The Biden administration is making a historic investment in the core infrastructure of the energy transition — the country’s power grid.
On Wednesday, the Department of Energy announced $3.5 billion in grants to expand capacity for wind and solar power, harden power lines against extreme weather, integrate batteries and electric vehicles, and build out microgrids that can keep the lights on during power outages.
The announcement named 58 projects across 44 states eligible to receive federal funding. When matched by funds from state and local governments and utility and industry partners, they will represent more than $8 billion in investment…
The selected projects also prioritize communities that are “ignored or overlooked for far too often, including rural, native and low-income communities,” according to Mitch Landrieu, the Biden administration’s senior advisor and infrastructure coordinator and former mayor of New Orleans. The Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships funding is subject to the Biden administration’s Justice40 Initiative, which pledges to direct 40 percent of federal climate-related funds to historically disadvantaged communities.
