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Under name of President Obama, the White House announces “Clean Energy Savings for All Initiative” and aims to offer a total of 1GW solar to low- and moderate-income families by 2020.
The Initiative, which was announced through a FACT SHEET on July 19, includes an investment of approximately US$288 million from housing associations, energy corporations, and power companies for solar deployment. The Initiative targets installing 1GW of solar systems for around 200,000 low- to moderate-income families by 2020.
President Obama’s Climate Action Plan set a goal of installing 100MW of renewable energy on federally-assisted affordable housing by 2020. The new initiative, depicted as “new catalytic goal,” will bring 10 fold of solar to the needy Americas. The Clean Energy Savings to All Initiative is the successor to the Climate Action Plan.
The new scheme will be implemented in collaboration with state agencies. Propergy-Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) funding, a community solar competition and jobs programs will also be involved in.
The Initiative is supported by government agencies include the Departments of Energy (DOE), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Agriculture (USDA), Health and Human Services (HHS), Veteran’s Affairs (VA), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
EnergyTrend’s comment
Celeste Tsai, analyst at EnergyTrend, describes this new initiative as “an American version of PV Poverty Alleviation Project.” This program will be helpful for expanding renewable energy installations and relevant jobs as well as creating economical supports for needy families.
However, this initiative may make limited encouragement to U.S.’s PV market.
“Assume that the 1GW capacity were deployed evenly between 2016 and 2020, it only contributes 250MW of additional solar demand every year to the U.S. market,” explained Tsai. “The U.S. government has agreed to extend the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) program, so we expect the annual demand will remain stable at the 2015-level (approximately 7.2GW) until 2020. 250MW per year accounts too small to severely stimulate U.S.’s PV market.”
Nonetheless, the new program will further declare Obama’s commitment to developing renewable energy and creating new jobs for the United States.
