Ben Mayer co-founded Sunbug Solar in Massachusetts 15 years ago to pursue his passion for renewable energy. Since then, he has watched the solar industry and his business grow considerably. He now works for ReVision Energy, which acquired Sunbug Solar in November of 2023.

In April 2023, under the Biden-Harris administration’s purview, the Environmental Protection Agency granted 60 different organizations funds through the Solar for All Grant Competition, a program that was created through the Inflation Reduction Act by the Biden-Harris administration. The Solar for All program invested 7 billion dollars in grant funding to various states, non-profits, Indigenous nations, and municipalities, to create strong solar programs intended to help low-income and disadvantaged communities gain access to the benefits of residential solar power.

ReVision Energy has a division devoted to helping nonprofits and low-income families access solar energy. Their program has helped many communities across New England.

In 2020, they worked with the Keene Housing Harper Acres Solar Project in Keene, New Hampshire and helped them gain access to solar power through a solar Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), which eliminates upfront costs that are normally required for a solar project.

Everything was running smoothly for these solar assistance programs until the summer of 2025, when the Trump administration was able to pass the “One Big Beautiful Bill” into law on July 4th, 2025.

The bill majorly changed the Inflation Reduction Act, specifically the Clean Electricity Production Tax Credit and the Clean Electricity Investment Tax credit. Critic of the bill say the changes to the Inflation Reduction Act were designed to eventually stop the federal incentives for solar and wind projects entirely.

On August 7th, 2025, the Solar for All program was abruptly shut down, stopping the support of various solar programs that they were funding. I spoke with Ben Mayer about the shutdown, to learn how it had affected the work at ReVision Energy. “We had to lay off good, high quality, smart people who were trying to build solar on low-income projects, and all of a sudden, the money to do it was just gone one day,” Mayer said.

The withdrawal of the Solar for All funding was not only a setback for solar subsidy programs, it was also a setback for the United States’ efforts to achieve its clean energy goals. The goal, set by the Biden-Harris administration, was for the country to create over 80 percent of our energy with clean energy by 2030. The programs in the Inflation Reduction Act that were critical for achieving this goal were changed dramatically by the Trump Administration with the enactment of the “One Big Beautiful Bill”.

However, states like Massachusetts are strengthening their state solar programs and investing in their own clean energy goals. Massachusetts remains on target for achieving net zero emissions by 2050. Businesses and residents in Massachusetts can get help from the Massachusetts state government to afford solar power through the Massachusetts solar incentive program, Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target, (SMART).

The SMART program incentivizes Massachusetts residents to get solar power by providing them with a flat incentive rate in addition to many more financial incentives for low-income households to move to solar/clean energy sources. The program has been running since 2018 and was most recently updated in September of 2025. In addition to reducing Massachusetts electricity costs by an expected 300 million dollars, the program will create a mitigation fund that will be supported by the revenue from additional Massachusetts solar installations, another state investment in conservation efforts.

While the “One Big Beautiful Bill” changed the Inflation Reduction Act in ways that seem aimed to do harm to clean energy initiatives around the United States, at the end of the day, as Mayer said, “Solar at large, is inevitable.” He added, “There is nothing that Trump can do to stop what will eventually be a significant part of our energy mix.”