Solar power panels being installed at Queen Trini in New Orleans. Photo by Katie Sikora.
The state Department of Energy and Natural Resources announces Louisiana is recipient of a 156-million dollar federal grant to initiate a statewide program called “Solar for Y’all.” D-N-R spokesperson Patrick Courreges says the federal dollars should expand solar panel installations, especially for those who can not afford them.
“It’s providing grants and loans for low-income, disadvantage residents and communities to build out solar energy,” Courreges said.
Louisiana is one of 60 government bodies that received the money which comes from the federal Inflation Reduction Act. Courreges says the state will benefit from this federal investment, with so much of the population at risk of losing power for several days because of devastating storms.
“It would be nice especially some of those folks in the most vulnerable communities had a source of power that wasn’t necessarily relying on those power lines,” Courreges said.
Courreges says they still have to get approval from the federal government on how they plan to spend the money, but they are looking to provide dollars to pay for upgrades on single-family and multi-family homes to prepare them for solar energy equipment and they are also looking at creating solar hubs.
“Here’s what we can do with that much and make sure that still meets muster for their rules and so that will be a little bit of back and forth and then after that we can buckle down and we bring on the contractors and do the outreach and get it going,” Courreges said.
Look for more information in the coming months on how the money will be distributed.
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