New fund aims to bring the benefits of solar power to low-income communities

[sneakypete]

https://pilotonline.com/news/local/environment/article_e03d2f8c-7665-11e9-954a-d320d458785f.html

When it opened in 1910, J.D. Miles & Sons got its start by installing tin roofs. Over the years, the family-owned South Norfolk company repaired houses throughout Hampton Roads, sometimes fixing up a home for three generations of family.

And now, the roofing company is getting its own 21st Century makeover: More than 100 solar panels will be installed on its roof.

The roughly $100,000 array will be one of the first in Chesapeake's historic South Norfolk community. For the company, the effort will nearly eliminate its electric bill.

The solar installation will be paid for through a new fund that aims to invest $750,000 to bring such energy to businesses and nonprofits in poor areas of Hampton Roads. The goal is to reduce utility costs and deliver renewable power to new communities.

Research shows poor households see fewer benefits from renewable energy and that, even when wealth is even, communities of color face an even steeper divide.

"This fund will put up solar in places it hasn't been before," said Ruth McElroy Amundsen, a NASA engineer who started the fund.

A friend tipped me off to this one. Read the link carefully. This is a "charity" that is no doubt rewarded with tax write-offs,GIVING 100 GRAND to a ROOFING company that has been in business in the same location FOR OVER A HUNDRED YEARS IN THE SAME LOCATION,to have solar panels installed on their roof to eliminate their power bills.

The story doesn't say who got the contract to install the new roof,but I have MY suspicions that the roofing company got the contract to get paid to put the new free roof on their own business.

WHY do I suspect the roofing company owners are multi-generational Dims?

[IsailedawayfromFR]

This is not a benefit.

It is a burden on taxpayers who subsidize uneconomic activity like this, and a burden once again on taxpayers when these solar components no longer work and are abandoned, to be disposed of by us taxpayers.

A big scam for a few elites to make money off our backs.

[sneakypete]

This is not a benefit.

It is a burden on taxpayers who subsidize uneconomic activity like this, and a burden once again on taxpayers when these solar components no longer work and are abandoned, to be disposed of by us taxpayers.

A big scam for a few elites to make money off our backs.

@IsailedawayfromFR

Hard to beat the irony of using public money/charity to help a struggling business that has only been operating at the same location for 110 years get a new roof put on their shop when it is a roofing company.

You just KNOW they bid on the job and got the labor contract.