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Ways to get involved:
If you live in Buffalo and want to help fight for locally controlled clean energy join our Community Advisory Board! Members will be compensated for their time.
Plant the seeds for our energy system revolution by donating to support a community-led solar project.
Our project will focus on Buffalo’s West Side where our project partner PUSH Buffalo resides. Racist redlining practices and deindustrialization resulted in decades of disinvestment and neglect in Buffalo’s West Side. These histories continue to impact its populations today, with aging and inefficient housing stock, high energy costs, low paying jobs, and urban heat islands and air pollution that cause negative health impacts for its residents. Existing renewable energy and energy efficiency programs have failed to effectively include communities of color and income-eligible communities and, as a result, these programs have not been deployed effectively in their neighborhoods.
The West Side also has a rich mixture of Asian, Latinx and African cultures as a result of the large influx of refugees that have found homes in the community over the course of the last few decades. PUSH Buffalo was originally formed by West Side residents in 2005 to build power in their community by organizing people and creating quality affordable housing options. We’re excited to work alongside PUSH and West Side residents on this project to advance local benefits for communities and develop community-controlled clean energy solutions.
All the decision-making on size, location, and enrollment for the project will be led by you, on our Community Advisory Board.
We’re working to develop a community solar project in Buffalo on a rooftop, parking lot, or other disturbed land anywhere from 100kW to 1MW.
Once constructed, potential project subscribers or owners could save anywhere from 20% to 100% on their energy bills. Depending on the size of the array, this could generate $472-$2360 in savings a year for 10-100 local, income-qualifying residents of color; up to an estimated $5,900,000 in savings for the community over the lifetime of the project.
Are you interested in advancing clean energy solutions that provide real benefits back to Buffalo residents?
We will form a Community Advisory Board (CAB), of community members and local leaders to coordinate decision-making on the project.
The CAB has the opportunity to lead on project siting, community ownership, workforce development, building grid resilience through storage, and co-designing public spaces.
Our goal is to solidify our participatory community-led energy model that centers communities and builds on the learnings of our work in Boston.
Contact PUSH Buffalo at [email protected] or click the Energy Allies logo in the bottom right corner to join our Community Advisory Board today!
Our Community Advisory Board Meetings will be held virtually starting in the Summer of 2023. Community Advisory Board members will be compensated for their time. We are looking to partner with passionate people to co-develop a Community-Led Solar Project in Buffalo’s West Side. By becoming a member of our Community Advisory Board, you will:
