Solar power wasn’t on Toni Smith’s mind when she got the keys to her new home on Milwaukee’s north side.
That day in August was a celebration of a journey from renter to homeowner that began during the pandemic. Tired of paying $1,300 a month for an apartment, Smith contacted Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity and enrolled in the agency’s home ownership program.
Her move to home ownership quickly became even more affordable. Three months after moving in, a flip of the switch activated a rooftop solar array on her house on North Second Street and she turned from an energy consumer to energy producer.
Smith, who works for the city of Milwaukee and lives with her two adult children, is one of 35 new homeowners in Milwaukee’s Harambee and Midtown neighborhoods who are joining the solar wave at no additional cost through a partnership of Habitat for Humanity, Focus on Energy and the Midwest Renewable Energy Association.
Some of those homes are completed. Others are still under construction.
Like Smith, none of the families who will own the homes had any idea that the houses would include rooftop solar when they signed up for Habitat’s home ownership program.
“It was like, Oh, my God, yes,” Smith said of her reaction to an email asking if she wanted to participate in the solar program. “I was just really excited about it because I know a couple of people that have the solar panels and really praised them.”
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Focus on Energy sought to partner with affordable housing organizations, reach new customer base
Focus on Energy, a nonprofit funded under state law by Wisconsin’s investor-owned utilities, provided nearly $550,000 to fully pay for the installations. The project, with its focus on reducing energy costs for lower-income households, is a natural extension of Focus on Energy’s 20 years of work helping Wisconsin residents and businesses reduce energy consumption, said Scott Bloedorn, the organization’s program director.
“We saw affordable housing organizations as a great opportunity for us because we know that they have budgetary constraints and their customers have budgetary constraints,” Bloedorn said. “They hadn’t been doing solar in the past and we saw this as an opportunity for us to reach some customers that have historically had a hard time taking advantage of the benefits of solar.”
Chris Garrison, Habitat for Humanity’s construction and operations director, said the organization hadn’t previously been able to consider including the roughly $15,000 per home cost of solar in its building budgets “even though we know this creates a better end product for the homeowner.”
Habitat for Humanity homes are built by volunteers for low-income families who complete Habitat’s home-ownership and financial literacy programs. Family members also are expected to work on building the home. When complete, the family buys the home and takes on the mortgage.
Solar power will provide homeowners with many benefits
Tapping solar power helps the homeowners reduce their energy bills and contributes to their financial stability, Garrison said.
“The biggest benefit to the families is that consistent, sustainable savings on their energy bill for years to come — 25 to 30-plus years of decreased electrical costs keeps more money in their pockets to pay their mortgage, pay their other bills and pay everything else,” he said.
Habitat for Humanity has a long history of working with Focus on Energy to maximize the energy efficiency of Habitat homes.
Smith said her energy bills since she moved in are two-thirds lower than what she paid as a renter, and, though she doesn’t have enough billing history to say just how much lower her bills will be now that she’s generating solar power, she’s happy to know the bills will be even lower.
Under a contract with We Energies, the electricity produced by Smith’s solar panels flows into the utility’s transmission system. A credit for the amount of power she produces is applied to her monthly bill.
“I thought it was a cool concept, to harness energy and sell it back to We Energies, and I also loved it helps the environment and then it helps me with lower energy bills,” she said.
Grow Solar for Humanity program goes beyond Milwaukee
Garrison said Focus on Energy approached Habitat about the idea in late 2021.
Six months later, Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity and several affiliates across the state had signed on, MREA had negotiated a group buy of solar panels and equipment to bring down the cost, and the partners had selected Arch Solar to do the installations.
The program, known as Grow Solar for Humanity, isn’t limited to Milwaukee. In all, the program in its first year will cover the costs of installing solar power in 49 Habitat for Humanity homes across Wisconsin, including the 35 houses in Milwaukee. Nine other Habitat affiliates participated in the program, including those in Kenosha, Door County, the Fox Cities and Madison.
The initiative is a step toward addressing one of the major problems with solar energy: it’s generally the provenance of more affluent homeowners. The cost of home solar is simply prohibitive for lower-income property owners, said JD Smith, head of business development for Arch Solar.
The company, one of southeast Wisconsin’s largest solar installers, sees the project as a way to “balance the scales” as the country switches to renewable sources of energy.
“How many times do you get to rebuild your electrical grid?” Smith asked. “We have a chance to do this in a way that’s equitable, more accessible, more resilient, and more fair, and right now that isn’t happening just by virtue of this stuff being expensive.”
Smith said the installations also are important because they can show other residents in the neighborhoods that solar is possible on the two-story homes with steep roofs that are characteristic of the neighborhood, a design that Habitat copied for its new homes. And, Smith hopes, the work will encourage people who see it to consider careers in the solar industry.
Including solar in the homes required only slight modifications of roof vents to maximize the area available for the panels and ease installation. Smith’s solary array was completed in a day, she said.
The solar panels were obtained through a group purchase coordinated by Midwest Renewable Energy Association, a renewable-energy advocacy organization based in Custer, Wisconsin. MREA has coordinated more than 50 group buys to lower costs for communities and organizations in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa.
Habitat for Humanity wants to continue the initiative
Focus on Energy has already begun planning for a second year of the program, although budget constraints will reduce the assistance to cover only half of the cost, Bloedorn said.
“We wanted to set them up with some assistance so that they can kind of build this into what they’re doing moving forward,” he said. “So ultimately our goal is to help Habitat start figuring out this process.”
Garrison said Habitat for Humanity of Milwaukee is looking for ways to fund the remaining costs and continue the initiative in future builds.
“With everything going on in the world, there’s a chance that eventually, solar might be standard practice, and this is a step in that direction.” Garrison said. “The cost will always have to be figured out, but it’s something that is really cool that we get to do.”
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