$3 million residential solar award to Evansville terminated by EPA, staff say; planned installations and resilience hubs paused

Lauren Norvell told the board Aug. 19 that a planned $3 million grant intended to fund residential solar for low-income households and resilience hubs in Evansville was terminated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Norvell said Solar Opportunities Indiana, a state coalition, had been preparing to allocate approximately $3,000,000 to Evansville for residential rooftop solar on about 50 low-income households and to fund one to four “resilience hubs” — community centers sited near disadvantaged neighborhoods equipped with solar and battery backup for use during storms or outages. She said the funding agreement was terminated by U.S. EPA and that, while litigation and appeals by applicants sometimes follow, “as of right now, we're not getting that money.”

“We were gonna put solar on 50 low income households and we were gonna make 1 to 4 resilience hubs,” Norvell said. “None of that's gonna happen right now as of right now with this grant money.”

Norvell compared the termination to a previously cancelled community change grant and said the city will continue seeking alternative opportunities to support solar and resilience projects.

Why it matters: The cancelled funding would have targeted low-income households and created community hubs to maintain power and heat during extreme weather events; staff said neighborhoods that had been targeted will need other sources of support.

Next steps: Staff said it will monitor any litigation or appeals and seek alternative funding sources.