Solar Energy and Affordable Housing

First, welcome to the In A Perfect World… blog for Center City Housing Corp. Ideas, opinions, stories, and most of all, community. As an organization, internally and externally, the communities we share and support are important. Just a quick note to all of our partners from the development, service providers, operational services, etc…thank you! Humble opinion, nothing in life is done alone, and partnerships with great people who care deeply about the communities they serve are absolutely essential.

Today, while I’m typing this, many people are trying to find ways to utilize solar energy to help decrease the costs for affordable housing property companies and, most importantly, the tenants. In our experience, outside of emergency fixes due to natural disasters or system failure…is utility costs, specifically electricity. Low-income households pay a disproportionately higher share of income toward energy-related expenses based on 2020 generation and use rates from the Dept of Energy. And that has only gone up since 2020…almost 4 years ago now. Stabilizing utility bills through solar and other measures makes it easier to maintain housing for tenants, period. And with the cost savings to operating budgets and services, property owners can avoid raising rents.

Here are two things we are doing currently to find out more…

1.       We are partnering with local utility providers to complete their energy audits and Direct Install programs…changing out light bulbs for LEDs, replacing showerheads, replacing end-of-life hot water heaters, and refrigerators, and making sure that winterization kits are in every unit. We haven’t had a chance to look at every building yet, but we are working on it.

2.       Working with local renewable energy contractors and nonprofits to figure out how we “do” solar. For example, with hills and snowy (i.e., Duluth) sometimes it’s better to build on-ground solar gardens…and with places that have plenty of unobstructed 360 degrees, building tops are better. So we are trying to engineer a way to get the most out of each location…and find funders that will be in this for the long haul.

All the best to you, reader…we’ll see you next time on CCHC’s IAPW Blog…we love our acronyms! TTFN!

JP