Elon Musk funded a solar project in Alabama in 2010. The 25-kilowatt system, installed at the South Bay Communities Alliance (SBCA) Hurricane Response Center in Coden, Alabama, was designed to help the facility keep operating if a disaster knocked out the surrounding electricity grid. The installation included 108 photovoltaic panels and battery backup and was expected to provide about 90% to 100% of the centre’s electricity needs. Musk’s foundation provided the funding, while solar company SolarCity donated and installed the system. The project came as Coden was still dealing with the effects of Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which had affected the coastal community’s commercial fishing industry.Musk said the project was intended to help residents while demonstrating an alternative to dependence on oil. “This seemed like a good thing to do to help people out, while simultaneously creating awareness that there was a better way to keep things going than just ‘drill, baby, drill,” said Musk, who also runs the electric car company Tesla Motors.
A solar system for a community recovering from disasters
Coden was a coastal community where commercial fishing had been an important source of employment. The Deepwater Horizon disaster added another setback to an area that was already recovering from Hurricane Katrina. More than 100 families in the community were still waiting to rebuild their homes after the hurricane.The SBCA Hurricane Response Center served as a gathering and response point for the local community. The solar installation was intended to keep the centre powered during emergencies, when a damaged grid could leave residents without electricity.The system was also expected to reduce the centre’s regular electricity costs. “Electricity bills are a big deal for a community center like ours when you have to pay for it out-of-pocket,” says Zack Carter, an organiser for SBCA. “But all of a sudden now we have solar power! For a little area that no one has ever heard about, that’s amazing.”The battery backup was important because this project was more than just producing power in the normal way. It was supposed to provide energy security if a hurricane or other disaster knocked out the local power grid.
The project led to wider solar efforts
The Coden installation became an early disaster-relief project involving SolarCity and the Musk Foundation. The organisations later worked on a similar solar project in Japan following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. In 2012, SolarCity also worked with partners to provide portable solar power stations for communities affected by Hurricane Sandy.By then, SolarCity’s philanthropy had expanded well beyond disaster relief. In 2013, the company launched the GivePower Foundation to provide electricity to schools in developing countries without reliable power.By 2014, GivePower said it had helped 511 schools in Africa and Central America, exceeding its original target of 400 schools. Its projects used solar panels, batteries and lights, while teams also trained local residents to troubleshoot the equipment and maintain the systems.The organisation’s projects included schools in Mali, Nicaragua and Kenya. In Kenya, a school in the village of Kirindon could use laptops donated by Intel after receiving a solar installation.For Coden, however, the original project had a more immediate purpose. The combination of 108 solar panels and battery storage was intended to give a disaster response centre a source of electricity that could continue working even when the surrounding grid could not.