White House Launches Nationwide Community Solar Program

On July 7, 2015 the Obama Administration launched a bold plan to increase solar energy usage within the United States as part of a nationwide initiative to address climate change while promoting clean energy initiatives.

According to NPR, the plan primarily focuses on increasing access and exposure to solar energy in low- to moderate-income communities across the country while creating jobs in the solar energy sector. Focusing on rounding out the solar energy industry to increase the access every American has to it is a central idea of the initiative. President Obama’s senior adviser Brian Deese emphasized in a media call that, “it’s very important not only that we achieve that goal, but how we get there as well,” when prompted about the objectives of the plan.

In 2014 the United States amassed as much solar energy every three weeks as it did the entire year of 2008, marking a huge growth in the solar industry, according to White House Administration. The amount of available jobs in the solar industry has grown ten times faster than any other industry in the United States.

The new plans build upon President Obama’s already established goals to train 75,000 workers in the solar industry by 2020. Even with this exponential growth over the past few years many Americans still do not have access to the benefits that Solar provides, lacking the capital needed to invest in their own projects or the necessary information about how to make the transition to solar energy. The new initiatives address these issues that have hindered growth of certain aspects of the industry while building upon past successes to help every American have access to the tools they need to get ahead.

The White House’s key components for this initiative include launching a National Community Solar Partnership program to provide renters and businesses that do not have the adequate space or capabilities for solar technology installation with access to these resources, as well as setting goals to install more solar technology in federally subsidized housing. Providing technical assistance to make it simpler to install Solar Technology is on the agenda as well, and developing a Toolkit to increase the efficiency of States trying to use federal funding to deploy Solar has become a priority. The plan relies on AmeriCorps funding to deploy solar technology, expand jobs, increase community education programs related to solar, and diversify the solar energy sector to a greater degreeThe Washington Post, this new initiative includes not only federal action, but state and local government initiatives as well. States, localities, and private sector donors have already made $520 million in pledges to make these community solar investments possible. The National Community Solar Partnership encompassing several of these community solar projects will be under the watch of the Department of Energy, cooperating with other government agencies, states, and major private sector players in the solar industry. This all-encompassing plan is just one of the many new initiatives rolled out in the past few years under the Obama Administration to diversify the U.S. energy industry and fight climate change.