Applicants must be public entities in the state of Washington, such as:

• Local agencies, including any city, town, county, special district, municipal corporation, agency, port district or authority, or political subdivision of any type, or any other entity or authority of local government in corporate form or otherwise.
• Public higher education institutions
• K-12 public school districts
• State agencies
• Federally-recognized Tribal governments
• Non-governmental organizations are not eligible for this grant.

Grants will fund new solar photovoltaic systems net-metered with existing publicly-owned (including Tribally-owned) buildings or facilities in Washington. Projects must be between 20 kW AC and 100 kW AC and must provide 50% of the total project cost from other, non-state sources. Total project cost for this purpose excludes any contingency funds.

Projects located in certain priority communities will have different requirements: the minimum project size is 10kW AC, and the minimum match requirement is 33% of the total project cost, excluding any contingency funds. These projects will also receive additional preference during selection. The priority communities will include:

• Rural: Projects not located in a city or town that has a population of greater than 50,000 inhabitants and the urbanized area contiguous and adjacent to such a city or town, as defined by the USDA Rural Energy Pilot Program.
• Highly Impacted Communities: Projects located in a census district with a census tract with an overall rank of 9 or 10 on the Environmental Health Disparities V 1.1 tool created by Washington Department of Health, or any census tract with Tribal lands, as listed in the Environmental Health Disparities tool.
• Lower-income: Projects located in a city, county, or Tribal Area with an area median income less than 80% of State Median Income (currently $59,020), according to the American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Use the median income of the incorporated city in which the project is located, or the county if the project is located outside of an incorporated city. Tribes may instead use the median income of Tribal Areas (Reservations and Off-Reservation Trust Lands), as defined in the American Community Survey, for projects that are located in these areas.
• Tribal communities: Projects of federally recognized Tribal governments.

Projects which meet these criteria will receive higher scores, but a project is still eligible to apply to this grant if it does not meet some or all of these criteria:

• Projects with shorter calculated payback period.
• Projects that provide more funding from other sources, above the minimum requirements.
• Applicant has not received funding for solar from this program previously.
• Projects that use modules or inverters manufactured in Washington.
• Projects with lower cost per watt.
• Projects in priority communities as described above in the eligible projects section.
• Projects that demonstrate community input and benefits.

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This program does not currently have additional funding available. Please sign up for email updates to hear about future funding opportunities.