New York City’s first community-owned solar project is the definition of a team effort

For over 50 years, UPROSE, Brooklyn’s oldest Latino commu­nity-based orga­ni­za­tion, has worked for envi­ron­mental justice in Sunset Park. Much of that work starts by asking the resi­dents what they need: Drinkable water, food sover­eignty, well­ness, ​“and renew­able energy with owner­ship at its core,” said Elizabeth Yeampierre, the exec­u­tive director of the organization. 

“We want some­thing that we can all benefit from collec­tively,” Yeampierre explained. ​“And so, early on, we started thinking about what a commu­nity-owned solar initia­tive would look like in response to the mandate from our community.”

The result is a 725-kilo­watt solar array installed on the roof of the Brooklyn Army Terminal that started deliv­ering elec­tricity directly into New York City’s grid this year. The project, the first commu­nity-owned solar project in the city, is expected to deliver $1.24 million in energy bill savings to 150 house­holds over its life­time. The solar array was completed in May of this year, and enroll­ment for local Sunset Park house­holds is now open.

The project also grew out of years of coali­tion building. UPROSE is part of REVitalize, a statewide campaign coor­di­nated by the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance (NYC-EJA), a nonprofit member­ship orga­ni­za­tion, that seeks to advance commu­nity owner­ship of renew­able energy.

Daniel Chu, senior energy planner at NYC-EJA, explained that ​“commu­nity owner­ship of renew­able energy infra­struc­ture is some­thing that we pushed for since 2016 as a response to former Governor [Andrew] Cuomo’s Reforming the Energy Vision plan,” and REVitalize was part of it.

With signif­i­cant exper­tise in climate and energy policy, ​“REVitalize was also tremen­dously impor­tant in iden­ti­fying resources and ques­tions that we needed to keep in mind as we were moving forward,” added Yeampierre.

That support proved essen­tial. Yeampierre said that every part of the imple­men­ta­tion process was diffi­cult, but the biggest chal­lenge was financing a project in which a commu­nity-based orga­ni­za­tion would own half. ​“Financing some­thing that is owned and run and led by Black and Brown people is always a chal­lenge. The assump­tion is that we don’t know how to manage money,” she explained, and empha­sized that the team expe­ri­enced height­ened pres­sure from having little room to fail during this process.

To tackle the tech­nical and legal exper­tise needed and get help with raising funds, UPROSE part­nered with Working Power, a devel­oper focused on energy projects in under­in­vested neigh­bor­hoods. ​“They’re experts in finance — our work with each other is comple­men­tary. They really know how to work with front­line leaders in a way that is really respectful and builds trust.”

UPROSE staff partic­i­pated in project devel­op­ment calls with Working Power, where they inte­grated their knowl­edge of Sunset Park and local polit­ical condi­tions. The orga­ni­za­tion had also spear­headed public educa­tion on clean energy to galva­nize local busi­ness owners and resi­dents to support and partic­i­pate in the solar program. 

The UPROSE and Working Power teams hope that their expe­ri­ence can serve as an example for similar programs to be imple­mented around the country. To miti­gate chal­lenges, they recom­mend preparing a check­list of resources, lawyers, and indi­vid­uals who are expe­ri­enced in clean energy land use to support working through legal jargon. Those contacts can aid in creating and reviewing contracts or agreements.. 

Looking back at the chal­lenges of imple­menting this project, Yeampierre empha­sized the impor­tance of collab­o­ra­tion and part­ner­ship. ​“These were things that we had not antic­i­pated. And having the right team makes a really big differ­ence — a team that is aligned in terms of core values and is willing to see the project through.”