Solar panels go to 3 districts of Detroit fighting degradation and climate change

FOX 2 (WJBK) – The city of Detroit has selected three neighborhoods to go solar, helping the environment while fighting blight.

The Samjuan Pettes neighborhood, located in the Gratiot and Findlay neighborhoods, is one of the neighborhoods announced by Mayor Duggan that will receive solar panels.

“I bought it from Land Bank about two years ago, I’ve been working on it,” Pettes said. “The city came and made me an offer.”

Now Pettes has decided to sell his house as part of a voluntary city buyout, and he intends to use the land around it to install solar panels.

“We’re taking some of the most blighted areas of the city and using them for renewable energy,” said Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.

Last year, the city began looking for neighborhoods interested in eliminating blight by installing solar fields. Three neighborhoods emerged from eight finalists.

The other two are in the Van Dyke-Lynch and Star Fair communities.

“I hope the next one will be city council approval, which is never a given in this city,” Duggan said.

Nearly 104 acres of solar panels will be built in three selected areas to help generate clean energy, offsetting the electricity consumption of the city’s public buildings.

City council members present at Monday’s press conference welcomed the decision.

“We will have cleaner air, it will be better for our children and they will be healthier,” said Councilman Coleman Young II.

Residents living near solar panels will also benefit.

“Neighbors are getting $15,000 to $25,000 per house to upgrade their homes with new furnaces, new roofs, new windows,” Duggan said. “Because these neighbors were stuck there for years, watching the plague spread.”

“The windows we buy will save us energy, and the roofing will save us energy,” said Measha Parker.

This is not the city’s first adventure with photovoltaic panels. O’Shea Solar Park features one of the projects developed by DTE in partnership with the City of Detroit. The solar energy generated there goes into the general DTE network.

Officials and residents see this as a win-win solution for all parties involved and hope that other districts will join the initiative.

“Give your neighbor the message that we are cleaning up Detroit, we are now taking steps forward,” said Councilman Fred Durhall III.