Solar and Battery Storage Incentive for Resilience Hubs
Ava will offer incentives to support community resilience hubs installing solar and battery storage systems designed to maintain critical services during power outages.
Incentive funding will be released in phases. Cohort 1 projects (currently receiving TA) will be eligible to apply for an initial allocation of approximately $1 million in incentives in Summer 2026. The Cohort 1 incentive application will close on December 1, 2026. This initial cohort of TA and incentives will help Ava refine program processes and learn from early project implementation.
The next funding cohort is expected in 2027. Sites interested in participating should contact Emerald Cities Collaborative (ECC) by December 1, 2026 after reviewing the incentive process outlined below.
Sites should be ready to complete the Initial Application to participate. If your site needs assistance to develop this information, consider engaging with Ava’s TA service first.
Incentive Amount
- Battery incentive level: $1,220 per kWh of nameplate capacity, capped at 500 kWh (maximum incentive of $610,000)
- Minimum resilience requirement: Battery must be sized to power critical services for at least 8 hours per day across a three-day outage
The steps below outline Ava’s current approach for administering the incentive. Program processes may be refined over time as Ava learns from early project implementation and prepares for broader program availability.
Incentive Process
There are three steps to receiving the incentive:
1. Initial Application
To reserve an incentive, projects will need to submit the following documentation. Templates for each of these assets will be available in Summer 2026.
- Resilience Use Case: Description of the role that the site will serve during a power outage, including:
- Community needs the site is addressing
- Who the site intends to serve during an outage
- The primary resilience services the site plans to provide and how they will be delivered
- Operational Plan: If you participated in resilience readiness support with ECC and TA with NV5, you may already have started on many of these elements. For the incentive application, sites will refine this information into a finalized Operational Plan that reflects their intended outage operations. This includes:
- Services to be offered during an outage (what services, who will be served and how, at what scale, and defined community benefit)
- Basic outage operations (who will operate the site and when it will be open)
- Key facility and energy needs (which areas and equipment must remain operational)
- Communications plan (who can use the site and how services will be communicated during an outage)
- Funding plan and estimated costs for resilience activities
- Technical Viability: A scoped solar and battery storage system sized to support the site’s identified critical services for a minimum duration of 8 hours per day for 3 days compatible with installation location and existing site conditions
- Project Commitment: Signed Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) or developer agreement, including preliminary system specifications and high-level project schedule
Submission of application materials does not guarantee approval. Ava will review each project and may request additional information as needed. Final project approval is at Ava’s discretion. Approved projects will receive a Conditional Incentive Reservation Letter confirming the reserved incentive amount for up to 18 months based on continued progress through project completion.
2. Project Development Milestones
To maintain an incentive reservation, projects must demonstrate continued progress toward installation over the 18-month reservation period. Ava will request documentation at key milestones throughout development, such as:
- Interconnection application
- Permit approval
- Equipment purchase orders
- Construction schedule
3. Project Completion
Incentive payment will occur after system installation and Permission to Operate (PTO) from PG&E. Ava will request the following documentation:
- Permission to Operate (PTO) letter
- As-built drawings
- Final invoices
- Site photos
- Final Operational Plan