Churches in Louisiana Installing Solar + Storage as Hurricane Prep – CleanTechnica

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Last Updated on: 7th March 2025, 09:54 pm

As a Floridian, I am quite used to the threat and destruction of hurricanes. However, it seems like one state — a much smaller state — is hit even more and worse than Florida. That would be Louisiana. Interestingly, an unexpected sector of society is taking it into their own hands to prepare better for hurricanes and become more resilient — churches (well, and a bit more).

Apparently, a coalition named Together New Orleans that includes approximately 50 churches as well as some other community institutions is developing a network of solar-plus-storage centers around New Orleans — 10 of them. The coalition is actually calling these hubs “lighthouses.”

Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Hurricane Laura in 2020, and Hurricane Ida in 2021 caused numerous deaths and all kinds of suffering in New Orleans. It appears that those hurricanes, but particularly the more recent ones, inspired this coalition.

The lighthouses have an intelligence component, too, in order to maximize use if the grid is down for a long time — that is, several days or even weeks, not just one or two days. “For example, if the grid is down for 14 days and some days are cloudy, these solar and battery systems will conserve energy on cloudy days, delivering less energy than if it was a sunny day,” CEO of nonprofit solar developer Community Power South Joshua Cox said.

The idea of having 10 lighthouses is that no one in the city should be more than 15 minutes away from one of them — walking.

It’s great to see people in New Orleans leading in this way. Of course, we’re going to need such “lighthouses” in cities all across hurricane zones. Let’s see how long it takes until this example spreads.