Ricky Junquera - ricky.junquera@sierraclub.org
SOUTH CAROLINA – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that The South Carolina Office of Resilience (SCOR) was awarded $124,440,000 in funding through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund’s Solar For All program. The Sierra Club South Carolina Chapter worked to ensure individuals, groups, and communities had the information needed to support the SCOR notice of intent to participate in the program and submitted a letter of support to the EPA.
“This is a huge announcement on Earth Day of all days,” said Priscilla Preston, a Sierra Club Midlands Group Volunteer Leader. “These investments will jumpstart energy cost savings for those most in need of the support. This meaningful investment will show our public servants that community solar, distributed solar, battery storage, and energy efficiency measures can and will make a huge difference in South Carolinians’ lives.”
The competition, created by President Biden’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act, seeks to enable low-income and disadvantaged households across America to access the benefits of low-cost, clean solar energy—benefits that include home energy savings, energy resilience, improved air quality, wealth building, and quality jobs.
"The South Carolina Office of Resilience (SCOR) will expand distributed solar generation and deploy meaningful benefits for low-income and disadvantaged households and communities statewide. SCOR will launch the Community Solar Initiative, a residential-serving community solar program for income-qualified residents (homeowners and renters), and partner with utilities to expand or enhance existing utility-run programs. SCOR will also work with home energy efficiency and weatherization programs to coordinate activities and align efforts to engage low-income and disadvantaged households and communities. SCOR will build on the effective solar workforce training programs that currently exist in South Carolina, support greater participation in these programs, and help grow the workforce needed to deploy solar in the state. Finally, SCOR will establish a Solar Innovation Fund to expand solar opportunities in the state, potentially including resilience hubs, solar, and storage installation at affordable housing facilities."
SCOR was one of 50 states and territories, 57 municipalities, and 113 eligible nonprofits that applied for funding through the program. A complete list of recipients of Solar For All awards can be found here.
The climate law authorized $7 billion in funding for the program, but by last year’s deadline for applications, EPA had received requests totaling more than $38 billion.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.