The United States Department of Energy (DOE) and the Historically Black Colleges and University Community Development Action Coalition (HBCU-CDAC) signed a memorandum of understanding on Jan. 17 to work together on solar power projects and training workers.
Volunteers from Morgan State University, Coppin State University, and Bowie State University teamed up with representatives from GRID Alternatives, the Department of Energy, the City of Baltimore, Civic Works, local veterans, AmeriCorps members and other community organizations to install solar power and energy efficiency upgrades to select homes located within the Morgan Community Mile. (Courtesy photo)
The HBCUs will join the DOE to form the HBCU Clean Energy Consortium. Members include Coppin State University, Florida Memorial University, the University of the Virgin Islands, Southern University at New Orleans, Johnson C. Smith University, Southern University at Shreveport, Prairie View A&M University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and Morgan State University, a Morgan State University press release said.
The memo itself lays out a commitment to deliver solar power and train workers in skills that will expand the industry into “historically underserved” communities. The memo was signed by former DOE secretary Ernest J. Moniz and Ron Butler, Director for HBCU-CDAC.
No formal request for funding has been made, but if Morgan State University’s Morgan Community Mile program is scaled up into a national program, it will need millions of dollars, Ellis Brown, Director of the Morgan Community Mile program said.
Morgan Community Mile installs solar panels onto the roofs of low to moderate income homes in the community surrounding Morgan State University.
Energy from the panels, combined with improvements and repairs to the roofs of these homes, allows for energy savings of 30-40%. The panels are not efficient enough to generate a power surplus that can be sold back to an energy company but “the BGE bill is lower and that becomes real money in your hands,” Brown told the AFRO.
The estimated cost of solar panel installation is between $15,000 and $20,000. Working with nonprofits like GRID Alternatives, the cost of installation can be reduced to between $5,000 and$7,000. The City of Baltimore is funding the installation.
Morgan Community Mile has plans to install panels on 30 homes with household incomes of less than $23,000, Brown said.
The project employs many low-to-medium skill laborers giving them experience in the still growing solar industry, Brown said. Solar, in the first three quarters of 2016, came in second to natural gas in new energy capacity created according to a Solar Energy Industries Association report.
The average home value that Morgan Community Mile works on is $60,000. Even though these improvements are adding 25-33% of value to the properties on average, Maryland’s Homeowner Property Tax Credit Program prevents property taxes from rising above a single-digit portion of a homeowner’s household income.