Clean Energy Project:
Access MI Solar
We are excited to announce that the Access MI Solar program is now available in both the Petoskey and Traverse City areas! Homeowners and businesses within a
40-mile radius of either city are eligible to participate, meaning a generous swath of northwest Lower Michigan from the Mackinac Bridge to Manistee!
Learn more about the Access MI Solar Program by watching the webinar recording!
2025 sign-up is now open thru May 31, 2025! Have an estimate prepared for your home or business. REGISTER HERE.
Groundwork is committed to increasing access to affordable solar energy in Northern Michigan. Through our group-buy program, Access MI Solar, we plan to increase local solar capacity, advance clean energy education, and work with community leaders to make this program a pillar of our region.
We remain committed to supporting local solutions to the climate crisis, increasing our region's energy security and resilience, and helping homeowners and small businesses to afford solar panels. Plus, going solar saves many customers significantly on their electric bill over time! Together, we are empowering people to develop local, clean energy, and climate solutions!
The process is simple: The chosen installer will offer a higher discount as more customers join the group-buy effort, with a maximum possible discount of 10% on the hardware costs of the solar installation.
Signing up in no way obligates you to sign a contract with the installer. That will be your decision to make later when/if you are ready.
Solar panels have made remarkable strides in both efficiency and affordability in recent years. While there’s some uncertainty around IRA funding for solar projects, one thing is crystal clear: the destructive toll of fossil fuels on our planet is undeniable, and its consequences will echo through generations to come. The time to act is now. The longer we wait, the greater the cost—both to our environment and to future generations.
GET INVOLVED!
Resources
inspiration!
Clean Energy Stories
“Thank you so much for helping raise all of the funds for our solar project at Westwoods! Thanks to you, we reached our goal so much more quickly than I'd expected. So now I can move on to other things including other solar projects...”
— Nicola Philpott, President, Parent Teacher Organization, Westwoods Elementary School, Traverse City Area Public Schools
WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW?
Access MI Solar News
Lessons to be Gleaned from Expert ‘Alternative Report’ to Line 5
With the June 30 release of an “Alternatives Analysis” commissioned by the State of Michigan, momentum is growing to decommission the Line 5 oil pipelines under the Straits of Mackinac. The conclusions of this analysis, and its popular and political impact in the weeks ahead, represent another crucial step in the march to shut down this catastophe-waiting-to-happen in the heart of the Great Lakes.
Environmental Groups Sound Alarm on Cuts to Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
Environmental Law & Policy Center and Groundwork urge pushback against Trump administration’s war on the Great Lakes and effort to de-fund Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
Schuette Should Turn Tough Talk on Line 5 Into Real Action
Attorney General Bill Schuette was quoted again this week with his strongest language yet about decommissioning Line 5 under the Straits of Mackinac. Disagreeing with an assertion that the pipeline could last “indefinitely”, Schuette called for a “comprehensive plan … to drive the timeline for the (pipeline’s) closure”. Yet in the same statement he suggested the pipeline could be replaced with a tunnel under the Straits, a risky and expensive alternative that ignores the long-term solution of getting oil to Michigan from other existing pipelines and, ultimately, reducing our demand for oil and transitioning our economy to run on cleaner fuel sources.