Resilient Power Project — a pilot program to install solar+storage in low-income communities

Seven community-based nonprofits and affordable housing developers have been selected to receive grants from Clean Energy Group’s Resilient Power Leadership Initiative, as part of the Resilient Power Project, to build their organizational capacity on the benefits of solar and energy storage (solar+storage) technologies.

The Resilient Power Project, a joint initiative of Clean Energy Group and Meridian Institute, works to deploy solar+storage projects in affordable housing and critical community facilities, with the goal of ensuring that the most vulnerable communities have access to the economic, health and resiliency benefits that solar+storage can provide.

“Incorporating a resilient strategy is a key component of creating healthy, efficient, and affordable housing,” said Julie Klump, Vice President of Design and Building Performance at POAH. “The grant will help us focus on the incorporation of resilient strategies at one or more current projects and across our portfolio.”

For this pilot program, Resilient Power Leadership Grants have been made to the following organizations working in the areas of affordable community housing, environmental justice, energy equity, and sustainability:

• California Environmental Justice Alliance, Oakland and Huntington Park, CA
• The Greenlining Institute, Oakland, CA
• LINC Housing Corporation, Long Beach, CA
• Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH), Boston, MA
• Sustāinable Molokai, Kaunakakai, HI
• THE POINT Community Development Corporation, Bronx, NY
• WE ACT for Environmental Justice, New York, NY

The work of these organizations and how they will use their awards can be found here.

“Low-income communities often experience disproportionately negative impacts from dirty power generation such as diesel generators during power outages,” said Dana Bourland, Vice President of JPB’s Environment Program. “By increasing clean energy generation, through solar+storage, these populations are not only protected from power outages, but they will also experience a reduction in harmful emissions.”

“There are hundreds of resilient solar+storage projects now in development or deployed in the U.S., as more companies and consumers are becoming aware of the benefits that solar+storage systems can offer,” said Seth Mullendore, Project Director at Clean Energy Group. “Unfortunately, very few community-based organizations have the internal capacity to move solar+storage projects forward or to advocate for policies that could lead to greater resilient power deployment in their communities. This is particularly true for nonprofits that serve low-income communities, which are most in need of cost savings and resiliency benefits from solar+storage, but often have limited resources available to access new technology solutions.”

— Solar Builder magazine

[source: http://solarbuildermag.com/news/resilient-power-project-a-pilot-program-to-install-solarstorage-in-low-income-communities/]