President Obama announced a goal of bringing solar energy to disadvantaged communities by 2020, the White House said Tuesday.
The president is “committed to ensuring that every American family can choose to go solar and to cut their energy bills — and that every American community has the tools they need to tackle local air pollution and global climate change,” according to a White House fact sheet announcing the new initiative.
The 1 gigawatt (GW) target would be enough electricity to power about 725,000 homes. Brian Deese, the president’s climate adviser, said “accelerating the move to clean energy” is a top priority for the president, and the announcement is “ensuring that American families have options and the ability to choose clean energy.”
Announcing the 1 GW by 2020 target is a “significant and ambitious goal,” but one that is possible because of technological advances, Deese said.
The White House “Clean Energy Savings for All Initiative” will “take advantage of the fact the cost has come down dramatically” for solar in recent years, Deese said on a call with reporters.
The initiative would create financial assistance programs to allow middle and low-income families to make investments in solar without any upfront cost by allowing them to pay for the energy sources through their property taxes.
The proposed financial changes have been resisted by home mortgage backers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but the administration hopes those concerns will be allayed, Deese and other officials on the call said.
