EPA terminates $156M solar power program for low-income Tennesseans

Tennessee’s Solar for All program to help low-income households lower energy bills through solar panel installation is officially terminated, state officials announced on Sept. 19, 2025. (Photo by Evan Houk/ Maine Morning Star)

A federally funded program that would have provided $156 million to low-income Tennessee families for solar panel installation has been terminated after several months on hold, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation announced Friday.

The funding was part of the $7 billion Solar for All program, which was designed to create or expand solar programs for about 900,000 low-income households nationwide. Tennessee was one of 49 states selected to receive awards authorized by Congress through the Inflation Reduction Act. 

Suspending Inflation Reduction Act funding disbursements — particularly spending that involved clean energy initiatives — was one of President Donald Trump’s first actions upon taking office in January. The executive order freezing the funds spurred lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s ability to rescind already-authorized funds.

Tennessee’s Office of Energy Programs was in the process of developing the state’s Solar for All Program guidelines when the Environmental Protection Agency terminated the award in early August, according to the office’s website.

“(The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation’s Office of Energy Programs) thanks its stakeholders for their interest, time, and significant contributions to Tennessee’s Solar for All proposal and subsequent program design efforts,” the department wrote in Friday’s announcement.