MEDIA CONTACT:
Candace Tyler
202-559-2342
ctyler@jubileehousing.org
April 29, 2019 – Jubilee Housing and Pepco, along with New Partners Community Solar Corp and the DC Department of Energy and Environment, will launch the District’s first affordable housing resiliency center powered by solar+battery storage at an event on May 1 at 11:30 am. The event will provide a first look at the battery system — held onsite at the Resiliency Center, Powered by Pepco for the Jubilee Community at the Maycroft Apartments.
The Maycroft will host a 70.2 kilowatt (kw) rooftop solar array, which will be combined with battery storage to power an on-site Resiliency Center capable of powering a community space for three days during power outages – providing refrigeration for medication and perishables, lighting, outlets for charging cell phones and other communication devices, and a television. Pepco, An Exelon Company, made the project possible through a generous grant to fund the battery.
This innovative program addresses, for the first time in DC and with very little precedent nationally, several important cutting-edge issues. Battery storage is an essential component of a comprehensive integration of renewable energy into the country’s provision of electricity. Integrating a battery storage system with solar production leverages the value of on-site renewable energy in times of energy outages. And most importantly, the system as a whole is DC’s first-of-its kind effort to channel the benefits of solar+storage to low-income housing residents – who most severely feel the impact of energy outages. Developing such “resiliency” solutions is at the forefront of the nation’s affordable housing and renewable energy dialogues, and the Pepco/Jubilee project will provide a model to be followed throughout the country.
The Resiliency Center complements New Partners Community Solar’s efforts to provide “Solar for All,” a project led by DC’s Department of Energy and Environment – which is supporting New Partners’ efforts. One hundred of Jubilee Housing’s most rent-burdened households will be participating in this community solar program, under which they will receive a monthly credit on their electric bill ranging designed to cut their electric burden in half.
New Partners Community Solar, a non-profit solar development company supported by the Nixon Peabody law firm pro bono program, worked hand-in-hand with Jubilee and Pepco to develop this innovative project as part of our mission to promote Environmental Justice. New Partners Community Solar assisted in the design and implementation of the battery system.
“Jubilee Housing is ecstatic to host the city’s first Resiliency Center in an Affordable Housing property, said Jim Knight, president and executive director, Jubilee Housing. “Resiliency is especially important for vulnerable communities that already experience great uncertainty in the course of their lives.”
Jeff Lesk, co-founder of New Partners Community Solar Corp., added, “This collaboration combines Jubilee’s focus on Justice Housing with New Partners’ mission of Environmental Justice, working to make sure that our most challenged households are not left out of the environmental, economic and social benefits of the new green economy.”
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Jubilee Housing builds diverse, compassionate communities that create opportunities for everyone to thrive.