“This project is really the culmination of almost 10 years’ worth of advocacy and organizing, particularly after Superstorm Sandy in 2012,” said Summer Sandoval, energy democracy coordinator at UPROSE, a women-of-color-led grassroots organization and a partner selected to develop and operate the project. After Sandy, UPROSE held climate resiliency planning workshops in the community to identify issues and solutions to focus on. One was local energy production.
Together, UPROSE, partners, and the community worked to develop a “scalable, replicable model” for a local clean energy supply that brings local economic development and builds community wealth. Beyond signing up residents as subscribers, UPROSE engaged and provided the community with the in-person workshops, training, multilingual fact sheets, and other information they needed to meaningfully participate in their own clean energy systems.