Detroit plans to use solar energy on vacant lots across the city

DETROIT (AP) — Patricia Kobylski remembers a time when lots of people lived in her east Detroit neighborhood. There aren’t that many of them now – and haven’t been for a long time.

“Right now, there are probably only 10 houses on our side of the street. There should be 50, 60,” Kobylski, 78, said Monday after the city announced plans to bring solar panels, or ground-mounted solar panels, to her neighborhood.

Detroit uses something it has plenty of – available land – to produce what the city needs – clean and relatively inexpensive energy.

Pending City Council approval, Kobylski’s Gratiot-Findlay neighborhood will eventually see solar panels on about 23 acres (9.3 hectares) of land. Nearby, another neighborhood on the east side is scheduled to receive panels on nearly 41 acres (16.5 hectares), while a third will receive panels on nearly 40 acres (16.1 hectares).

Five other neighborhoods are finalists to also receive solar panels. Resident groups had to apply to be considered for the program.

The city plans to build solar panels on about 200 acres (81 hectares). The panels will produce enough clean energy to offset the electricity currently used by 127 city buildings.

Detroit will use $14 million from its existing utilities fund for start-up costs, which include acquiring and clearing the site. The solar fields are expected to ultimately save the city $4.4 million a year.

“We have seen property values ​​and income tax revenues increase dramatically in other neighborhoods the city has invested in,” said Mayor Mike Duggan. “I am confident that our $1.1 million annual investment in these long-forgotten neighborhoods will bring real revitalization to these communities.”

The city touts its Solar Neighborhoods project as a national model for finding solutions to climate change. Duggan unveiled the plans a year ago after President Joe Biden challenged cities to use more solar energy while also using the act on limiting inflation, which provides federal tax incentives of 30% or more of the cost of renewable energy.

Last year, neighborhood groups held meetings to consider the possibility of placing solar fields. Those selected will receive between $15,000 and $25,000 in community benefits to cover the costs of energy efficiency improvements. They may choose to take advantage of the benefits of new windows, roof repairs, new energy-saving appliances, new furnaces and hot water heaters, better home insulation, smart thermostats, energy-efficient lighting and a battery backup for interruptions.

Duggan said he hopes to begin work on the project by the end of the year.

Donna Anthony, 63, is also in one of the three neighborhoods announced Monday. She wants to buy new attic insulation, vinyl siding and a new generator for her home. Anthony is also looking to be free of vacant lots and abandoned homes that often become sites for illegal dumping.

“When you go outside, it’s depressing when you see the trash being thrown out,” Anthony said of the discarded tires and building materials. “You go out and clean it up, and the next day it’s back.”

Under Duggan’s administration, the city made progress in stabilizing and repairing neighborhoods that were deteriorating and in advanced stages of blight. Detroit has demolished at least 24,000 vacant buildings since 2014, mostly with federal funds, according to the mayor’s office. Hundreds more were turned over to the Detroit Land Bank, which renovated many of the homes and resold them to families. Dozens of empty plots – left after houses were demolished – are being sold to people who live next door to cultivate and beautify what would otherwise be overgrown, weed-infested eyes.

Safe solar farms could also bring aesthetic benefits to these areas, according to Sarah Banas Mills, director of the EmPowering Community Center at the Graham Sustainability Institute at the University of Michigan.

“There’s not many communities that would say, ‘You know, the only thing that would make this better is a solar farm,’” Mills said. “Neighbors may want to build a photovoltaic farm there to effectively fight against illegal landfills. It’s a really unique way of thinking.”

“In more developed areas that aren’t green spaces right now, solar is sometimes seen as a negative change to the landscape,” Mills continued. “In places that are already industrial, it’s an improvement.”

ABOUT 633,000 people call Detroit home — more than a million fewer than the 1.8 million that lived in the city in the 1950s. What Detroit may lack in population, it makes up for in land. Today, about 19 square miles (49 square kilometers) of the city’s 139 square miles (360 square kilometers) are empty.

“The challenge with solar is that it is an industrial investment,” said Anika Goss, chief executive of Detroit Future City, a nonprofit focused on improving the lives of city residents through community and economic development. “Unlike trees or some form of stormwater management, it has its disadvantages,” she continued. Because panels absorb energy from the sun, they can also create heat islands — or parts of cities with higher average temperatures than surrounding areas — “in places that may already be struggling with heat island issues.”

Goss also said she was disappointed that the energy produced by the solar panels would not be used to reduce utility bills for residents of selected neighborhoods.

“I think the checks they give as a benefit to the community for energy are a good thing,” she said. “They can use it to upgrade their windows. They can use them for their own stormwater management. “It won’t be enough for a new roof, but it might be enough for something that could make their house energy efficient.”

The city says 21 homeowners in targeted neighborhoods have opted for buyouts to allow their homes to be demolished to make way for the signs. Tenants will receive moving costs and 1.5 years of free rent after moving.