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Evansville staff pursuing EV chargers, $3 million solar award and watching federal grant changes
Summary
Staff reported submitting a $206,000 IDEM application for up to eight public EV chargers funded by Volkswagen mitigation dollars, applied to a $3 million Solar Opportunities Indiana coalition subaward for low-income rooftop solar and resilience hubs, and noted the terminated EPA Community Change Grant and related litigation affecting grantees.
At the July 15 advisory meeting, Lauren Norville reported multiple grant efforts underway to expand clean-energy infrastructure in Evansville.
Norville said staff submitted a grant application to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) for $206,000 to install up to eight publicly accessible electric-vehicle charging stations. She said the chargers must be publicly accessible and serve residents in disadvantaged census tracts and that the money would come from Volkswagen mitigation funds.
On a larger scale, Norville said Evansville is applying as part of a statewide coalition to subaward funding from Solar Opportunities Indiana, a federal program managed through a coalition led by the Indiana Community Action Association. Norville said the city is seeking a $3,000,000 subaward to subsidize solar installations for low-income households (she said a $20,000, 5-kilowatt system budget was used as an example) and to add solar-plus-battery systems to community facilities to serve as resilience hubs during extended outages. She said the application budgets roughly $1,000,000 for households, about $1,000,000 for resilience hubs (one to six facilities), and a line for administration to hire a solar project manager for the grant term.
Norville also updated the board on the U.S. EPA Community Change Grant, which “was terminated,” and said several national lawsuits have been filed on behalf of grantees; staff are awaiting rulings and described the litigation as a “long shot” that could benefit grantees if decided broadly in favor of recipients.
Norville warned that the new federal budget bill could affect the availability of the coalition’s funds and that staff would not announce program starts until funding is fully obligated. She said IDEM’s VW-funded awards should be decided quickly and that the IDEM application was submitted at the end of June with notifications expected in August.
Board members asked for details about program scope and eligibility; Norville said the solar program aims to provide installations at no cost to eligible low-income households in disadvantaged tracts and that multifamily projects are technically allowed but more complicated for metering and administration.
