Solar for All activity has been paused.
In 2024, the Center was awarded $62 million to provide technical and financial assistance to support community, rooftop, and multifamily affordable housing solar projects. The Nebraska Solar for All program was to be implemented statewide and include rural, urban, suburban, and Tribal communities. In addition, the program was to provide resources to help train workers to install and maintain the new installations.
This grant would have allowed us to increase the amount of deployed solar energy in the state by more than 60 megawatts over five years and ensure low-income and historically disadvantaged residents can be full participants in the new energy economy.
On Aug. 7, 2025, the Center received a formal notice of termination from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its $62.4 million Solar for All grant.
“Solar for All is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Nebraskans to improve energy resilience,” said Brian Depew, the Center’s Executive Director. “In a time of rising electricity prices and a shortage of electricity generation, Solar for All is poised to both add needed local generation capacity and ensure affordability for ratepayers. This action by EPA takes away our access to grant funding and means that we must suspend work on projects, creating great uncertainty for stakeholders from communities to developers to contractors.”
Partners and availability in other states
In developing its Nebraska Solar for All proposal, Center staff met with more than 50 stakeholders including utilities, state agencies, housing developers, housing organizations, solar developers, workforce partners, community-based organizations, and Tribes.
The funding is part of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Solar for All program, a part of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund established by the Inflation Reduction Act. As part of the program, the EPA awarded 60 grants—totaling $7 billion—to states, territories, Tribal governments, municipalities, and nonprofits to facilitate low-income and historically disadvantaged community participation in residential solar energy. The Solar for All program aimed to lower energy costs and reduce pollution in underserved communities across the country by installing solar power systems.
Click here for a full list of awards: epa.gov/greenhouse-gas-reduction-fund/solar-all
This important work continues
The Center provides both community and business solar loans and personal solar loans. The organization is seeking to make an initial $10 million in loans to support solar projects up to 10MW in size. Funding for this program comes from a loan that the Center for Rural Affairs received from Coalition for Green Capital under the National Clean Investment Fund program.
For more information on the Center's Solar for All work and on solar lending, please contact Daniel Padilla, director of climate lending, at [email protected] or 402.380.3681.
