How 4 Microgrid Developers Are Trying To Survive Trump’s Energy Policies

The microgrid industry took a hard knock this year with the loss of federal renewable energy incentives and funding.  The Trump administration vanquished solar and wind investment tax credits, the Solar for All program and  Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency project awards.

Are projects surviving these steep cuts, and if so, how? We spoke to key figures working on five microgrid projects, and here’s what they told us. 

Churches pivot to safe-harbor-as-a-service

The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church wants to demonstrate how microgrids benefit communities of color, which are often the last to have their power restored. This is true of the Georgia churches in AME Church’s sixth district, which launched an ambitious resilience program after community members experienced numerous outages from hurricanes, including one church that was out of power for 18 days.

The AME hopes to deploy five microgrids at Georgia churches by the end of 2026 and, long term, up to 482 microgrids, said James Gaymon, director of operations for social justice at Sixth District AME Church in Georgia. The church’s plans include offering a menu of options, with the highest level of resilience including solar and storage microgrids and bidirectional electric vehicle (EV) charging.

The federal rollback of solar and EV tax credits could be “devastating” to the project, Gaymon said.

One of the churches, New Bethel, expected funding from the Georgia Solar for All program, but when that grant was terminated by the federal government, the project — and a few other “shovel-ready” churches — were moved into the Georgia Bright pilot program. The now-closed solar leasing program, enabled by Biden-era federal incentives, leveraged federal tax credits to reduce the cost of solar for low- to moderate-income households. Private grants and additional financial support for the Georgia Bright program came from organizations such as the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation and the Wells Fargo Foundation, said Alicia Brown, program director at the Capital Good Fund, a nonprofit organization that uses financial services to address poverty and environmental injustice.

But the churches now have a new option. Microgrid developers across the U.S. can try to secure funding through Capital Good Fund’s safe-harbor-as-a-service program, Brown said.

The U.S. Treasury recently released guidance for “safe harboring” tax credits under current rules. “If we can purchase equipment equal to at least 5% of a project’s cost by the end of this year, we can lock in tax credit eligibility for that project through 2029 without triggering Foreign Entity of Concern (FEOC) restrictions,” Brown said. FEOC restricts the purchase of items such as energy storage acquired outside the U.S., especially China.

Tribe Left in the Dark

Also grasping for new funding sources is the Hopi Tribe, which had plans to bring a stable source of electricity to 600 homes in Arizona with a $25 million grant to install solar panels and battery storage through the Solar for All program.

Tribal members who live more than a mile away from the single available power line have no access to electricity and often rely on generators. 

The tribe has been growing steadily, with its population rising from 14,500 to 14,900. Its new homes are not connected to the grid, in part because the utility, Arizona Public Service, didn’t plan for the growth, said Hopi Chairman Tim Nuvangyaoma.

Some tribal members need electricity to power medical devices.

Now a project designed to stabilize the Hopi reservation will be significantly downsized.

“Solar for All was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he said.

The tribe is scaling back its project from 600 homes to 100 and will use a $10 million tribal electrification grant to electrify those homes.

“We’re trying to replace that funding. Everything was there that we needed, we had stepped up to do the planning, design and outreach. This sets us back to ground zero,” Nuvangyaoma said.

Chelsea, Massachusetts microgrid searches for alternative funding

Another project that lost funding is located in Chelsea. Massachusetts, where the city has begun installing a virtual microgrid that aims to be a model for deploying distributed energy from the community up.  Between $250,000 and $500,000 in federal money — that the project either sought or planned to seek — is no longer available, said Abigail Despres, program manager at the consulting firm Clean Energy Solutions.

The Boston-area city has been working for several years on installing the virtual microgrid to provide energy justice, environmental and resilience benefits. The project’s first phase broke ground in late 2024 with 1,000 KW of solar on a public works yard building. The city plans to install 1,000 kWh of battery storage at the police station and city hall.

Virtual microgrids can add distributed energy resources via cloud-based software rather than poles and wires.  Utility rules disallow networking of microgrids that aren’t on the same property. Chelsea gets around this by using a software package to network them virtually.

The microgrid can aggregate the electric demand  of all three buildings virtually and power them onsite. The buildings then need less grid power, which eases strain on the grid during periods of stress, freeing it up to better supply the local community.

Under the Chelsea model, the solar won’t directly feed the batteries, but the solar and storage will be packaged together under one virtual microgrid umbrella. 

Partners in the project are shifting their focus to state-level funding and foundations to make up for the lost federal funding, Despres said.

This is a blow to an innovative idea that other cities — including Cambridge, Lynn, Milton and Salem and the Boston neighborhood of Chinatown — have said they’re interested in replicating.

“We remain committed to the original vision for the Chelsea microgrid in terms of size and scope, but the change in the federal landscape definitely places a strain,” Despres said.

Maine island looks for new way to obtain federal funding

Maine’s Cranberry Isles is planning a grid-connected solar-plus-storage microgrid designed to keep power flowing when the grid goes down. The microgrid would include rooftop solar for homes and possibly a standalone solar system, grid-forming inverters, controllers and 500-kWh of batteries.

The homes lost their opportunity to capture the 30% solar tax credits, which expire next month, but it’s possible that the developer, the nonprofit Cranberry Isles Community Solar Association, could apply for the credit as a commercial business, said Alden Hathaway, an energy consultant and former president of the association. Commercial solar projects are eligible for the investment tax credit if construction begins before July 5, 2026 and the system is completed within four years. 

A surprise win in Ann Arbor, Michigan

While the AME, Hopi Tribe, Chelsea and Cranberry Isles microgrid projects are looking to replace lost federal funding, a project in Ann Arbor, Michigan, gained tax credits under the Trump-backed energy policy changes. 

The developers of SouthTown, a 225-unit apartment building in Ann Arbor near the University of Michigan, plan to use onsite geothermal, batteries, solar, renewable natural gas and fuel cells in an off-grid microgrid project. They decided against pursuing a grid connection after calculating that onsite resources are less expensive, cleaner and more reliable.

Steve Pullins, CEO of ResSET, a consultant on the project working with developer 4M, said that new federal rules provide investment tax credits for fuel cells that weren’t available before the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July.

“This took a load off our chest,” Pullins said. “The One Big Beautiful Bill simplified our approach around the fuel cells.” Under the Biden administration’s policies, fuel cells weren’t eligible for the tax credit. But fuel cells are considered renewables in some states because they are non-combustible, ultra-low emission and can use bionic gas sources, he said.

The project, which is now in the ground-leveling phase, is expected to save the building owner and tenants approximately 9% on energy costs compared to utility rates. By year 10, they’ll save 24% and by year 20,  savings will amount to 50% compared to utility prices.

Another advantage of the SouthTown project: Tenants won’t be required to evacuate during outages, which occur once a year and can last five or six days. Ann Arbor requires tenants to evacuate if there’s an emergency and the grid goes down, he said.

“We want to create a scenario where SouthTown is a safe shelter in place,” Pullins said.

Whether they’re scaling down project size, focusing on applying for remaining tax credits or searching for state funding, the microgrid developers have one thing in common: They’re not giving up on the opportunity to provide resilience, lower utility costs and decrease carbon emissions for their communities.

“We set up some donation opportunities, are applying for foundation grants and are praying,” said Juan Shannon, who launched a plan to create Parker Village, a sustainable village in Michigan’s Highland Park that includes a solar microgrid.