Written Testimony of
Claire August
Sierra Club District of Columbia Chapter
To the DC Council Committee on Business and Economic Development
On B26-0055, the Nonprofit Solar Tax Exemption Amendment Act of 2025
March 28, 2025
Chairman McDuffie, thank you for the opportunity to testify on this important legislation that your committee is evaluating. My name is Claire August, and I’m submitting written testimony on behalf of the Sierra Club in support of B26-0055, the Nonprofit Solar Tax Exemption Amendment Act of 2025. We are the nation's largest grassroots environmental advocacy group, with chapters in all 50 states, and over 2,000 dues-paying members representing every ward in the DC chapter.
As part of the Sierra Club’s advocacy for Washington, DC to lead in mitigating climate change and reduce our electricity-related greenhouse gas emissions, we know increased deployment of local renewable energy, which in DC usually means solar energy, is crucial. The DC Council agrees, having set a standard for DC electricity suppliers to purchase at least 15% of electricity via local solar power by 2041 through the Local Solar Expansion Act of 2022. We are concerned that without passage of this bill, numerous nonprofits throughout the city will be discouraged from obtaining free on-site solar electricity.
We also know that access to a renewable energy power purchase agreement (PPA) allows nonprofits, companies, and government entities to procure renewable energy without having to place a large upfront investment and in most cases, reduce their electricity costs. Onsite PPAs are an energy procurement option, not a money-making scheme. On this front, DC government also agrees: when asked via performance oversight pre-hearing questions this year whether they will consider purchasing solar installations outright to procure solar energy for District-owned buildings, the Department of General Services (DGS) maintained that PPAs are “the most cost-effective, low-risk strategy” for doing so.
For these reasons we are providing this written testimony in support of the Nonprofit Solar Tax Exemption Amendment Act of 2025, which would clarify that nonprofit organizations are exempt from real property taxes when the buildings or grounds are used for solar energy generation, energy storage, and energy management activities. Nonprofits with PPAs for onsite solar energy are still nonprofits, and D.C. Code § 47–1508(11) explicitly exempts solar systems from property tax. For-profit entities installing solar have not faced similar tax consequences. Nonprofits should not be uniquely penalized via changes to their tax status for the format in which they procure their electricity, and doing so single handedly disadvantages nonprofits over other entities with onsite PPAs to the detriment of churches, public charter schools, and other nonprofit facilities’ energy costs, and of overall local solar adoption.
Thank you, Chairman McDuffie, for bringing this piece of legislation to the Committee. The Sierra Club urges the Council to take swift action to pass it so that District entities can continue to lower electricity costs and make progress towards our statutory local solar procurement standard.