This text is a part of the March 2023 version of our publication The Sol SOURCE. Click on right here to learn the complete publication.
In 2020, we introduced our first energy buy and neighborhood funding settlement. The settlement was a milestone in our “Infrastructure + Affect” mission, representing a groundbreaking technique to leverage clear energy era to spend money on under-resourced communities and communities disproportionately harmed by local weather change. Below that settlement, Sol Techniques is charged to craft community-focused clear power options and assist native workforce growth by partnering with native organizations which might be working to handle challenges of their communities.
Right this moment, our initiative has grown from 5 organizations based mostly in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. to 10 organizations serving quite a lot of rural and concrete communities. Like their predecessors in this system, our latest companions are centered on renewable power, environmental justice, and job creation and coaching. These partnerships additionally carry new assist to our “Pathway to Solarization” goal, which acknowledges the significance of dwelling repairs and power effectivity upgrades to increasing entry to photo voltaic, in addition to educating and rising the clear power workforce. Under are a number of of the organizations that we’ve labored with carefully during the last yr and can proceed to work with within the yr to come back.
Based mostly in Boone, North Carolina, Appalachian Voices envisions an Appalachia with wholesome ecosystems and resilient native economies that enable communities to thrive. They work to extend power effectivity and finish dangerous fossil-fuel practices (equivalent to mountaintop-removal coal mining), and try to shift to scrub power sources, together with photo voltaic and wind energy. Sol Techniques’ partnership will set up a photo voltaic readiness fund. This fund will broaden the work of Appalachian Voices’ established photo voltaic finance fund, which gives catalytic assist to unlock photo voltaic investments in coal communities. Particularly, the photo voltaic readiness fund targets services whose key barrier to photo voltaic is poor roof circumstances.
Based mostly in Christiansburg, Virginia, Neighborhood Housing Companions was based to carry out dwelling repairs for low-income households dwelling in unsafe or unhealthy circumstances. Because the complexity of dwelling repairs grew, the group integrated, obtained a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) designation and have become Virginia’s first supplier of federal Weatherization Help Program companies. Sol Techniques’ partnership will assist power effectivity and security upgrades, bettering residents’ high quality of life and lowering the power burden in a low-income residence neighborhood in Pembroke, Virginia.
Based mostly in Washington, D.C., Rebuilding Collectively DC Alexandria is a part of a nationwide community of associates working to protect reasonably priced homeownership, revitalize neighborhoods, and supply essential home-repair companies that get rid of well being and security hazards freed from cost to these in want. Sol Techniques’ partnership shall be used to make energy-efficient upgrades to 2 services: an reasonably priced housing facility for homeless veterans and a housing unit for low-income households owned by So Others May Eat (SOME). SOME is a Washington, D.C. group and current accomplice of Sol Techniques working to assist break the cycle of poverty and homelessness within the metropolis. SOME is the present beneficiary of a 915 kW neighborhood photo voltaic set up lately accomplished for FedEx at a facility in Washington, D.C. FedEx is allotting a part of the electrical energy invoice credit generated by the photo voltaic set up to offset the yearly electrical energy prices of two SOME services.
Based mostly in Baltimore, Maryland, Local weather Entry Fund is a inexperienced financial institution whose mission is to scale back the power burden and carbon footprint of Maryland’s low- and moderate-income (LMI) households by facilitating entry to scrub neighborhood photo voltaic tasks. Sol Techniques’ partnership will assist the financing and implementation of a neighborhood photo voltaic venture on the Henderson Hopkins Faculty in East Baltimore, which is able to reserve 100% of the solar energy generated for LMI households locally. Different neighborhood advantages will embrace photo voltaic workforce coaching and an after-school membership for center faculty college students.
Based mostly in Petersburg, Virginia, Virginia Environmental Justice Collaborative was created when 4 organizations (the Southeast CARE Coalition, Appalachian Voices, the Federal Coverage Workplace of WE ACT for Environmental Justice, and New Virginia Majority) noticed the necessity for statewide coordination to assist Virginia organizations addressing environmental justice points. Sol Techniques’ partnership will assist the group’s efforts to ascertain a solar-plus-storage resilience hub and launch workforce growth initiatives in Petersburg, a traditionally under-resourced neighborhood in Virginia.
Within the yr forward, we are going to proceed to foster relationships with our present neighborhood companions whereas increasing our impression with new ones. Our persevering with partnerships deepen the impression we’ve in D.C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia, whereas our new companions will enable us to broaden our work into new geographical areas, particularly rural Appalachia in Virginia and North Carolina.
