Solar for Good’s Most Critical Year
Picture a school that stops sending thousands of dollars a year to the utility and instead sends it to its classrooms. Picture a food pantry that keeps the lights on for less and puts the savings back into feeding families. That is what solar does for a nonprofit or a school, and right now we have a short window to make it happen for as many of them as we can.
The next two rounds of Solar for Good, this fall and next spring, are the most important we have ever run. Here’s why.
The Deadline, and Why It’s Here
In 2025, a new federal law called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act changed the rules for solar.
For years, the federal government has helped tax-exempt groups like schools, churches, libraries, and nonprofits pay for solar. Because these groups do not owe federal taxes, they receive this help as a direct cash payment, called direct pay. It is worth up to 30 percent of the cost of the solar project. That payment has made solar possible for many groups that could never have afforded it on their own.
That help still exists. But the new law added a hard deadline, and the key date was July 4, 2026.
Now that the date has passed, any project that starts now has to be built and connected to the utility by the end of 2027 to receive the direct pay payment. Miss that date, and the project loses up to 30 percent of its potential federal funding.
Solar will not become impossible after that. But for many schools and nonprofits, the return on investment will take longer, and a project that pencils out easily today may be much harder to justify without that federal payment. That is why this year is so critical. For any school or nonprofit that has been on the fence, or that has always wanted to go solar someday, this is the year to make a move.
Why Fall 2026 and Spring 2027 Are the Window
Solar projects take time, and for many of these groups, the process is even longer than people expect. Before a nonprofit or school can even start taking bids, it often has to get the project approved by more than one board or governing body. Then it has to raise the money, run the bidding process, select a contractor, secure utility approval, build the project, and connect it to the grid. All of that has to happen before the end of 2027.
Because these projects take so much time to complete, the groups we fund this fall and next spring are the last ones who can realistically start early enough to finish before the deadline. For every school and nonprofit in our communities, this is their last clear shot at that federal payment. Our job at RENEW Wisconsin is to help as many of them through that door as we can before it shuts.
What Solar Actually Means for These Groups
This is not about panels on a roof. It is about what the savings make possible.
For a school, solar means less money going to the power company every month and more money going back into the classroom, back into teachers, back into the students. For a nonprofit, it means more money going back into the mission they care about, whether that is feeding families, sheltering neighbors, or serving their community.
The savings last for decades. A solar array pays a school or nonprofit back year after year, and every one of those dollars stays right here in Wisconsin doing good.
Solar for Good is a RENEW Wisconsin program that gives grants to nonprofits and schools across the state to help them afford solar. Every dollar we raise goes toward helping more of them build their projects.
Here’s the Ask
The more we raise this year, the more schools and nonprofits we can fund. And the more we fund now, the more of them can get built and connected before the end of 2027, while the federal payment is still on the table.
Here is what makes Solar for Good special. Every dollar we raise goes toward building a project, and these funds are not a one-time gift. Every year the solar array is up and running, it saves that school or nonprofit money on their energy bills, money that goes right back into classrooms, staff, and community programs. Those savings add up year after year, far beyond the original grant amount. It is truly a gift that keeps on giving.
If you were ever going to give to Solar for Good, this is the year it matters most.
RENEW accepts all kinds of gifts. Along with cash, checks, and credit card donations, we can also accept gifts of stock and qualified distributions from retirement accounts like Roth IRAs. If you have questions about any of these, reach out to us. We are always happy to work with you to find the right way to give, so we can get as many great solar projects approved and built during these next two critical rounds.
This is a short window, and the clock is ticking. Let’s make the most of it together.
