Solar panels on all municipal, school buildings would benefit region
Moonshot ideas are by definition big, bold and almost impossible to achieve. Over the next few years with massive federal investments from the Inflation Reduction Act, the Greater Cincinnati region has an opportunity to take dramatic steps toward reaching moonshot ideas that could significantly improve the region’s air quality and public health, create jobs, make us carbon neutral and save millions of taxpayer dollars for municipal governments.
In 2022, President Biden signed the IRA into law, the largest climate investment in history to spur climate action. This investment supports the goals of many localities including in the Green Cincinnati Plan to be carbon neutral by 2050, a goal that won’t be reached without moonshot ideas.
Locally, a regional team led by OKI has engaged Green Umbrella to build regional climate plans to capture IRA funding opportunities under the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) planning phase. But before that planning is even done, the EPA has issued the CPRG implementation phase, a competitive $4.3 billion grant, with a deadline of April 2024, under which states or regions are eligible for up to $500 million. As the city’s representative on the OKI board, I have volunteered to serve on the Steering Team that is coordinating the effort to bring our fair share of these funds to our region.
Between the CPRG grant and other IRA grants, one of the biggest impact areas is in renewable energy. The massive scale of these investments, including over $120 billion in tax credits, put within reach one big moonshot idea: putting solar on every municipal and school building in the region.
The word “transformational” is often overused, but in this case the impact of using these investments to put solar on every municipal and school building could be just that for local governments. Here’s what it could mean:
Save taxpayer money: Other cities have demonstrated how renewables can substantially reduce energy costs. In San Diego, for example, the city invested $5 million in solar, which is saving them $240K/year. With a $500M grant being 100x that scale, the savings of that investment alone equates to ~$24 million in savings/year for municipal governments. Even if it is lower than that, it’s significant savings.
Make investments with no local match: One of the biggest challenges for a lot of federal investments is the local match. Smaller governments in particular don’t often have the financial resources to provide that match. The CPRG grant in particular requires no local match, which means these investments are more accessible than ever before.
Dramatically reduce our regional carbon footprint while improving air quality and public health: The American Lung Association lists the Greater Cincinnati OH-KY-IN region as #18 in Year-Round Participle Pollution. A massive investment in solar on this scale would dramatically cut carbon emissions and improve public health while improving the quality of life for our region’s residents.
Create good-paying jobs: installing solar means good-paying construction jobs and job-training opportunities for our youth especially when done in partnership with school districts.
Most of the Inflation Reduction Act opportunities are competitive, which means if we come together as a region with big moonshot ideas such as this one and plans to achieve them, then we stand a better shot at receiving the investment. While there are differing points of view on climate change in some parts of our region, there’s one thing that we can all agree on: dramatically improving our air quality while saving taxpayer money is smart government. And while some counties have banned solar farms, placing solar panels on municipal building rooftops is also a smart use of government assets.
The Greater Cincinnati region is not known for regional collaboration. But the regional CPGR team is thinking and acting big and collaborating. Rallying behind this moonshot idea of renewable investments will have a generational impact if we can come together.
Cincinnati Councilman Mark Jeffreys serves as vice chair of the Climate, Environment, Infrastructure Committee. He also represents the City of Cincinnati on the OKI board.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Solar panels on all municipal, school buildings would benefit region
