In partnership with the City of Duluth, Ecolibrium3 is excited to share that we are the recipient of a $1 million award from the US Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) through the Renewables Advancing Community Energy Resilience (RACER) funding program. These funds will be used to create a community-based energy resilience planning process and explore solar energy options for Duluth.
The two-year project will study the needs of our community during various disaster scenarios when residents have no power. This will help the City of Duluth, and other cold weather climate communities, improve their energy resilience by determining how power systems can resist the damage of weather and recover quickly when damage is done. Energy resilience can be improved by using solar energy because it is a renewable resource. As such, the grant will help Duluth determine where the best sites for solar will be. By the end of this project, the City of Duluth will have made an Energy Resilience Plan which will include the plans for how to respond to the disaster scenarios and 10 to 12 proposed solar power generation and storage sites.
“Now is the time to invest in Duluth’s resilience and renewable energy infrastructure, and the first step is determining how to do so in a way that best serves community needs,” says Jodi Slick, CEO of Eco3. “The RACER Award will make these determinations possible by funding studies of resident needs and minimum resilience standards, as well as technical examinations of potential solar sites, to ensure a bright future for Duluth.”
Ecolibrium3 looks forward to building a more equitable and sustainable future with our partners at Grid Catalyst, University of Minnesota, and University of Minnesota Duluth.
For more information, check out the City of Duluth’s press release.