Sen. Bernie Sanders announced this morning that the U.S. Department of Energy awarded two Vermont groups a total of $2.4 million to help Vermont reach its ambitious goal of meeting 90 percent of its energy needs with renewable sources by 2050. The funds, awarded to the Vermont Energy Investment Corp. in Burlington and the Institute for Sustainable Communities in Montpelier, are part of more than $14 million in Energy Department funding for 15 new projects across the U.S. designed to help communities develop multi-year solar deployment plans to install solar electricity in homes, businesses, and communities. “The grants announced today will help remove barriers that sometimes stand in the way of installing solar panels on businesses and homes and will make sure solar power is affordable for low-income people,” said Sanders, who serves on the Senate energy and environment committees. “We need to take bold action to move us away from dependence on fossil fuels and toward a sustainable energy future,”

Read about the DOE “Solar Market Pathways” grants