NOW PLAYING IN CODMAN SQUARE: A Neighborhood Stages its Own Comeback

February 2, 2017 - James Hobin

A lot is happening in Codman Square. For example, the Dorchester Winter Market now is open every Saturday at the Great Hall. I went there last week to procure locally produced foodstuff, including organic veggies, kielbasa pierogi, French baguettes, and a slab of chocolate cake to die for.

My visit happened to coincide with a casual theater event. Actress Valerie Foxx was in character as Colonial Boston’s Phillis Wheatley; she mixed with the crowd, reciting wondrous poetry and telling the extraordinary story of the slave girl who became a great writer.

That was followed by another chance encounter, my first introduction to community-shared solar power. A representative from Codman Square Goes Solar was in the Great Hall to shine a light on the subject and sign me up for a workshop.

The idea was hatched across the street at Second Church last year when church members were looking for ways to reduce operating costs. From there, the Boston Interfaith Community Solar Project was formed, and now Second Church is going solar, and Codman Square Goes Solar is offering to provide solar panels to the surrounding community.

Second Church is the real thing, a gem of New England period architecture built in 1806. The rough-hewn outline of the building is weathered and worn, but it stands with great majesty amid the clamoring traffic, a grandiloquent vision rising to portentous size like a mighty wooden sailing ship tethered to its time.

The distinctive shape of the lantern atop the Second Church steeple is a prominent feature that is visible on the horizon from many points around Dorchester. Now, in close proximity to this steeple, which houses a Paul Revere Bell and the four-dial clock gifted by Walter Baker in 1852, the church roof will be overlaid with solar panels.

So the venerable Second Church is leading the way, and the Codman Square Neighborhood Council and the Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation (NDC) are facilitating Boston-based solar developer Resonant Energy’s efforts to bring Codman Square Goes Solar to area residents.

Resonant Energy provides solar arrays at no cost. In return for a rooftop lease, participants receive maintenance-free solar roof panels, the installation of which promises savings of up to 30 percent on energy bills. While the program is set in Codman Square, anyone from Dorchester can apply.

Usually, solar companies stay away from flat roofs; their model services the single- family home in the country, not three-decker rooftops in Dorchester. But Resonant focuses on historically underserved communities that do not fit the mold of solar clients.

The company runs open workshops for solar training as part of a campaign to identify a bundle of homes interested in going solar. They are aiming to get 25 homes ready by the middle of this month. By installing solar panels on many homes at the same time, they can keep costs down. The challenge is to divide benefits among landlords and renters. Instead of making lease payments to you in cash, Resonant Energy pays you with solar electricity produced by your roof’s system. The power that doesn’t go to you is then sold to community-based nonprofits.

One important component of this enterprise is the increased visibility of clean energy within the neighborhoods. It gets the word out – a meaningful step in the struggle for information and inclusive access to opportunity.

Clean energy is a part of 21st century economics. We have to innovate ways to get the community involved to ensure that ordinary voices are not being excluded from the policy-making process.

Community-shared solar power helps to bring energy equity to those who need it the most.

Codman Square Goes Solar is the type of pro-active planning that meshes gears with the Talbot Norfolk Triangle Eco-Innovation District. The TNT-EID is Boston’s first eco-innovation district. TNT is west of Codman Square between Talbot Avenue, Norfolk Street, and New England Avenue (along the train tracks). Here are the numbers: 13 blocks; 46 acres; 252 homes; 525 housing units; 1500 residents.
The EID is one of many projects currently under way at The Codman Square NDC. Partnering with Talbot-Norfolk Neighbors United, the focus has been on four areas:

(1) Energy retrofits (existing structures). The goal is to save money – over 50 percent of the homes in TNT have now been insulated to prevent heat loss.

(2) Transit Oriented Development (transit equity). Some 40 percent of people living near the Fairmount Line work downtown. In the next six years more than 100 units of affordable home ownership or rental will be built.

(3) Solar (rooftop). Generating solar power and sending it back to utility gains credit for residents.
(4) Green Infrastructure (street trees, rain gardens, bike lanes, traffic calming). This helps to implement the city’s Vision Zero goal on serious crashes and traffic fatalities. TNT is one of two sites in the city piloting the Boston Traffic Department’s Slow Streets program.

