Vote Solar

NOMINATIONS ARE NOW OPEN for the 2026 Dr. Espanola Jackson Energy Justice Award. This award honors the critically important role of community-based activism by people of color in driving environmental progress.

Vote Solar will award the winner with $10,000 for themselves or their organization.

Learn more about the award, eligibility, and nominate yourself or someone you know now through July 17 here: https://votesolar.my.site.com/s/energy-justice-award

Electric bills are rising. Pennsylvania leaders can do something about it.

New analysis from Synapse Energy finds three policies could save the average household $841/year by 2030: more clean energy, more customer-owned power, and lower utility profits.

Learn more:

Three Key Interventions to Deliver $841 in Electricity Bill Savings in Pennsylvania - Evergreen Collaborative As energy costs rise in Pennsylvania, three smart policies can save the average household over $800 on their annual electricity bill by 2030.

As legislative sessions wrap up across the country, we're celebrating important clean energy wins—and preparing for the fights ahead.

Swipe to see key clean energy wins, challenges, and updates from statehouses across the country.

While we secured some exciting victories, our work doesn’t end with legislative sessions.

Become a Solar Sustainer to provide the steady support that allows us to organize year-round, hold decision-makers accountable, and keep delivering clean energy wins: https://bit.ly/442iTZt

The latest interconnection grades have been released, showing notable improvements in several states!

Freeing the Grid is a joint initiative of the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) and Vote Solar that grades states on key policies that help to increase clean energy adoption and access to the grid. The grades evaluate the quality of each U.S. state’s procedures.

These policies dictate how energy projects are reviewed and approved to connect to the electric distribution grid, playing a significant role in how efficiently and affordably projects can be developed.

Grades are based on ten categories of criteria that evaluate the cost, efficiency, and
transparency of the interconnection process, the technologies that are eligible, and other factors. Each state’s “report card” identifies how its policies perform across these 10 criteria and identifies priority recommendations for how it can improve.

Explore now at freeingthegrid.org!

In this article contributed by Jake Duncan, Southeast Senior Regulatory Director of Vote Solar, we cover how Duke Energy's PowerPair pilot program could serve as a template for how residential solar combined with battery storage could help utilities to deploy the latest technologies at scale while lowering costs for ratepayers.

Learn more: 🔗https://ow.ly/XAQz50Z9R2Y

Exciting news 🎉

The SUNNY Act — which would immediately give New Yorkers access to plug-in solar — has passed both houses of the state legislature.

Session ends tomorrow, and we can’t afford to let this opportunity slip away. Urge Governor Hochul to sign the SUNNY Act into law: https://action.votesolar.org/a/ny26-sunny-gov?ms=social

Extreme heat, power outages, and grid failures hit hardest in communities already struggling to make ends meet.

Community Power Networks help change that by turning new and existing energy sources like local solar and battery storage, smart thermostats, and EV chargers into a community-wide backup system. It’s a way for communities to control their energy future — and to make reliable clean power accessible for everyone.

Learn more about the energy system of tomorrow that we can invest in today: https://votesolar.org/community-power-networks-the-energy-system-of-tomorrow-that-we-can-invest-in-today/?ms=social

Vote Solar’s Managing Director of Campaigns, John Delurey, explains how Community Power Networks (Virtual Power Plants) are a cost-saving solar solution — and how Illinois’ Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act can help shape the state’s energy future ☀️

Learn more: https://www.utilitydive.com/news/illinois-energy-policy-affordability-reliability-vote-solar/820280/

As summer approaches and temperatures rise, communities across the country are asking the same question: Can our aging energy grid keep us safe from the heat at a price we can afford?

That’s where Community Power Networks come in.

By coordinating thousands of local energy resources, community power networks reduce peak demand and prevent costly outages without raising rates. Families gain access to cleaner power, policymakers avoid wasteful infrastructure spending, and communities become more resilient during extreme weather.

Reliable energy shouldn’t come with a higher bill — Community Power Networks prove it doesn’t have to.