In February, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released guidance for $27B in Greenhouse Gas Reduction Funds (GHGRF), a program authorized through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). These funds aim to speed up the deployment of zero-emission and decarbonization technologies, including residential and community solar, storage technologies, and energy efficiency upgrades, specifically focusing on ensuring that low-income and disadvantaged communities benefit from such funding. Notices of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) are anticipated to be released in early Summer of this year.
$7B of the total funding is allocated to the Zero Emission Technologies Grant Program, competitive grants to states, municipalities, tribal governments, and other recipients to provide financial and technical assistance to enable low-income and disadvantaged communities to deploy or benefit from zero-emission technologies. The program will support the creation of high-paying jobs, and the EPA expects to award up to 60 grants through this program.
$20B is allocated to the General Assistance and Low-Income & Disadvantaged Communities Grant Program, with a minimum of $8B set aside for low-income and disadvantaged communities. Eligible recipients are green banks and CDFIs – nonprofits designed to provide capital and leverage private capital and other forms of financing for rapid deployment of low and zero-emission products, technologies, and services. In their guidance, the EPA emphasized the importance of collaborations across entities to create a network of intermediaries that can deploy fund capital throughout the country, which is aligned with advocacy from housing-focused CDFIs to ensure that these finance products can be absorbed easily into existing affordable housing financing structures.
LeSar will continue to track the development of this funding source, as well as other funding sources authorized by the IRA and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).
For more information on these developments and other funding sources, contact Jacqueline Woo at [email protected].
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