Here is an excerpt from the TNT info sheet: “…residents and partners are creating tangible quality-of-life improvements on the ground while also furthering the city of Boston’s ambitious climate change and sustainability goals. The TNT-EID is also leading the way in using LEED-ND as a framework for comprehensive sustainability planning in an existing low-income urban neighborhood.”

“LEED” stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a US-based rating system that integrates the principles of smart growth, urbanism, and green building into a national system for neighborhood design. The Codman Square NDC is aiming for a Platinum designation from LEED-ND (ND stands for Neighborhood Development), the highest possible rating for planned efficiency standards. Designations will be known by summer’s end.

In addition to Codman Square Goes Solar, the Codman Square NDC is putting solar on 18 of its buildings, some of which will produce more electricity than needed. That excess power will go to low-income residents in those properties, further reducing their cost of living.

One thing not mentioned above is the 20,000-square-foot urban agriculture site on Ballou Avenue. In the past two years, 1,000 pounds of organic produce have been grown there for the Codman Square Farmers Market.  Everything happening here is part of a systematic effort toward greater sustainability, affordability, with no displacement, more access to jobs, and a greener, healthier environment for the people who live here now.

In recognition of the Eco-Innovation’s District progress and potential, the Codman Square NDC was honored by Mayor Walsh’s Greenovate program in late May 2014. Theirs is a replicable model for other communities to leverage existing assets to improve quality of life. We can take a moment to thank them for showing the way, but there is no time to rest.

The rate structure for solar energy now in place discriminates against community- shared solar projects like Codman Square Goes Solar. Low-income communities and individual homes suffer the most for being in the “least organized” category. The community-shared solar constituency is no match for large commercial solar farms. The Holmes Bill (an act relative to solar power in environmental justice and urban communities), now being sponsored by state Reps. Russell Holmes and Michelle Dubois and state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, is designed to restore balance to the equation.

Boston City Councilor At-Large Michelle Wu says it best: “Changing the energy market won’t happen with a top-down approach; it will only happen with your support and action.”

Harnessing The Power Of The Sun -- For Everyone

The sun beats down on a community faith group outside a church in Eastern Massachusetts. It’s quite a diverse bunch; faces of all ages, genders, and ethnicities crowd the scene. It’s not the beautiful weather that has brought them together here today, but instead they gather to celebrate the installation of solar panels on their church’s roof.

The installation of this modern infrastructure wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for Resonant Energy—an innovative startup that allows any building — regardless of the owners' income or credit score — to host solar panels in exchange for clean power and energy savings. This innovation expands the solar market to the 51% of U.S homeowners who aren't served by traditional solar offerings.

Resonant Energy fills a role that’s sorely needed for households that lack the capital to purchase solar panels or the credit to be approved for a payment plan. 

By grouping many households together and purchasing panels in bulk, Resonant Energy cuts costs to such an extent that they can generate surplus power—power which can then be sold to local nonprofit organizations.

The result is that any homeowner can save money on their utilities, nearby community organizations can purchase affordable renewable power, and the planet grows a little bit greener.

After several successful projects in the Boston area, Resonant Energy is now opening their doors to the New York City market with a new office in the Urban Future Lab, a Brooklyn-based tech incubator.

Their approach to taking New York City into the age of renewables is to partner with local organizations and non-profits. Among their partners is Co-op Power, a consumer-owned clean energy co-operative. Co-op Power’s new organization, The New York City Community Energy Co-op, will launch later this winter.

he partnership between Resonant Energy and Co-op Power comes from a shared history of working together in solar energy. Resonant Energy founders Ben Underwood and Isaac Baker once led the Community Shared Solar division Co-op Power, where they further developed their expertise in solar development. Another of Resonant Energy's partners is the Long Island Progressive Coalition, which is signing up nonprofits for the PowerUp Solar Long Island campaign.

It’s becoming apparent that access to clean energy is more of a necessity than a luxury. Resonant Energy is working to make it a right rather than a privilege. Learn more at resonant.energy.

