In
June 2023, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan announced a new initiative to help the
city further its sustainability goals while simultaneously making productive
use of its numerous acres of unoccupied land.[1] The plan: convert 250 acres
of vacant land in nine Detroit neighborhoods into solar panel farms to power
the city’s 127 municipal buildings.[2] The
plan was supported at its outset by long-time climate activists who praised the
initiative as a way to fight the climate crisis through the rapid and equitable
decarbonization of vulnerable households.[3] In addition to providing a
source of renewable energy for municipal buildings, the plan also promised to
provide $25,000 in community benefits including home repairs, solar power, and
parks and recreation improvement for every acre of solar farm assembled.[4]
However, in addition to the enthusiasm exhibited by many environmental and
community organizations, the plan was also received with skepticism by many
residents and organizations.[5] In
order to roll out the initiative, the City of Detroit had to ask roughly 56
homeowners and an unknown number of landowners to relocate, and left many
unanswered questions for community members.[6] Ultimately, the controversy
over the solar panel initiative shows that the needs and challenges of each
community have to be balanced against the backdrop of a large, diverse city,
and that progress for some can require setbacks for others.
Community
activists and leaders have played different roles in the controversy over the
solar panel farms. For example, Communities Power, a Detroit-based organization
with the mission of bringing affordable solar energy to low-income communities,
has advocated fiercely for the project.[7] Tammy Black, the CEO of
Communities Power, praised the project, calling it a “win” for Detroit on
account of the low-cost energy it would make available to local communities, as
well as the jobs it would bring.[8] “As
a community leader, I hear the wants and needs of Detroiters about the
importance of saving money on energy bills and having access to jobs.”[9]
Tammy and company aren’t the only community activists in favor of the project.
Tharmond Ligon, the president of Rescue MI Nature Now, a Detroit-based
nonprofit partner involved in the initiative, also praised the project, but for
different reasons.[10] He
saw the solar panel farms as part of the city’s effort to curb illegal dumping
on vacant and city-owned land.[11] He
also suggested that the city could grow crops, plant native species, and allow
grazing under the solar panels.[12]
When asked why he supports the proposed solar farms, he said “it’s better than
blight.”[13]
Not
all community activists have been equally as sunny about the proposal. Adhid
Miri is a historian and special projects director for the Chaldean Community
Foundation, a Michigan-based nonprofit which seeks to advance the cultural
heritage and social position of the Chaldean people in Michigan.[14] The
Chaldean people began immigrating en masse to Detroit in the 1960s, many of
whom did so to escape religious persecution in their native country of Iraq.[15]
Adhid and the other residents of the Chaldean Town community would much rather
see commercial development and investment in the area, which would, in his
view, benefit longtime residents far more than solar panels.[16]
Birch Kemp of Arboretum Detroit, a nonprofit tree planting organization, also
expressed skepticism about the project, urging that the use of vacant land for
the farms would increase blight and hurt property values for homeowners in
their immediate vicinity.[17]
While he supported Detroit’s goal of installing more solar panels in the city,
he recommended adding them to the tops of already existing buildings instead,
to minimize the impact on existing greenspace.[18] When approached by city
officials about the possibility of building a solar array in his neighborhood
of Poletown East, Kemp and other community members unanimously rejected the
proposal.[19]
The
responses by representatives of community organizations show the important
roles these organizations play in shaping municipal policies. By uniting around
shared social, political, environmental, and cultural objectives, community
organizations are able amplify the voices of the populations they serve.
Highlighting the specific concerns of their communities, such organizations
bring important attention to the myriad of community impacts, both good and
bad, that such initiatives cause. It also emphasizes that in a city of over
600,000 people, there are no easy fixes to complicated problems, and no efforts
to alleviate social ills will benefit all citizens equally.
Ultimately,
the project won out, and on July 31, 2024, the Detroit city council approved
the first phase of the solar panel project.[20] The first phase of the plan
identified three finalist neighborhoods - Gratiot/Findlay, Van Dyke/Lynch, and
State Fair - totaling 104 acres of land in which to start the process of land
acquisition, distribution of the promised community benefits, and solar field
installation.[21]
Phase 2 of the project, set to begin early next year, will see the city
recommend five more neighborhoods to finish out the promised remaining acres of
solar fields.[22] In
order to help roll out both phases of the plan, the city council has identified
14 community organizations to be Neighborhood Solar Partners (NSPs) who will
assist residents throughout this process, who have been “instrumental in
supporting the initiative.”[23]
Such partners have and will continue to assist the city with resident
engagement, technical evaluations, and implementation of the community
benefits.[24]
Throughout the process, the Office of Sustainability and Department of
Neighborhoods have worked closely with the NSPs, who helped the city narrow
down which communities were most willing to participate in the plan, and making
sure residents of those communities were adequately educated about what they
stood to gain.[25]
In
conclusion, the controversy over the solar panels exemplifies the difficulty
local leaders face in tailoring solutions to complex problems that adequately
address the needs of all community members in a large and diverse American
city. Ultimately, with the solar panel project set to proceed, hard questions
must be asked about the true nature of progress. For people like Adhid Miri,
whose already disinvested community will be further impacted by the solar
panels, the initiative likely doesn’t feel
like progress. But for those who stand to find new employment through the
installment of the solar panels, or the residents whose existing properties
will receive energy upgrades as a benefit of the project, the initiative may
feel to them as if their city is really doing something to positively impact
the lives of its residents. For the environment at large, 127 municipal
buildings’ worth of fossil fuels will no longer need to be consumed, which
represents a small, though not insignificant, step forward to a more
sustainable future. When confronted with such difficult questions, decision-makers
must balance the needs of a large city comprised of diverse communities.
