St. Louis City Awarded Solar For All Federal Grant

Today, it was announced that the City of St. Louis is part of two different coalition groups among 60 selectees that will receive a total of $7 billion in awards through the Solar for All grant competition. The Biden-Harris Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency announced the selectees to celebrate Earth Day.

The awards are part of an effort to deliver residential solar projects to over 900,000 households nationwide. St. Louis was selected as part of two different coalition groups, the Missouri Environmental Improvement and Energy Resources Authority and the Industrial Heartland Solar Coalition. Awards for the two coalitions total more than $300 million. The total allocation for St. Louis City is yet to be determined.

“We are paying attention to the realities of climate change, and St. Louis City is at the forefront of the fight for our future,” said Mayor Tishaura O. Jones. “In our applications, we proposed expanding our Healthy Homes Program to include solar panels as an efficiency upgrade and asked the state to start a low-interest loan program for solar and storage. Sustainability issues are intersectional, affecting public health outcomes and quality of life every day. I’m proud that St. Louis is helping to build a more sustainable and resilient future for our city’s residents.”

The Missouri Environmental Improvement and Energy Resources Authority (EIERA) is a quasi-governmental environmental finance agency that is administratively assigned to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

The Industrial Heartland Solar Coalition is a collaborative of 31 communities spanning eight Midwest and Rust Belt states, including Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. The Coalition is part of Growth Opps, a mission-based community financial institution and Green Bank dedicated to providing community development capital, services, and solutions to growing small businesses, primarily located in disadvantaged, low and moderate income (LMI) communities.

Last month the City of St. Louis was selected to participate in Bloomberg Philanthropies American Sustainable Cities initiative, a large-scale program to build a more sustainable and prosperous future for residents.

“In St. Louis, we are taking action to build a sustainable and safe future for our city,” said Mayor Tishaura O. Jones at the time of the announcement. “Thanks to the support of the Bloomberg American Sustainable Cities initiative, we are taking our city’s investments to new heights, fighting economic and climate injustices while setting an example for cities nationwide.”

The Healthy Home Repair Program, offered by the City of St. Louis through the Community Development Administration (CDA), provides essential home repair assistance to low to moderate income households living in the city. This program supports homeowners in maintaining the safety, value, and well-being of their homes.