– San Francisco, United States – Just a few weeks ago, a pastor from Norfolk, Virginia, spoke to residents of his area about a program that would assist them in installing rooftop solar units in their homes. The government would cover the costs of installing them, and once finished, it would lessen the strain of rising electricity costs, a pressing issue.
Then, Praileau learned that the $7 billion Solar For All program, which funded his project and other solar projects across the nation, had been discontinued, leaving them stranded.
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It is one of several federally funded renewable energy projects that has been abandoned or will end sooner, veering away from the country’s planned transition to renewable energy, which also makes it more difficult to achieve climate goals.
The project, which received $ 156 million in federal funding to support 7,500 low- and middle-class families with solar installation, had been helped by Praileau, the Virginia program director for Solar United Neighbors. Praileau claims that the sudden withdrawal left him “under the spell.”
This December, the federal government will also end the 30% tax credit for installing solar panels on rooftops. By June 2026, businesses will only be able to receive these tax credits if they begin building the factories, malls, or other types of businesses for which the solar installations are intended.
Additionally, the Department of Energy withdrew funding from a number of other renewable energy initiatives, including battery energy storage, carbon-neutral cement production, and power grid upgrades. Additionally, the administration ended a number of wind energy funding initiatives.
According to President Trump, “We won’t be approving windmills until something unexpected occurs.”
According to a report from BloombergNEF in April 2025, this could result in a $114 billion loss in wind energy projects.
When the $ 56 million project was scrapped in August, intake forms for 10, 000 low- and middle-class households in Florida were ready.
A Miami-Dade County resident had informed the volunteers who were assisting her with the application for the grant that she was afraid to use power. Because of the state’s steep rise in power costs, she is afraid to turn on the air conditioning.
According to Heaven Campbell, the program director for Solar United Neighbors, which was putting the project into practice, some residents’ electricity costs in the state have increased by 60% since then.
Due to hurricanes and the Ukraine war, which increased the price of Russian natural gas, there have also been varying power cost increases in other states.
According to Florida’s Office of Public Counsel, the utility provider, Florida Power and Light is currently arguing that the state’s Office of Public Counsel should raise rates even further to close the gap to nearly $10 billion over the next four years.
The staff at Solar United has tried to inform residents that reconnecting with electricity may result in their being disconnected.
According to Bernadette Del Chiaro, senior vice president for California at the Environmental Working Group, “consumers are left at the mercy of utilities,” and their rising rates will increase as a result of the tax credit’s early termination.
“Reinforcement by rain shadows”
There has been a lot of installation work, with some solar installers reporting having to turn away customers because the solar rooftop tax credits are set to expire in December.
Del Chiaro claims that the industry’s “we will see the rain shadow impact of this in 2026,” referring to a significant decline in business and employment that it is preparing for in the coming year.
According to Barry Cinnamon, CEO of Cinnamon Energy Systems, a San Francisco-based solar installation company, “this is a big plunge on the solar coaster.”
California Solar and Storage Association president Ed Murray stated to Al Jazeera that he anticipates that the elimination of tax credits will reduce solar unit installation and other costs by up to 12 years.
Even as the state’s air quality is likely to worsen and its climate goals are predicted to fail, according to Murray, it would also cause job losses for thousands of highly skilled workers in the sector.
The Department of Energy stated in its notification that these projects “advance the previous Administration’s wasteful Green New Scam agenda.”
Energy Secretary Chris Wright stated in the statement that the Trump administration is “affirming its commitment to advance more affordable, trustworthy, and secure American energy and being more responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars” by returning these funds to the taxpayer.
Because solar customers pay less to utilities but still use that power when necessary, critics claim that solar projects increase the cost of households still using the power grid.
Instead, the Trump administration has supported oil and gas production through a number of initiatives, including recent plans to lease the entire ANWR to the oil and gas industry. Additionally, it made it simpler to get permits for drilling on federal lands.
rising costs
The Green New Deal, a program designed to promote economic growth and job creation while having a positive impact on the environment, was a grant funding program for renewable energy projects by the Biden administration.
However, power costs have soared significantly in many states, including Virginia, even as these projects started to roll out.
A recent study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that 26 states’ power costs had increased faster than their inflation, citing factors like the Ukraine war and extreme weather events like wildfires and hurricanes, among others.
According to the study, California’s prices have increased by more than 34 percent since the study’s conclusion, largely as a result of the country’s record-breaking wildfires forcing utilities to replace and strengthen their power lines. The Department of Energy canceled a number of projects, including the $ 630 million federal funding to strengthen California’s grids.
According to Ryan Schleeter, communications director of The Climate Center, a think tank with a California base, “the majority of the projects that were scrapped were mid-implementation.”
Additionally, electric vehicles (EVs) were used in more than 20% of the state’s sales over the past two years as a result of federal incentives. According to Schleeter, these enabled middle-class families to purchase EVs. The main issue will be how to be equitable, he says, with incentives ending on September 30.
According to Susan Stephenson, executive director of California Power and Light, which supports places of worship that have renewable energy, several places of worship that intended to convert to solar energy or install EV charging stations are now having trouble finding installers and have seen costs increase above their initial budget as a result of federal budget cuts.
Praileau says one of the biggest concerns he had with his congregants was the cost of power in Virginia. Praileau thinks that the state has one of the nation’s largest data centers, which could contribute to rising costs.
In the state’s governor’s elections on November 4, voter dissatisfaction with rising power costs was one of the top issues. The Democratic presidential candidate who won made the promise to lower power costs by boosting energy production and requiring more money from data centers for energy production.
Praileau hopes the new governor will also bring the solar project back into the debate over the cuts that are already being made. Florida is also the subject of ongoing litigation regarding the funding cuts.
California is one of the states that has made its own renewable energy incentive rollbacks.
Source: Aljazeera
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