New Mexico will receive $156 million of federal funding through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Solar for All competitive grant to help low-income households access renewable energy.
EPA Region 6 Deputy Regional Administrator Stacey Dwyer spoke about the funding during an event Monday in Albuquerque. The $156 million is part of a larger $7 billion program that is providing funding to 60 different recipients across the nation.
Dwyer said the EPA estimates that nationwide the money will allow about a million households in low-income and disadvantaged communities across the country to benefit from access to solar energy. Additionally, she said the program will create about 200,000 jobs in the United States.
“As the United States shifts to a clean energy economy, it is essential that no communities get left behind,” she said.
Dwyer told NM Political Report that the Justice40 initiative, which calls for 40 percent of federal investments to go to historically disadvantaged communities, played a role in the selection of grant recipients.
The state Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department will oversee the distribution of this funding.
The money for Solar for All comes from the Inflation Reduction Act.
EMNRD Secretary Melanie Kenderdine said that both the physical and political climate of New Mexico make the state an ideal place for the Solar for All program. In addition to the plentiful sunlight, she said state leaders like Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and members of the legislature are working on policies to reduce emissions. Kenderdine said the state has a solar market development tax credit that provides $30 million annually toward offsetting the costs of installing solar.
Since it started in 2020, the tax credit has benefited 14,000 New Mexico households, which have further benefited from the savings on their utility bills.
“We also recognize that there’s a gap in tax credit programs that have not not been able to fill, and that’s where Solar for All comes in,” Kenderdine said.
She explained that tax credits really benefit people who are able to pay for the solar panels upfront and wait a year to get money back in the form of the tax credit. That can leave low-income households unable to access the benefits of solar energy.
Because New Mexico has a high poverty rate, Kenderdine said many residents are energy burdened, meaning a higher percentage of their income goes to paying utility costs.
Recent inflation has also made it harder for low-income households to make ends meet. Solar for All could help those people by lowering the costs of their utility bills, officials said.
U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, a Democrat representing New Mexico’s 3rd Congressional District, said the injustice of the environmental crisis is not just places like the state’s uranium producing region where mines have yet to be cleaned up. Nor is it just the health impacts like higher asthma rates that frontline communities face, she said.
“It is also that the benefits of the new energy possibilities have not reached those that need it the most,” she said.
She said one of the things she likes about the Solar for All program is that it will lower utility costs for low-income households. Additionally, she highlighted how the program can cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The program could also bring electricity to people in rural parts of New Mexico, particularly on tribal lands like the Navajo Nation, who have never had access to electricity before.
In New Mexico, the Solar for All program is expected to help about 21,750 low-income households and add 77 megawatts of solar capacity to the electric grid. When possible, the Solar for All program in New Mexico will also increase battery storage options, Kenderdine said. She said this will add about 8.4 megawatt hours of stored energy.
Furthermore, she said the plan calls for working with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission to allocate funding to utilities for upgrades necessary to bring additional solar into their systems and for working with the national labs in the state to address cybersecurity concerns.
The Solar for All program is one way that the nation and the state are working to cut emissions and address climate change.
U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury, a Democrat representing New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District, spoke about some of the ways climate change is already impacting New Mexico, including the wildfires and floods that destroyed homes this year in Ruidoso.
“Climate change is here. It is rampaging through our communities, and we need investments, not only to fight climate change and lower our carbon footprint, but to make sure that those who are most impacted by it have the opportunity to transform our economy,” she said.
