Santa Rosa, California
The Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians will work with GRID Alternatives to design and install battery storage on 12 homes at the Bi’du Khaale Elder Village, an affordable housing development for Tribal seniors being constructed on newly annexed land owned by the Tribe in Cloverdale, California.
Dry Creek Rancheria and GRID are already partnering to bring solar PV systems to all 25 homes and the community center at Bi’du Khaale. The proposed Project will begin the process of adding battery storage to the homes. Battery storage is especially important for these low-income Tribal families given the new net energy metering (NEM 3.0) regulations in California which are considerably less favorable to residents. It also is an insurance against power outages resulting from wildfire threats and which can damage or ruin food, causing significant loss for low-income elders on a fixed income. This project is also important as a step to address the need for climate resiliency in a community that has been hit hard by wildfires. We see climate justice as both a matter of reducing GHG emissions and as a matter of restoring justice to communities who have historically borne the brunt of negative environmental impacts.