Community organizations are vital in the process because they uplift their
members and give them the chance to make their voices heard - even if
ultimately, the powers that be decide that progress may require prioritization
of some concerns over others.
By Jack Kanzler
[1] Mayor Duggan
Announces Plan to Convert to Solar Energy to Power all Detroit’s Municipal
Buildings, City of Detroit (Jun.
23, 2023), https://detroitmi.gov/news/mayor-duggan-announces-plan-convert-solar-energy-power-all-detroits-municipal-buildings
[2] Brian Allnutt & Nina Misuraca Ignaczak, Duggan Shortlists Nine Neighborhoods to Host
City-Owned Solar Farms, Planet
Detroit (Nov. 16, 2023), https://planetdetroit.org/2023/11/duggan-shortlists-nine-neighborhoods-to-host-city-owned-solar-farm/.
[3] Mayor Duggan
Announces Plan to Convert to Solar Energy to Power all Detroit’s Municipal
Buildings, City of Detroit (Jun.
23, 2023), https://detroitmi.gov/news/mayor-duggan-announces-plan-convert-solar-energy-power-all-detroits-municipal-buildings
[4] Id.
[5] Lynelle Herndon, Detroiters
are Asking the Right Questions About the City’s Solar Farms Plan, Outlier Media (Dec. 20, 2023) https://outliermedia.org/detroit-solar-farms-neighhborhoods-community-benefits-home-buyouts/.
[6] Id.
[7] Tammy Black, Opinion:
Detroit Solar Initiative is Pathway to Jobs, Wealth Creation, Bridge Detroit (Jul. 29, 2024, 2:00 PM).
https://www.bridgedetroit.com/opinion-detroit-solar-initiative-is-pathway-to-jobs-wealth-creation/
[8] Id.
[9] Id.
[10] Lynelle Herndon, Detroiters
are Asking the Right Questions About the City’s Solar Farms Plan, Outlier Media (Dec. 20, 2023) https://outliermedia.org/detroit-solar-farms-neighhborhoods-community-benefits-home-buyouts/.
[11] Id.
[12] Id.
[13] Id.
[14] Micah Walker, Once-vibrant
Chaldean Town May Become Future Solar Farm, Bridge
Detroit (Feb. 8, 2024, 6:00 AM),
https://www.bridgedetroit.com/once-vibrant-chaldean-town-may-become-future-solar-farm/.
[15] Adhid Miri, PhD, Remembering
Chaldean Town, Chaldean News, https://www.chaldeannews.com/2023-content/2023/6/1/remembering-chaldean-town (last visited Oct. 10, 2024).
[16] Micah Walker, Once-vibrant
Chaldean Town May Become Future Solar Farm, Bridge
Detroit (Feb. 8, 2024, 6:00 AM),
https://www.bridgedetroit.com/once-vibrant-chaldean-town-may-become-future-solar-farm/.
[17] Nina Ignaczak & Brian Allnut, As Detroit Solar Plan Advances, Community Activists are Wary, Energy News network (Nov. 17, 2023),
https://energynews.us/2023/11/17/as-detroit-solar-plan-advances-community-activists-are-wary/.
[18] Id.
[19] Id.
[20] Brian Allnut, City
Council Approves First Phase of Detroit Solar Farms Plan, Planet Detroit (Jul. 31, 2024),
https://planetdetroit.org/2024/07/detroit-slar-plan-approved/.
[21] Accelerating Climate
Action and Creating Vibrant Resilient Neighborhoods, City of Detroit, https://detroitmi.gov/government/mayors-office/office-sustainability/solar-neighborhoods (last visited Oct. 10, 2024).
[22] Id.
[23] Id.
[24] Id.
[25] Id.
[1] Nina Ignaczak & Brian Allnut, As Detroit Solar Plan Advances, Community Activists are Wary, Energy News network (Nov. 17, 2023),
https://energynews.us/2023/11/17/as-detroit-solar-plan-advances-community-activists-are-wary/.