San Francisco, United States – Just a few weeks ago, Brandon Praileau, a pastor from Norfolk, Virginia, spoke to families in his church about a federally funded program that would help them install solar panels on the roofs of their homes. The government funding would cover their installation costs and, once installed, reduce the burden of rising electricity costs, which is a pressing concern.
Then Praileau learned that the federal government had canceled the $7 billion Solar For All program that was intended to fund his project and other solar projects across the country, leaving them by the wayside.
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It is one of several government-funded renewable energy projects that have been suspended or are being terminated early. This will cancel the country's planned transition to renewable energy and will also make it more difficult to achieve climate goals.
Praileau, program director for Solar United Neighbors in Virginia, helped launch the project, which received $156 million in federal funding to help 7,500 low- and moderate-income families install solar systems. Praileau said he was “overwhelmed” by the sudden withdrawal.
The federal government will also end the 30 percent tax credit for installing solar roofs on homes this December. These tax credits are only available to companies if they begin construction of factories, shopping centers or other businesses for which the solar systems are intended by June 2026.
The Energy Department also pulled $13 billion in funding from a range of other renewable energy projects, including power grid modernization, carbon-neutral cement production and battery storage. The administration also ended several wind energy funding initiatives.
President Trump has said, “We will not approve wind turbines unless something happens that constitutes an emergency.”
According to an April 2025 report by BloombergNEF, this could result in a loss of $114 billion due to delays or cancellation of wind energy projects.
In Florida, application forms were ready for 10,000 low- and moderate-income households to apply for federal grants to install solar panels on their roofs when the $156 million project was canceled in August.
A Miami-Dade County resident told volunteers who helped her fill out forms to apply for the grant that she was “afraid of using electricity. I'm afraid of putting in air conditioning” because the state's sharp increase in electricity costs has put it out of reach for her.
Electricity costs in the state have increased by 60 percent for some residents since 2019, Heaven Campbell, Florida, program director for Solar United Neighbors, who worked to implement the project, told Al Jazeera.
Other countries also experienced varying increases in electricity costs due to hurricanes and the war in Ukraine, which made Russian natural gas more expensive.
Florida Power and Light, the utility, is also currently advocating to further raise rates to raise nearly $10 billion over the next four years, according to Florida's Office of Public Counsel.
Solar United staff have tried to educate residents that going without power could result in them being disconnected from the grid and that reconnecting will incur a fee.
Ending the tax credit early will mean that “consumers will be at the mercy of utilities and their rising tax rates,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, senior vice president for California at the Environmental Working Group.
“Rainshadow Influence”
With tax credits for rooftop solar set to expire in December, there have been major difficulties in installing them, and some solar installers said they had to turn away customers.
“We will see the rain shadow effect of this in 2026,” says Del Chiaro, pointing to a sharp decline in business and jobs that the industry is preparing for next year.
“This is a big solar roller coaster drop,” said Barry Cinnamon, chief executive of Cinnamon Energy Systems, a San Francisco-based solar installation company.
Ed Murray, president of the California Solar and Storage Association, told Al Jazeera he expects the elimination of the tax credits will double the payback period for installation and other costs associated with solar systems to up to 12 years.
It would also result in job losses for thousands of skilled workers in the industry, Murray said, even as air quality is likely to worsen and the state is unlikely to meet its climate goals.
In announcing its withdrawal from these projects, the Energy Department's statement said the projects “further the previous administration's wasteful Green New Scam agenda.”
In the statement, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said: “By returning these funds to the American taxpayer, the Trump Administration reaffirms its commitment to advancing more affordable, reliable and secure American energy and to being more responsible with taxpayer dollars.”
Critics of solar projects have said they increase costs for households still connected to the grid because solar customers pay less to utilities but still use the electricity when needed.
Instead, the Trump administration has supported oil and gas production through various measures, including recent plans to open the entire Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and gas leasing. In addition, permits for drilling on federal lands were made easier.
Rising costs
The Biden administration had funded renewable energy projects as part of the so-called Green New Deal, a program to accelerate economic growth and job creation while having a positive impact on the climate.
But even as these projects were implemented, electricity costs rose sharply in many states, including Virginia.
A recent study from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that electricity cost increases in 26 states have risen faster than inflation, citing a number of factors, including the Ukraine war and extreme weather such as wildfires and hurricanes that have damaged already aging power poles and grids.
For example, prices in California have risen by more than 34 percent since 2019, the study says, in part because record-breaking wildfires forced utilities to replace and reinforce their power lines. Among the projects canceled by the Energy Department was $630 million in federal funding to strengthen grids in California.
“A majority of the projects that were scrapped were in the middle of implementation,” says Ryan Schleeter, communications director at The Climate Center, a California-based think tank.
Federal incentives also resulted in more than 20 percent of cars sold in the state over the past two years being electric vehicles (EVs). This allowed middle-income families to purchase electric vehicles, Schleeter says. With the incentives set to expire on September 30, “the key challenge will be to be fair,” he says.
Susan Stephenson, executive director of California Power and Light, which helps houses of worship use renewable energy, says several houses of worship that had planned to go solar or install electric vehicle charging stations are now struggling to find installers and that costs have risen beyond their original budgets because of federal cuts.
In Virginia, Praileau said the cost of electricity was one of the biggest concerns in his conversations with his community members. The state has one of the most data centers in the country, and Praileau believes that could be a reason for the rising costs.
Voter discontent over rising electricity costs was a key issue in the state's November 4 gubernatorial election. One of the promises made by Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic candidate who won, was to reduce electricity costs by increasing energy production and ensuring that data centers absorb a larger share of electricity costs.
Praileau hopes the solar project, whose cuts are already being challenged, can also be revived by the new governor. There are also ongoing legal disputes in Florida over federal funding cuts.
Several states, including California, have announced their own rollbacks of renewable energy incentives.
But Steve Larson, former executive director of the California Public Utilities Commission, expects more litigation to restore programs and overcome “delay techniques” to force federal funding cuts and allow renewable energy projects to continue because funding withdrawals negatively impact residents.