Solar Ambassador Prize
The Solar Ambassador Prize is a competitive funding opportunity for community organizations in Puerto Rico to assist the U.S. Department of Energy in identifying and engaging households for residential solar and battery storage installations, with a focus on residents with high energy costs.
Prize Overview
Through the Solar Ambassador Prize, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will award a total of $3.85 million to up to 20 community organizations to help accelerate the installation of residential solar and battery storage systems on an estimated 30,000 - 40,000 homes across Puerto Rico.
In December 2022, President Biden signed the Fiscal Year 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act into law, which included $1 billion for DOE to establish the Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund to improve the resilience of the Puerto Rican electric grid, with a focus on the island's most vulnerable households.
On July 31, 2023, DOE's Grid Deployment Office released a Funding Opportunity Announcement for up to $450 million to support residential solar and battery storage deployment for very low-income, single-family households that are enrolled in the following government programs: Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP), Plan de Salud Vital, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), USDA’s Section 502 Direct Loan Program, USDA’s Section 504 Home Repair Program.
To be eligible for the program, households
- Are located in areas that have a high percentage of households enrolled in government programs and experience the longest and most frequent outages, or
- Contain a family member with an energy-dependent disability, such as electric wheelchair users or individuals who use at-home dialysis machines.
The Solar Ambassador Prize is a complementary competitive funding opportunity for organizations in Puerto Rico to assist DOE in identifying, engaging, and assisting with intake processing of qualifying households for residential solar and battery storage installations. Solar Ambassadors will initially receive $15,000 in seed funding and will be eligible for compensation based on the number of households enrolled for residential solar and battery storage home inspections.
Follow the Prize