This month we celebrate a significant milestone for the City of Refuge of Baltimore, as they will be the first resilience hub in Maryland that will receive the benefits of a solar and storage project allowing them to expand its work. These benefits are made possible by the Direct Pay provision of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
The 110 kW solar installation for the Baltimore City Community Resiliency Hub at the City of Refuge of Baltimore will utilize 372 kWh of battery storage to provide community members with a location where they can safely gather in the aftermath of an emergency or severe weather event to allow the community to recover safely and effectively.
The mission of the City of Refuge of Baltimore is to bring “light, hope, and transformation” to the Baltimore community. This is the second Resiliency Hub that Groundswell has been able to partner with the City of Refuge of Baltimore (learn about the first here), and thanks to the IRA, this new Resiliency Hub will be able to leverage these benefits to make the non-profit’s efforts to bring hope to life in Baltimore go even further.
“Not only are we increasing the capacity of our operational budget to continue to do good work and expand the work… we're also contributing to the larger environment. Green energy is so valuable. While it's expensive upfront, you want to believe the long-term cost and impact not only economically but to our environment is critical,” said Pastor Billy Humphrey, the Executive Director of the City of Refuge of Baltimore.
Last week, we joined our partners who made this solar+storage project possible in celebrating the impact the Resiliency Hub at the City of Refuge of Baltimore will have on the City of Refuge community. Anisha Steephen of the U.S. Department of the Treasury attended the celebration and shared remarks about how the Direct Pay provision of the Inflation Reduction Act will support the Resiliency Hub at the City of Refuge of Baltimore as the non-profit continues to serve the community.
This Resiliency Hub is a testament to the example the City of Baltimore is setting for community resilience. The City of Refuge is already a trusted location for frontline communities, and with this installation, it will be able to provide the community with access to reliable power in times of crisis and outages. Beyond that, the ownership of this project will provide the non-profit with long-term energy savings, and these benefits will be passed on to the community.
Thank you for your support in this and all our efforts to build community power.