Solar and Battery Storage to Support Community Preparedness and Disaster Response

An increase in severe weather events, combined with aging energy infrastructure, is resulting in more frequent and longer duration power outages. Low-income communities, communities of color, and medically vulnerable populations are especially vulnerable. Solar paired with battery storage (solar+storage) can provide emergency backup power support to the community service providers and first responders serving these communities. This webinar will focus on innovative applications of solar+storage to assist vulnerable communities in the event of an outage and emergency event. Footprint Project, a non-profit organization that deploys solar+storage to communities in crisis, will speak to their experience deploying mobile solar+storage systems to support critical facilities and first responders during, and after, an emergency event. Together New Orleans, a broad-based coalition of congregations and community-based organizations in the greater New Orleans area, will overview the Community Lighthouse initiative, a resilience effort to equip a network of congregations and community institutions across New Orleans with commercial-scale solar power and back-up battery capacity. Panelists:

• Marriele Mango, Project Director, Clean Energy Group (Moderator)
• Broderick Bagert, Lead Organizer, Together New Orleans and Together Louisiana
• Jamie Swezey, Program Director, Footprint Project