- In The News
- August 2024
WHYY: New state grant program means solar panels could bring deeper savings to cash-strapped Philly schools
August 26, 2024
The WHYY News Climate Desk reports on Pennsylvania’s Solar for Schools program.
“The Solar for Schools program was created by a bill Gov. Josh Shapiro signed in July and funded with $25 million of state money in this year’s budget.
The program will provide grants covering up to half the costs of solar energy equipment and installation.
It’s meant to help schools make the most of federal tax credits made available to public institutions like schools under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. These can reimburse districts for up to 30% or 50% of the cost of solar projects, based on factors such as their location in a low-income community or an ‘energy community,’ which is defined by unemployment rates and the presence of brownfield sites, retired coal mines or coal-fired power plants.”
About the Alliance
Launched on June 1, 2017 by the governors of Washington, New York, and California to help fill the void left by President Trump’s initial decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, the Alliance has grown to include 24 governors from across the U.S. representing approximately 60% of the U.S. economy and 55% of the U.S. population. Governors in the Alliance have pledged to collectively reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 26-28% by 2025, 50-52% by 2030, and 61-66% by 2035, all below 2005 levels, and collectively achieve overall net-zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as practicable, and no later than 2050.
The Alliance’s states and territories will continue to advance innovative and impactful climate solutions to grow the economy, create jobs, and protect public health, and have a long record of action and results. In fact, the Alliance reduced its collective net greenhouse gas emissions by 19% between 2005 and 2022, while increasing collective GDP by 30%, and is on track to meet its near-term climate goal by reducing collective GHG emissions 26% below 2005 levels by 2025. The coalition’s states and territories are employing more workers in the clean energy sector, achieving lower levels of dangerous air pollutants, and preparing more effectively for climate impacts and executing more pre-disaster planning than the rest of the country.
###
