Solar Plus Battery Storage Community Resilience Planning

BvP led community engagement and planning efforts to transform three Seattle neighborhood community centers into resilience hubs through solar panel and battery storage installations. This Washington State Department of Commerce-funded initiative aims to provide clean air and cooling during extreme heat events, air filtration during wildfire smoke, and emergency power during outages. Our team conducted extensive community outreach including key informant interviews, community events, and synthesis of related research to ensure historically underrepresented voices shape project priorities. Using the Health, Arts, Parks and Equity (HAP-E) framework, we developed recommendations for emergency services, accessibility improvements, workforce development opportunities, and home resilience programs. The project emphasizes serving vulnerable populations within walking distance of each center, including seniors and people with disabilities, while creating opportunities for job training and education around renewable energy.