GNOF Announces $1 Million Grant to Community Lighthouse Project
Today, the Greater New Orleans Foundation (Foundation) announced a $1 million grant to The Community Lighthouse Project, an initiative of Together New Orleans (TNO), as the lead investor and partner in getting the project off the ground. The gift is the Foundation’s largest single grant from its Disaster Response and Restoration fund following Hurricane Ida and will create a community-wide network of nonprofit resilience hubs, each powered by commercial-scale solar systems with back-up battery capacity, that will be able to better provide assistance to surrounding communities during power outages.
“The Greater New Orleans Foundation is thrilled to be the lead investor and partner on this project,” said Andy Kopplin, President and CEO of the Greater New Orleans Foundation. “Our region is all too familiar with disasters and the devastating effect they have on our communities. The Community Lighthouse Project will provide our nonprofit partners with critical resources to better serve their communities when they are needed most. Partnering with Together New Orleans on this initiative was an easy decision.”
The initiative was conceived by Together New Orleans in the fall of 2021 after its leaders realized the need for a sustainable solution following the catastrophic power outages caused by Hurricane Ida. The Community Lighthouse Project envisions an eventual network of 85-100 “hubs” – congregations and nonprofit institutions – located in Southeast Louisiana with the pilot program starting in the Greater New Orleans area. As envisioned, every parish in Southeast Louisiana will have a resilience hub with the goal of eventually ensuring that every resident will eventually live within a 15-minute walk of a lighthouse.
“After Ida, I felt powerless to respond. We all felt powerless, as we have so many times before,” said Dr. J.C. Richardson, Executive Committee Member of Together New Orleans. “This time, though, our community started putting together a plan. Greater New Orleans Foundation and its donors are helping to make that plan a reality, with profound implications for how our community responds to disasters. The Community Lighthouse Project is an idea whose time has come!”
“As we face the consequences of a changing climate, with a greater frequency of natural disasters, the Community Lighthouse Project is a prime example of how we harness solar power to serve our community in the aftermath of disaster,” said Congressman Troy A. Carter, Sr. “I want to thank the Greater New Orleans Foundation, Together New Orleans, and New Wine Christian Fellowship for their commitment to creating a more resilient community for our residents.”
The Community Lighthouse Project has four goals:
Resilience during grid outages
Stronger disaster response capacity
Local investment in renewable energy
Workforce training and jobs
When the power outages occur, Community Lighthouses will be able to:
Conduct needs assessments to determine what nearby residents need.
Provide for those needs by offering
Charging stations/small battery distribution
Food preparation and distribution
Cooling/heating stations
Oxygen exchange/light medical equipment
“As a member of The Community Lighthouse Project team, we couldn’t be more thankful for the Greater New Orleans Foundation’s early and significant support of our solar plus battery storage resiliency projects,” said Pierre Moses, President of 127 Energy. “This is a shining example of how public-private partnerships can empower the resources of local residents, and we’re excited to get construction of community-led microgrid projects underway.”
The initiative will kick off this Summer with a pilot phase that has identified 10 sites for lighthouses, including New Wine Christian Fellowship in LaPlace. Construction will begin on the first of these sites during the second half of 2022 with completion estimated in Spring 2023.
“My heartfelt thanks to the Greater New Orleans Foundation and Together New Orleans for their contributions and commitment to St. John the Baptist Parish,” said St. John the Baptist President Jaclyn Hotard. “We are grateful they have supported our residents in their time of need, and that, through this Community Lighthouse, they are helping us plan and prepare for future disasters. Government can only do so much, and we rely on our nonprofit and faith-based partners to help us fill the gaps.”
The cost of the pilot phase is estimated to be $4.6 million with a total cost of the complete network estimated to be $40 million. The cost to install the panels and batteries at large facilities is just under $1 million; medium facilities about $430,000; and small facilities average around $150,000. The Community Lighthouse Project will be funded through public-private partnerships, philanthropic efforts, and equity funding from tax-credit investors.
“On behalf of myself and St. John the Baptist Parish, we are ecstatic by the partnership with the Greater New Orleans Foundation and Together New Orleans to be a Community Lighthouse for this community,” said Neil Bernard, Founding Pastor of New Wine Christian Fellowship. “We have been honored to be able to serve our community in times of disaster, and this Community Lighthouse will enable us to have better resiliency and be able to better serve our community in the event of a disaster.”