Communities are prime candidates for microgrids and other local energy projects. But energy development can be a heavy lift, especially for smaller public entities. And lately it’s complicated by a rush to capture expiring federal clean energy tax credits.
Now they’ve got some big companies and big money entering to help.
More than 20 companies, including big players in energy, software, and insurance, today announced an alliance backed by $7.5 billion in capital to install community-based energy in time to capture the incentives before they expire in 2026 and 2027.
Calling itself the Accelerating Resilient Infrastructure Initiative, the coalition is spearheaded by Schneider Electric and includes prominent names such as Microsoft, Zurich, and Graybar, as well as a host of distributed energy companies, including AZZO and Mainspring, and capital partners like Alphastruxure and Sunrock.
The idea was to bring together a range of expertise to scope, finance and deploy projects that make communities less dependent on the grid at a time when it is increasingly under strain, electricity prices are rising and severe weather and wildfires endanger energy resilience
“This initiative is like hitting the easy button for communities that need resilient energy solutions but don’t know where to start,” said Jana Gerber, North American president of microgrids for Schneider Electric. “We’ve brought together the right partners, technologies and financing to make it simple for organizations to act now—before incentives shift—and build infrastructure.”
Capturing tax credits for components of a microgrid, such as solar, can reduce project costs by as much as 30%.
Subscribe to the free, weekly Energy Changemakers Newsletter. Or if you’d like more of our news and analysis, join our community, starting at only $59.99/year.
The initiative is not limited to microgrids, but will also provide other technologies, such as electric vehicle charging, energy efficiency, and billing management. The group will consider projects for the private sector and intends to continue its work beyond the tax credit expiration dates.
‘There’s going to continue to be weather events, there’s going to continue to be a strain on the grid. There’s going to continue to be rising energy costs,” Gerber said in an interview.
While it’s a national effort, the alliance expects the most likely candidates to come from six states commonly considered key locations for local energy due to their need for resilience, high energy prices, or favorable policies. These are California, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Texas.
The alliance is targeting decision-makers, planners, and managers in municipalities, schools, universities, airports, seaports, and water treatment facilities, and will offer no- or low-downpayment contracts, such as energy-as-a-service and performance arrangements.
The 21-member group is still accepting new partners. In addition to Schneider, those who have signed on so far include: Microsoft, AlphaStruxure, AZZO, Celsius Energy, CDM Smith, EVerged, Mainspring, Pisgah Energy, Sprocket Power, Sunrock Distributed Generation, Sustainability Partners, Unison Energy, Verdant Microgrid, Viridi, Arcadis, Baringa and Viridi Edge; Graybar, Zurich, and the nonprofit Resilient Cities Network.
At the same time that Schneider announced the alliance, Guidehouse released a new report naming Schneider as the top microgrid Integrator globally.
