Ann Arbor celebrates the installation of new solar panels during A2Zero Week.

About 35 people gathered at the Ann Arbor Senior Center on Monday afternoon for a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating new solar panel installations around Ann Arbor that will provide more than 500 kilowatts of solar energy. The ceremony was part of Ann Arbor’s fourth annual A2Zero Week, which celebrated the city’s plan to transition the community to carbon neutrality.

A2Zero is a city-wide plan, adopted unanimously in 2020, to become fully carbon neutral by 2030. This goal includes transitioning the electricity grid to 100% renewable energy, switching to electric vehicles and appliances, reducing the number of kilometers traveled by vehicles by 50% or more.

Simi Barr, energy analyst for the city of Ann Arbor, spoke at the event and said the financial and environmental impacts of one of the ten solar panels installed since 2023 are promising.

“Since the solar installation went online just a few weeks ago, over 95% of the electricity used at (Ann Arbor Senior Center) comes from clean and renewable energy,” Barr said. “We’re incredibly excited about the sustainability benefits of this, but also about the operational cost savings that these installations unlock, so that more money can go towards operational expenses and other energy efficiency projects, which really just might add up to more and greater benefits. We anticipate that these plaques will save the city tens of thousands of dollars, and we are excited to see and honor this part of the coalition in the years to come.”

Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor (D-St.) thanked U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, who attended the event, and stated that her support for Ann Arbor to receive more money than previously allocated from the Biden-American Rescue Plan Harris, helped make the installation possible.

“In terms of funding for this particular (solar) panel and multiple panels across the city, as Representative Dingell indicated, it is thanks to the Biden-Harris American Rescue Plan, without which none of this would be possible,” Taylor said. “The city of Ann Arbor made (previously) $11 million… Ms. Dingell stepped in and has done this time and time again for our community. A few weeks later, $26.5 million appears on the spreadsheet.

In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Rackham student Claire Briglio compared different carbon neutrality solutions and mentioned the importance of solar panels in the long term.

“I think (solar energy) is one of the easier renewable energy concepts to understand and understand,” Briglio said. “I think things like geothermal are not as easy to understand in terms of different ways to make things more renewable. And when it comes to transportation and electric vehicles, I think those are also very important because I think it’s hard for people to get their heads around them right now because of the high upfront costs. But when you get people to understand it in the long run, you get a bigger reward.”

In an interview with The Daily, Taylor said the city of Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan often collaborate on sustainability issues.

“We continue to work with the University of Michigan to determine how we can achieve our shared goals, and achieving carbon neutrality is indeed one of our shared goals,” Taylor said. “We are moving forward together. We always talk to each other because we both know it’s extremely important.”

Barr said students can get involved in carbon neutrality efforts in Ann Arbor through a number of opportunities, including A2Zero initiatives

“We host a lot of community events where we interact with the community and get public input that students can get involved in,” Barr said. “Another way is our A2Zero Ambassadors program, where we engage with community members interested in sustainability and the A2Zero plan, and they go through a multi-week meeting in our office where they learn about the A2Zero plan and then get to work on a neighborhood project , to actually implement something that will get us closer to carbon neutrality.”

Daily Summer News Editor Edra Timmerman can be reached at: [email protected].

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