A Wide-Reaching Plan to Give More Solar Power to the People

President Obama must have been listening to a lot of Akon lately. Or maybe the President is sick of climate-guru Bill McKibben’s airing him out. Tuesday, Obama announced a new initiative to broaden solar power access for low-income Americans, particularly those living in public housing. The White House has set a goal of installing over 300 megawatts of renewable energy—enough to power roughly 49,000 homes, based on national megawatt home averages—on federally subsidized housing by 2020.

The announcement was made in Baltimore, where Maryland Congressman Elijah E. Cummings said that his office frequently fields requests from families who need help paying their electric and heating bills. The solar industry has proliferated rapidly in recent years, especially for homeowners placing photovoltaic panels on their rooftops. Net metering policies have allowed these households to drastically reduce, if not zero-out their electric bills thanks to the power generated through installed solar hardware on their rooftops.