Biden administration offers $8.5B chance for home energy rebate assistance to states, territories

Promising Americans up to $1 billion in annual energy cost savings and support for more than 50,000 new jobs, the Biden administration opened applications for state and territories to gain access to $8.5 billion in support for home energy rebate programs.

Rebates will ultimately be provided to consumers through the states and territories themselves, once they receive funding from the Department of Energy and create a proper rebate program. It was funded by the Inflation Reduction Act and will support the development, implementation and enhancement of residential energy efficiency and electrification programs aimed at U.S. households, specifically.

“Energy savings and electrification upgrades like insulating your home, installing a heat pump, or upgrading to electric Energy Star appliances, lower monthly utility costs and lead to healthier homes,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said. “Today’s announcement opens the application period for states and territories to apply for our groundbreaking $8.5 billion Home Energy Rebates programs. Americans living in energy efficient, electrified homes bring us one step closer to a clean, safer future.”

Separated into individual options, the two rebate programs include both the Home Efficiency Rebates Program and the Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates Program. The Home Efficiency program will offer $4.3 billion in formula grants for energy offices to reduce upfront cost costs of whole-home energy efficiency upgrades in single and multi-family homes alike, while the Home Electrification and Appliance side will incorporate another $4.275 million for state energy offices to reduce the upfront cost of efficient electric technologies in those same homes.

Notably, the home electrification side also will include $225 million in grants for Indian tribes, specifically, but that will be offered under separate guidance and application instructions to come at a later date.

For the current efforts, the DOE asked states and territories alike to prioritize households that could most benefit, including by allocating at least half of their program funds for households with incomes at or below 80 percent of an area’s median income. Applications as a whole will be reviewed on a rolling basis.