What the Trump administration's cut to a solar program means for Southern California

Ken Wells is riding a rollercoaster — and not the fun kind.

He thought the solar industry would provide a stable future with a mission he could believe in. Then came state policy changes. And now, the Trump administration’s attacks on clean energy.

“It is  very frustrating, to say the least,” Wells said. “I want to see these opportunities come to my community and want to see those who are challenged by the cost of electricity benefit from this.”

Wells grew up in Compton. He was arrested and incarcerated at just 15 years old. But it was then that he read a book about solar power and the clean energy transition.

When he got out, he trained as a solar installer through a Homeboy Industries program. In 2018, he launched his own company, installing panels on single-family homes in the communities he grew up in. He worked to hire local, formerly incarcerated people like himself.

“I saw this industry as a viable opportunity to not just get a job but get a career, get a new identity, and have purpose in what they're doing each and every day,” Wells previously told LAist.

To Wells, his business wasn’t just a way to support himself but a way to support his community and a healthier future for all.

Then the state cut rooftop solar incentives in 2022, causing his business to plummet. He had to lay off his 30 employees and close his doors.

But Wells saw opportunity in multifamily buildings. At the end of last year, he launched a new business, Microgrid Tech, focused on installing solar and batteries on low-income apartments.

Ken Wells says he was "expecting to see a lot of clients be able to transition to clean energy and reduce their tenants’ bills by 30% minimum.”

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Lauren Justice

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CalMatters

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California has programs in place to help apartment owners finance solar for their buildings, and the Biden-era Solar for All program was set to accelerate those efforts, Wells said.

“ It's a market that has had a huge barrier to individual property owners or tenants being able to get into the clean energy space,” Wells said. “But with the Solar for All money and investment that the Biden administration had made, we were expecting to see a lot of clients be able to transition to clean energy and reduce their tenants’ bills by 30% minimum.”

Unlike most programs, the federal program would cover the cost of necessary roof repairs. Pairing that with Inflation Reduction Act tax incentives, more than 900,000 low-income renters across the country were set to save significantly on panel and battery storage installation and their energy bills. The program also came with a workforce development element.

Effects of federal cuts

This month, though, the Trump administration announced it is cutting the $7 billion Solar for All program. California could lose $250 million.

The cuts are likely to face legal challenges because the funding already was allocated.

“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s unlawful termination of Solar for All funding needlessly increases the cost of community solar and storage projects in California,” Terrie Prosper, a spokesperson for the California Public Utilities Commission, wrote in a statement to LAist.

Prosper said the state already has started implementing its Solar for All grants — with the federal EPA already having approved the state’s plan — and funding was made available by March.

A little less than six months later, the program’s 60 recipients — across 49 states, six tribes and several nonprofits — got an official termination letter.

“This would have allowed us to serve clients that are ineligible and just have a bigger impact than we would be able to with just the state funding alone,” said Chris Walker, chief policy and programs officer with GRID Alternatives, the nation’s largest nonprofit solar installer and one of Solar for All’s grantees.

Headwinds for solar

One of California’s two programs that help low-income homeowners and renters install solar is also ending in the next year, making GRID’s plans to expand its work more difficult.

And Brad Heavner, executive director of the California Solar and Storage Association, lamented the loss of subsidies for an industry that still is trying to break through.

“We give a free pass to some oil and other energy extraction, while we erect obstacles to newer technologies,” Heavner said. “For the solar market in California, we really want to play on a fair playing field. And for the general market, that's OK. For low-income customers, there does need to be support programs, but it requires funds.”

“One of the best things that this country can do for energy independence is to create domestic solar and wind,” Heavner added.

The view from Compton

Meanwhile, for business owners such as Wells, the uncertainty and clean energy whiplash from Biden to Trump already is hurting business.

“A lot of these projects are going to probably fall out of contract because there's just no way for it to pencil out now losing the Solar For All money,” Wells said. “If we're looking at America first, America being great, and we're talking about the technology of the future, I think we should want to lead in every aspect of it. But with clean energy, it's just caught in the party battles.”