This Startup Wants to Bring Solar Power to Low-Income Neighborhoods

Liz Biscevic 

Serious fans of renewable energy already know the economic case for installing solar panels on your roof: saving anywhere from $50 to $150 per month on bills, increasing your home value, tax incentives—and that’s not including the environmental benefits. For the affluent family, solar panels are becoming an obvious choice, but for the 40 million Americans living below the poverty line, despite the long-term financial benefits, solar panels are a luxury they can’t afford. Enter Resonant Energy: a new solar company that launched in August 2016 with a “Solar Access Program” to expand solar energy's upsides to everyone, regardless of “income, race, or creed.” They’re currently developing shared solar arrays in communities around Massachusetts and New York.

Resonant Energy’s goal isn’t only to change the dialogue around who solar is for, but also who it’s by. The company endeavors to create a staff of at least 50 percent women and people of color who live within the communities Resonant serves. That's an attractive opportunity, considering solar is one of the fastest growing job sectors in America, with anticipated growth of over 100 percent in the next nine years. 

We caught up with Isaac Baker, the co-founder and president of Resonant Energy, to discuss how the business plan relies on communities to survive the “solarcoaster” that is the renewable energy market. 

How did Resonant Energy begin?

I met my partner Ben Underwood in late 2014. We had both just graduated with undergraduate degrees up in Vermont and had been thinking about doing work right at the intersection of climate change and social change. We were initially interested in biogas systems, turning food waste and animal waste into clean energy, which was this big growing technology of interest in Vermont at the time because there are a lot of farms out there. 

But in about six months we learned that [biogas] technology was a little bit before its time, so we went to this place called the Co-op Power, which was working on developing shared solar arrays that could be accessible to everyone regardless of their income, credit score, race, or creed. We did that for about a year together and founded “the Future of Solar” division at Co-op Power, and through that process we got connected with a lot of resources. That was our real incubation. 

During SOCAP17 [an industry conference for social enterprises and impact investors], Steph Spiers of Solstice Initiative—a nonprofit that works on community solar projects—said that people who need solar the most are least likely to use it. Can you speak to that?

Limited-resource communities—folks that have the lowest incomes—are paying the highest percentage of their monthly salary towards electricity. So, for your average high-income household, they're never going to think about their electric bill. They'll put it on autopay and it’s just going to get paid and they aren't going to worry too much about it. For low-income households, energy can be 10-15 percent of the monthly costs that they have, which can be second to rent as their largest monthly expense. In thinking about who needs clean energy based on the savings that can come from implementing it, it's most meaningful for limited-resource communities. But because there are educational barriers and financing barriers, they are also the least able to adopt clean energy right now. 

Would you say that's purely a cost thing? 

Under current market conditions for the average home, the average solar contracts will cost $20,000 to $30,000 dollars to install. It can be financed, but in order to take out a loan for that you need around a 680 credit score or higher, and you have to want to take out a pretty burdensome loan. So, [many] folks who are limited-income are not able to access rooftop solar because of that underwriting criteria.  

You say on your site that solar energy can "turn a current source of injustice into a new power base for communities that need it the most." Can you talk to me about that injustice? 

The communities that have had coal plants sited in their communities, that are located near fossil fuel infrastructure and all kinds of dirty energy sources, these are the communities that have borne the brunt of our previous energy systems. And [now], just as we're creating the solutions to create a cleaner more vibrant world that's going to power itself in the future, these are the communities that are being left in the dark. 

Resonant Energy’s Solar Access Program is called the “first inclusive financing model” for installing a solar rooftop. How does the program work?

Unlike many rooftop solar products and solutions, ours isn't designed for a single family home—it’s focused on limited resource neighborhoods. That means it can work for the single family-home, but it also works for the retiree on a fixed income, the church down the block, and the small local business. We wanted to create a solar financing solution that will work for all of these equally. 

In Boston, where we've been for the last year, we sign with project hosts who agree to host the panels on their roofs for 20 years and in exchange they get 15 percent of the [electricity] value produced by the array right to their electric bill, and they pay nothing at any time [for hosting the panels]. So they're basically making their roof available and they get the equivalent of a few hundred dollars a year. So that's our goal: to cut people’s electric bill and have them pay nothing at any time. Then, we make that same offer available on a smaller scale for nonprofits and small businesses that can host larger arrays of solar panels. 

