The PGE Renewable Development Fund

Visit portlandgeneral.com/rdf for the application, guidelines and funding timeline.

Projects must be completed and delivering power within 18 months of funding approval. There is a preference for projects that can be completed ahead of this deadline. For 2025, projects will likely need to be completed by end of June 2027.

Please talk to the grant manager in this situation prior to applying.

Eligible projects can be up to 10MW and must be non-residential.

Yes. PGE expects all projects to be fully operational for at least 10 years. This is the common warranty for inverters, and it seems reasonable to expect the project to generate electricity for that lifetime.

The grant award may opt to fund a portion of the funding request.

The full applications are not available, but you can find a list of awardees and their project descriptions on the PGE Green Future Renewable Development Fund website.

Yes. If you are a previous RDF awardee, your project needs to be completed, and have the final report approved before you can apply again. If you are a previous applicant, we encourage you to look at previous feedback prior to submitting the application.

Applications are reviewed for eligibility and completeness by PGE staff and then sent to a third-party evaluator. The third-party evaluator will conduct phone interviews with applicants to learn more about their project and evaluate each project according to the evaluation criteria. The three evaluation categories are: project design and benefits; feasibility and timeline; and costs and financing.

Once project evaluations are complete, the third-party evaluator will provide summaries and recommendations to the PGE Selection Committee. The selection committee will consider individual project evaluations and will also ensure that the final portfolio of awarded projects represents a diversity of geographies, applicants, project types, communities served, technologies used, etc.

All requests for funding and subsequent finding awards are subject to review and approval by the Oregon Public Utility Commission (OPUC).

Projects will be evaluated and scored by a third party based on the following criteria. Final award determinations will be reviewed and approved by the OPUC.

• Project Design & Benefits

  • Applicant has strong demonstrated commitment to DEI.

  • Clearly identified needs and project designed to address those needs.

  • Project provides community benefit (educational, economic, environmental, social, etc.).

  • Engagement with and impact on environmental justice communities.

  • Advances renewable energy technology in Oregon.

  • Project success, metrics, and evaluation - clearly defined.

• Feasibility & Timeline

  • Project is “shovel ready” with a reasonable timeline, established milestones, and mitigated risks.

  • Project team and roles are clearly defined.

  • Assets identified for the project are appropriate for the project and goals.

• Cost & Financing

  • Project demonstrates financial need for RDF funding.

  • Project includes a reasonable budget, mitigated risks, and maximum value for funds requested.

  • Demonstrated effort to secure additional funds.

  • Organization demonstrates high financial stability and strength.

The PGE Green Future Renewable Development Fund is looking for projects that are “shovel ready.” Ideally, this means that your project is well-developed and ready to begin, with risks considered and mitigated. Your project team is defined and is qualified to do the work.

If vendors are involved, you have either selected your key vendors or have received multiple bids and are in the process of selecting your top choice (this is important for budget completeness, as well).

Yes, it can. An application is generally stronger when it has both organizational and community support. Gathering feedback and input from numerous parties allows a better project to be designed and shows broader support.

Given the wide variety of submitted projects that may vary in capacity, location, and application – it is left to the applicant to assess and put forth its best community education proposal. All projects must include RDF recognition, engagement with community, and a strong plan for community benefit. Projects are strengthened by strong plans for communication, outreach, and education. If your project requests additional funding for education, then you will have the opportunity to describe the plan and include attachments. Since the RDF is 100% funded by Green Future participants, PGE suggests that any recognition should primarily focus on those customers who participate in Green Future.

Please note that all public-facing communication from the applicant needs to be approved by the PGE Communication and Marketing teams prior to its disbursement.

No, the RDF will not help with retrofitting or structural costs. See guidelines for more details.

Award funding is limited and will differ from project to project based on applicant request and available funding. For the 2025 round, there is no more than $1.5 million available for funding. No single applicant or project will be eligible to receive more than 33% of the total RDF balance available in each funding round. For the 2025 round, the funding limit for an individual applicant is $500,000.

Annually, subject to change.

No, projects cannot be completed prior to the RDF application being submitted. The award cannot be applied retroactively to existing projects.

All costs being requested by the RDF must be incurred after the award contracts have been signed. However, in specific situations, there might be cost savings or efficiencies gained by having a project “solar ready” prior to either application or award announcement. We encourage individuals to reach out directly to the grant manager if there are questions.

In the main application, there is a question asking about the educational aspect of the project. This is where you provide context and justification for any proposed educational programming. In the education budget section, there is space to provide the breakdown of line-item costs. You may request up to $7,500.00 for this component. Finally, you can include an education plan as an attachment to clarify the project’s scope.

Funding disbursement is not based on renewable type. Please see the RDF Guidelines document for more details on eligible energy types.

No, only costs above the 1.5% GET requirement are eligible.

Yes.

No, this funding is currently not available to support full-time renewable and/or sustainability program staff. However, short-term contract labor or staffing related to an education and outreach component may be considered. Please speak with the grant manager prior to applying about this situation.

Yes. All RDF applicants are eligible and required (with solar and storage projects) to apply for Energy Trust installation incentives.

