Trump Is Powerless To Stop The Community Solar Movement

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Last Updated on: 22nd March 2025, 10:19 pm

The dictator-adjacent Commander-in-Chief who occupies the Oval Office has eliminated federal funding for cleantech allocated through the Defense Production Act. The sweeping gesture, which took place on March 21, generated the usual juicy headlines for the uniquely attention-seeking 47th President of the United States. However, the reality behind the headlines tells a different story. Take the community solar movement, for example….

Nevertheless, Community Solar Persisted

Friday’s empty DPA gesture joins the long and growing list of high profile executive actions that will be challenged in court, where Trump and his cohorts will likely end up on the losing side in yet another pointless waste of taxpayer resources.

The Defense Production Act is a 1950’s-era law intended to support the domestic manufacture of products vital to the national interest. Former President Biden added solar modules, heat pumps, and other cleantech to the list, under a $500 million carveout authorized by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

Acts, schmacts. With less than 100 days in office under his belt, Trump has already established a habit of disemboweling federal agencies and programs established by Acts of Congress only to be corrected by the judicial branch, which still seems to think itself a co-equal branch of the US government as set forth in the Constitution.

The courts may ultimately force Trump to withdraw the order withdrawing DPA funding. In the meantime, global investors have already stepped in to keep the US solar manufacturing gears in motion, and the community solar movement is getting a generous assist from overseas as well.

More Dollars For Community Solar

Community solar refers to projects that provide local ratepayers with access to solar energy on a voluntary, subscription basis. The idea is to expand the reach of solar-sourced electricity throughout an entire community, to include ratepayers that don’t have the opportunity or the desire to install their own rooftop solar panels.

Back in the early days when solar costs were high, subscribers had to be willing to shell out extra bucks for their clean kilowatts. Now the script has flipped. Community solar subscribers typically save money on their bills, which explains why the movement is so popular — among ratepayers and among global investors, too.

Back in September, for example, the Virginia-based community solar startup Dimension Energy nailed down a $150 million corporate credit facility from Deutsche Bank in support of its community solar pipeline, which totaled more than 2 gigawatts in development at the time.

“This facility will be key to supporting Dimension’s efforts to invest $3 billion over the next five years by financing a significant portion of our near-term development and pre-construction activities,” explained Dimension CFO Ryan Liddel in September.

Credit facilities are a form of revolving credit, enabling a developer to tap funds for similar projects without going through a cumbersome application process from scratch. They are a perfect match for solar developers with multiple projects in various stages of development.

Nothwithstanding Trump’s win in November, Deutsche Bank apparently sees no obstacles ahead for Dimension Energy. On March 18, Dimension announced that Deutsche Bank has doubled down on the credit facility for a total of $300 million.

Nuveen Is A Community Solar Believer, Too

Of course, $300 million is a drop in the bucket for Deutsche Bank, which currently has more than $20 billion in outstanding balances on its books. Still, the post-election doubling of the credit facility indicates that the firm remains confident about the growth potential for community solar in the US, regardless of whatever tripwires Trump thinks he can place in the way.

The doubling of the credit facility is also significant because the original $150 million stake represented Deutsche Bank’s first pre-NTP (Notice to Proceed) community solar investment in the US, indicating that the financial firm anticipates that Dimension Energy can move projects from earlier in the pipeline into the final permitting stage.

In another indication of strong investor confidence, the addition of $150 million more to the credit facility was also partly supported by another global financial powerhouse, the Energy Infrastructure Credit branch of Nuveen.

“Community solar is a key focus for our strategy and we are excited to be joining Deutsche Bank in partnering with Dimension, a truly premier developer, owner and operator in the space,” explained Don Dimitrievich, the Portfolio Manager of EIC, in a press statement.

You don’t say. Nuveen is a new face on the pages of CleanTechnica, but it is a familiar one to the global financial community. The firm, which comes under the umbrella of TIAA, currently registers $34 billion in assets under management in the infrastructure space.

“Nuveen’s Energy Infrastructure Credit (EIC) strategy provides private debt solutions to assist companies transitioning to a low carbon economy, while also ensuring energy security,” Nuveen says of its EIC branch.

“TIAA as an LP [limited partner] of many private funds means close relationships with GPs [general partners] that call EIC first for financings,” EIC further explains.

Trump Is Powerless

With the $300 million credit facility in hand, Dimension intends to spend the year moving forward on its active portfolio of community solar projects covering 13 different states. The company anticipates 800 megawatts in the pre-construction pipeline will be operational before the end of 2025.

Dimension also notes that saving money for ratepayers is just one benefit of community solar. “As the U.S. power grid experiences the largest demand growth since World War II, distributed generation, which has a shorter development timeline and is closer to energy load, is an increasingly important part of the energy mix needed to provide reliable, affordable options to ratepayers,” Dimension explains, mirroring Nuveen’s emphasis on energy security.

“Community solar doesn’t require new transmission and can be built 4x faster than utility-scale solar,” agrees Perch Energy, another up-and-comer in the community solar field.

Like Dimension, Perch was not put off track when the American electorate decided to put a “drill, baby, drill” cheerleader in the White House. On March 11, the company announced a new standalone venture in collaboration with the leading global firm Arcadia, aimed at creating “the largest pure-play community solar acquisition and management servicing platform in the US.”

“The new company will operate as a dedicated venture focused on scaling community solar adoption with strong financial backing and a board composed of Arcadia and Perch investors,” Perch explains, adding that the new entity “is well-capitalized for organic growth.”

The venture is starting with a bang, with more than 1,000 projects in 16 states totaling more than 3 gigwatts in capacity. Perch and Arcadia note that they have saved an estimated $90 million for their customers overall. Trump or no Trump, there will be plenty more where that came from.

Photo (cropped): Global investors keep showering love on the US community solar movement, regardless of a sudden shift in federal energy policy under President Trump (courtesy of Dimension Energy).