Then how do you make money? What’s the business model? 

The typical way solar financing works is that you have strict underwriting criteria—like a 680 credit score. A company puts solar on [the customer’s] roof and then charges them at a discount for the next 20 years. So, if you give them 100 dollars of value in a given month, you're going to charge them 85 dollars a month for the next 20 years to help recover the expenses. The way we change that is that we give away 15% of the output to each household and the rest of the 85% of that output we aggregate and we sell the extra power to a longterm, credit-worthy institution like a local affordable housing development or a municipality or a big business, so that we have a longterm revenue stream that can help pay off the assistance we give to limited income communities. 

And solar is cheaper than regular electricity.

That's right. Everybody saves in our model. A big electric user who buys the extra power off the roof saves money on their electric bill and the home or building owner that hosts the array is saving 20 to 25 percent off their electric bills. 

How’d your partnerships with Massachusetts faith communities start?

One of our founding members had a house that was great for solar and he went to church at this big old beautiful building called the Second Church in Dorchester that also had this amazing roof for solar. For various reason, neither his home nor the church was able to access financing to put up solar through the traditional models. As we were developing our program, we worked closely with our founding member to look at the problems we had to solve and figure out solutions—like how we can take his church, which was too small to finance on its own, and make it go solar. During our second meeting, the pastor joined us and said ‘Well if the church is too small, I have a list of 500 churches here in Boston—many of which I work with and I know the pastors—what if we just do this big campaign and get all of the churches, regardless of their faith, and do it all together to bring the cost down?’ So we worked in the community to run an interfaith campaign to allow the churches to go solar.

The pastors all worked together over a year to do it. And that's where the Solar Access Program began, through the process of working with these faith leaders and thinking about how we can do more when we bring a program together that leverages the entire community. 

Is this something other energy companies—like Solar City—could replicate? Is there a reason why more companies aren't doing this?

There isn’t anything that we're doing that others couldn’t do, technically. We're using the same existing laws and incentives, but what we're doing is very hard to do. For most companies, the reason they aren't doing it is because if you're building solar projects it's much easier to target affluent, single-family, unoccupied homes in the suburbs and persuade the [owners] to pay to put solar on their roof. So right now, the market will trend towards those communities first and foremost—like selling their product to the highest bidder. 

At this point we aren't getting rich off this project. But we have proven a model that can scale, and there's a good business case for it—like billions of dollars of solar [energy] that will need those rooftops in the next 20 to 30 years. 

What are the biggest challenges in expanding these types of solar initiatives? Is it mostly cost and time?

Yeah, I mean for any industry driven by state-level policies that change every few months, that alone is what we call "the solarcoaster." There's a changing landscape of incentives and regulations and an ongoing battle with utilities about what the value of solar energy will even be. I'd say [those] are the two biggest challenges. 

So, how long until everyone has a solar roof or at least some solar electricity? 

That's a hard question. There are some communities in Massachusetts that have already massively adopted solar. So we have some small towns that are net producing more electricity that they're using. Then there are the early adopters in affluent communities who are proving that it's possible and who want to be on the forefront of this transition. But in terms of everyone else, rooftop solar—though it's becoming popular—is just hitting its tipping point of becoming the expectation in some communities. There are communities now that have had so many installations that, if you have a good roof for solar, it's kind of weird if you don't get one. That, to me, is the social change that's going to drive this forward more than anything else. But I think we've got a long way to go. We've got thousands and thousands of homes to do installations on and it's going to take 20 to 30 years to do. But the work is definitely accelerating.

What's next for Resonant Energy?

In terms of expanding in the next coming years, our goal is expanding in a way that empowers the communities and organizations that are already serving the communities we want to partner with. So, when we think about going to Washington D.C. or New York or wherever, instead of just writing a business plan, hiring folks, and sending them in, we first go in and spend a few months working with local nonprofit partners and local co-ops and other local folks that we want to see leading the charge towards clean energy, so that we can expand by working with folks on the ground in each new community that we serve.