NOLA.com: ‘This is an inspiration’: Plans for solar-powered hubs throughout Louisiana take big step forward

A sprawling church in LaPlace that provided refuge for residents flooded out of their homes during Hurricane Ida was the site of a more joyous occasion on Thursday, inaugurating a project that could prove to be a national example for electricity resilience.

The event at New Wine Christian Fellowship, attended by U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, was part of ambitious plans to equip community centers throughout Louisiana with solar power for use during storms and beyond.

It is the largest site to date to be completed under the so-called Community Lighthouse project, which began as a grassroots movement only about a year and a half ago in response to deaths that occurred during Ida as a result of power outages.

Granholm and others lauded the initiative, which aims to provide enough solar-equipped locations to be within a 15-minute walk for any city resident, or a 15-minute drive in rural areas. Six locations have already been completed in New Orleans, and New Wine is the first outside of the city.

A $249 million federal grant recently awarded to the state for electricity resilience and innovation, which requires an equal amount of matching funds, will help boost the project.

“This is an inspiration, because you've got a community that has banded together to solve what really is the biggest problem we're facing, which is these continued extreme weather events,” Granholm said after a brief tour of the church complex on Airline Highway, near neighborhoods inundated by floodwaters in the 2021 storm.

“This will be used – clearly -- because the last few years of these weather events are just the tip of the iceberg, unless we get our act together and reduce our carbon pollution.”

The non-denominational church’s pastor, Neil Bernard, said the solar panels across the roofs of New Wine’s buildings, coupled with batteries, will ensure it can continue to provide aid during disasters. He pointed to a recent analysis showing St. John the Baptist Parish, where LaPlace is located, as the U.S. county most vulnerable to climate risks.

“During the disaster, we literally served 37,000 hot meals when people had nowhere to cook,” he said. “In addition to that, we were able to give water and food. We gave 1.8 million pounds of food, water and disaster goods during that time.”

Bernard said beyond disaster aid, the church founded in 1995 is expected to be able to reduce its electricity bill by about 65% since the new system will work during normal times as well. The cost for the project was around $1 million, with all sites paid for so far through a combination of governmental and philanthropic funding.

The event featured a wide range of speakers, from Entergy CEO Phillip May to representatives of the Together Louisiana coalition, which is behind the lighthouse project. Together’s Cynthia Coleman spoke of three relatives living in Harvey after Ida who managed to buy a generator, but died from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Together Louisiana says its analysis shows 30 of 36 deaths in Ida’s aftermath in Louisiana were related to power outages.

For the project to fulfill its goals, it would have to equip 86 sites in New Orleans. In other parts of the state, there are plans for 20 sites in Caddo Parish and an initial six in Baton Rouge, at various stages of advancement.

The sites in general allow residents to access power and cool air during times of emergency, though larger sites such as New Wine would go beyond that in their role in supplying aid.

While highlighting the promise the lighthouse idea holds as well as tax credits available for similar projects, Granholm said utilities must also step up and work to harden their infrastructure to provide reliable, affordable service. She noted the importance of industrial sites also reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, which cause climate change.

Storms are expected to intensify as a result of climate change, which also fuels the sea level rise threatening Louisiana’s coast. Later in the day, Granholm toured nearby areas and heard residents' longstanding concerns about industrial pollution and environmental justice.

“Those who are creating this problem by emitting carbon pollution, they have a significant role to play in reducing their emissions or eliminating their emissions, electrifying, et cetera,” Granholm said. “The energy companies, the utilities, have a huge role to play in making sure that we've got a grid that can withstand these energy events and can connect renewable energy from where it's produced to where it is used.”

She added that the “transmission component of that is a huge responsibility that many are stepping up to, and many in industry are stepping up to, but none of us are doing enough to be able to get where we need to be.”