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

DETROIT—- 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 a plan to bring photovoltaic 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. Not far away, another neighborhood on the east side is set to get panels on nearly 41 acres (16.5 hectares), while a third will get panels on nearly 40 acres (16.1 hectares).

Five other neighborhoods are finalists to also receive solar panels. To participate in the program, groups of residents had to submit an application.

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

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

“We have seen dramatic increases in property values ​​and income tax revenues in other neighborhoods where the city has made investments,” said Mayor Mike Duggan. “I am confident that our $1.1 million-a-year 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 power while taking advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides federal tax incentives of 30% or more of the cost to cover renewable energy.

Neighborhood groups have been holding meetings to consider the possibility of putting in solar fields for the past year. Those selected will receive $15,000 to $25,000 in community benefits to help cover the cost of energy-efficiency improvements. They can opt to take advantage of benefits that include new windows, roof repairs, new energy-efficient appliances, new furnaces and hot water heaters, better home insulation, smart thermostats, energy-efficient lighting and a battery backup for outages.

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

Donna Anthony, 63, also is in one of the three districts announced Monday. He wants new attic insulation, vinyl siding, and a new generator for his house. Anthony can’t wait until there are no empty plots or abandoned houses nearby, which often become places for illegal waste dumping.

“When you go outside, it’s depressing to see all this junk 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 where it was.”

Under Duggan’s administration, the city made great progress in stabilizing and repairing neighborhoods that were deteriorating and in an advanced state of disrepair. Thanks largely to federal funds, Detroit has demolished at least 24,000 vacant buildings since 2014, according to the mayor’s office. Hundreds of others were turned over to the Detroit Land Bank, which renovated many of the homes and resold them to families. Dozens of empty lots – left over from the demolition of houses – are being sold to people who live next door to maintain and beautify what would otherwise become overgrown, weedy eyesores.

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

“There aren’t a lot of communities that would say, ‘You know, what would improve this is a solar farm,’” Mills said. “A neighborhood may want a solar farm to effectively fight illegal waste dumping. It’s a really unique way of thinking.”

“In more developed areas, in places that are not currently green fields, solar energy is sometimes seen as a negative change to the landscape,” Mills continued. “In places that are already industrial, this is an improvement.”

Detroit is home to about 633,000 people — more than a million fewer than the 1.8 million who lived in the city in the 1950s. What Detroit lacks in population, it makes up for in land. Currently, about 19 square miles (49 square kilometers) of the 139-square-mile (360-square-kilometer) city are empty.

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

Goss also expressed disappointment that the energy generated by the solar panels will not be used to reduce utility bills for residents of selected neighborhoods.

“I think the checks they’re paying out as social benefit for energy are good,” she said. “They can use it to retrofit windows. They can use it for their own rainwater management. It’s not enough to have a new roof, but installing something on it that will make their home energy efficient may be enough.”

The city says 21 homeowners in the 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 they move.