The federal government stopped funding solar and wind grid upgrades under the newest round of a 10.5 billion dollar program

The government stopped funding solar and wind grid upgrades

The government stopped funding solar and wind grid upgrades under the newest round of a federal program built to strengthen the power grid. The Department of Energy runs the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships program, authorized to spend 10.5 billion dollars over 5 years on grid upgrades for states, tribes and electric utilities. Its third round, called SPARK, opened March 12, 2026, worth close to 1.9 billion dollars. For the first time, the funding notice for this round states that a project connecting to solar or wind power, what the notice calls intermittent generation, is on its own a reason the Department of Energy will not fund it. Rounds 1 and 2 carried no such exclusion.

Projects prioritizing connection to intermittent generation sources inconsistent with the Administration's goals of energy dominance.

The SPARK funding notice, the notice of funding opportunity for round 3, not attributed to a person. Source 3.

The program runs through 3 funding paths that total its full 10.5 billion dollars. Grid Resilience Utility and Industry Grants carry 2.5 billion dollars, Smart Grid Grants carry 3 billion dollars, and the Grid Innovation Program carries 5 billion dollars, the largest of the 3.

How much each funding round made available

Round 1, announced October 18, 2023, made up to 3.46 billion dollars available. Round 2, announced October 18, 2024, made about 4.2 billion dollars available, partly to help the grid handle new demand from data centers, manufacturing and artificial intelligence. Round 3, SPARK, makes close to 1.9 billion dollars available as of March 2026. Round 1 and round 2 are announced amounts, not confirmed final spending, and round 3 has made no awards yet.

What the newest round actually pays for

SPARK splits its money into 3 topic areas, each under its own section of the 2021 infrastructure law. Grid Resilience, under Section 40101c, expects 5 to 10 awards backed by about 427 million dollars. Smart Grid, under Section 40107, expects 25 to 40 awards backed by about 614 million dollars. The Grid Innovation Program, under Section 40103b, expects 3 to 8 awards backed by about 862 million dollars. By law, 30% of Grid Resilience money is reserved for small utilities, those selling no more than 4,000,000 megawatt hours of electricity a year.

Adding those 3 funding figures, 427 million plus 614 million plus 862 million, comes to 1,903 million dollars, confirming the 1.9 billion dollar total stated elsewhere. Adding the 3 award ranges the same way, 5 to 10, 25 to 40, and 3 to 8, gives a department wide total of 33 to 58 new awards, a number the funding notice never states as one figure itself.

What happens next

Concept papers are due April 2, 2026, applications are due May 20, 2026, and the department expected to notify winners in August 2026, the month before this reporting. Awards are expected between October 2026 and January 2027, so no project has yet been accepted or turned down under the new rule. Al Eliasen, president of Spatial Business Systems, writing in Utility Dive, argues that winning an award alone will not finish a project, because a utility that has not already connected its design, procurement and field data systems tends to lose momentum once a federal deadline starts.