’t apply for Solar for All funding for its Sunset Park Solar installation, it is considering tapping the federal program for future projects, Yeampierre said. UPROSE recently submitted a proposal to the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority, seeking to install a larger community solar project atop a major public bus depot in Sunset Park. The project could potentially enroll some 1,000 households in the neighborhood.
“If there was ever a time to really be bold about operationalizing a just transition, it’s now,” Yeampierre said.