For projects owned by for-profit or government organizations, up to 85% of eligible project costs can be covered by all outside funding sources with the remaining 15% funded by the applicant. For projects owned by nonprofit organizations, up to 100% of eligible project costs can be covered by outside funding sources, with no self-funding requirement. A demonstrated effort to secure additional funding sources is the preferred way to strengthen your application. Note, all eligible solar and storage projects require funding from the Energy Trust of Oregon.

Please do! This is encouraged. We think a diversity of funding sources makes an application much stronger and allows our funding to go further. However, projects hosted by governmental entities and for-profit companies still must self-fund 15% of the project costs, regardless of the other types of funding they’ve secured.

It is only a requirement for for-profit and public entities. The PGE Green Future Renewable Development Fund is funded by PGE Green Future participants, so we want to make sure we are returning value to those who are voluntarily paying more for renewables. We also prefer to fund organizations that already have a history of supporting renewable energy, either through our own products or through other programs.

Yes, multifamily projects are eligible for funding from the RDF. We recommend working with PGE’s interconnection team as early and as often as possible.

Community centers are facilities that serve one or more of the following purposes: provide essential services or programs to the community, space for community to gather, or space where individuals may gather during disasters.

Combining battery with solar provides more consistent energy and makes projects more resilient to potential outages, regardless of the weather or time of day.

Start thinking about your usage and essential devices to help determine capacity requirements for your battery component:

• Determine critical load – watts required to power essential devices in an outage

• Determine battery capacity - aim for 20% above the critical load

• Review your energy usage over time (hours, days, weeks, and the entire year)

• Obtain an estimate of how much energy the solar project will generate

• Consider what purpose the battery will serve

Your Energy Trust of Oregon Solar and Storage Trade Ally will be the best source of information in understanding how energy storage and ensuring it is appropriately sized for your project.

Oregon Department of Energy and Energy Trust of Oregon are good resources for learning about additional incentives or funding opportunities for energy storage. For projects located in Portland, the Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF) is also a funding resource. Depending on how you intend to use your energy storage, there may be additional PGE programs that further your sustainability goals and support PGE’s clean energy goals.

PGE does not partner with any specific solar contractor; however, Energy Trust of Oregon maintains a preferred list of installers to assist you in getting started. Prior to purchasing a new solar system, PGE recommends you get at least three bids from qualified contractors. This ensures you have a range of options to choose from and can select the best contractor for their needs and budget.

No, RDF is a competitive annual grant program made possible by Green Future participants. CBRE RFO is a new path to community ownership of a renewable energy project + dispatchable capacity (i.e., battery storage) + community benefits. CBRE RFO projects are not net metered and will sell power to PGE. If you are interested in learning more about the CBRE RFO, please email cbre@pgn.com.

For a combined solar photovoltaic and solar thermal system (PVT), only the photovoltaic portion that can produce electricity would be eligible for an RDF grant.

Please demonstrate commitment to the project, how the project will be completed on or ahead of schedule, on or within budget, and in adherence with the approved scope. Please also demonstrate community feedback ahead of time and clearly illustrate strong community benefits, particularly to environmental justice communities.

No. Receiving applicants early is always appreciated to help manage workflow but not necessary. We recommend creating an account early to view the application and submitting the application early to ensure there are no technical issues.

There are two common “pitfalls” we encourage applicants to avoid.

Applicants are asked to fully finalize their project budget and timeline. This is critical to the selection committee to ensure a project is completed on time and on budget.

We also strongly encourage applicants to tell their story and make sure the project, as proposed, supports the ongoing mission of the organization. “What is the why” is a common phrase you’ll hear as we go through applications. Our selection committee can only evaluate what is provided in the application so while the technical aspects should be accurate and verifiable, understanding the context is also important. If we apply and do not receive the grant, do you provide feedback on areas of improvement on the application? Can we apply again?

Any applicants that do not receive funding are sent a feedback form that highlights areas of potential improvements. We keep this document at a high level so as not to overly influence the scope of a project, but we do want to make sure applicants can improve and apply again. There is no limit to how many times an organization or a project can apply.

Strongly encouraged! Local materials, local companies, and local labor are all things we look for in successful applications. Cost and timeline should still be balanced against locality to ensure the project represents best value for the community it will impact.

PGE is committed to further transportation electrification throughout our service area. We have had successful projects in the past that have combined renewable generation with EV charging stations to increase the impact of their award and sustainability efforts. We encourage other applicants to adopt this method and prefer to see projects with additional energy aspects (energy efficiency, storage, EV charging, other on-site generation).

We have had multiple ground-mount systems that are successful and encourage further development in this area, but it depends on the specifics of the organization. A ground-mount is certainly more visible, could have greater access to solar resources, and are generally more efficient, but it also requires infrastructure to be built and can generally have a higher price. Roof-mounted solar can tie into existing physical and electrical systems but can be limited in terms of resources and street visibility. A good case can be made for either and there is no preference amongst the Selection Committee.

All applicants will receive up to 100% of total approved project costs upon successful project completion and final report approval.

We will explain all the reporting requirements and processes during a webinar for grant awardees. The reporting requirements include a quarterly and final report.

The grant manager will host weekly office hours throughout the application window on Microsoft Teams to answer any additional questions. Please contact RenewableDevFund@pgn.com to learn more about office hours.