Solar generators provide relief for communities still without power

BUNCOMBE COUNTY, N.C. — Nick Boyd taped down a set of solar panels when he walked across the roof of Barnardsville Elementary School.

Inside the busy gym-turned-donations-hub, Justin Huff ensured a battery pack was charging and providing the power the school needed to serve its community.

Both are electricians with Footprint Project, a New Orleans-based nonprofit working to bring renewable energy options to community hubs so they can get clean, reliable power. Currently, the group is working to collect solar and battery donations from installers across the state and deploy electrician teams to install and maintain them for free.

Since it was founded, the Footprint Project has traveled to Puerto Rico, Maui, and California helping with everything from hurricanes to wildfire relief. Huff said he got involved after a series of tornadoes ripped through his community in the Nashville area in 2020.

“They helped me get solar off of damaged buildings and then I helped them use whatever resources we had to fulfill their power needs,” he said.

Huff said he’s been volunteering at the organization whenever he could ever since, though Hurricane Helene has been one of Footprint’s longest and biggest deployments.

“It’s proving to be a really tricky bear out here,” Huff said. “Especially, because of the need for Starlink.”

Most communities that remain without power are in the hardest hit and most difficult-to-reach areas. Getting 24/7 power to Starlink’s satellite internet has been an essential part of ensuring those areas can communicate with emergency response teams and request what they need.

One of Footprint’s biggest installations is currently at an emergency operations hub in Pensacola, North Carolina. Officials in the small Yancey County community said it could take up to two months before power is restored because so much of the infrastructure has been destroyed.

When Channel 9′s crew traveled there with a Footprint team, many roads were still washed out and some were replaced with temporary routes through fields or infill which were unable to accommodate large trucks. On the way out, construction teams closed the road for half an hour for a temporary rebuild.

Lewis Ledford, who lives in the area, said his wife and daughter left shortly after the storm to live with in-laws in Georgia so their teenager could finish high school on time. He stayed behind to help work on generators.

“Been doing it since pretty much day two,” he said. “Pretty much since I was able to get out of the house and the water went down.”

In the weeks since, he’s repaired dozens, trying to get the resources out to as many folks who need them as possible. He said the problem is that the portable generators aren’t meant to run 24/7.

“They break down over time,” he said. “People want to run them continuously.”

Besides the cost of fuel and the need for frequent maintenance, the generators are also loud. Volunteers and officials at the Pensacola hub were frequently shouting over the constant hum. Footprint’s solar and battery installations are meant to offer relief.

The Pensacola hub has two arrays, several battery packs and a power trailer which work to supplement, or in some cases, replace the power load those generators were serving.

“Now we’re not yelling at each other,” Huff said as one of the last generators switched off.

Huff understands the need for fossil-fuel-powered generators for a quick response, but his and Footprint’s philosophy is to show that renewable options can work just as well, if not better, once you have the resources to get them up and running.

He said some of the fire stations and other community hubs have expressed interest in keeping the solar to supplement their power load and have a built-in back up should disaster strike again.

“That’s the ultimate goal,” he said. “To build back greener.”

Until full power is restored, the power loads for both the generators and the solar/battery systems remain limited. While its plenty of power to operate Starlink, communications tech, and sometimes shower and cooking trailers, staff are concerned as the temperatures plummet, the need for space heaters will overwhelm the small systems.

Footprint plans to stay on site as long as emergency power is needed.

©2024 Cox Media Group