Mayor Mike Duggan, Director of Sustainability Tepfirah Rushdan and Council members Coleman A. Young II and Fred Durhal III at a press conference announcing the neighborhoods for Detroit’s solar energy plan. Green Text Box, modified with listing Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan touts the Gratiot-Findlay, State Fair and Van Dyke-Lynch neighborhoods as sites for possible solar arrays, along with DTE Energy and Boston-based Lightstar Renewables. Homeowners in five other neighborhoods slated for solar sites are being given a chance to sell their homes before the next three projects are selected in 2025. Duggan is still proposing to use $4.4 million in equity funds to buy homes from those in the five neighborhoods. intended for the next phase of projects.
Published in partnership with BridgeDetroit.
Three Detroit neighborhoods have been selected to host solar energy fields, which will help offset the energy used by city buildings, according to the city of Detroit.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said at a news conference Monday that the Gratio-Findlay, State Fair and Van Dyke-Lynch neighborhoods have been selected for solar sites. About 104 hectares of solar energy will be used in the neighborhoods out of a total of 200 hectares planned over six projects. The city’s DTE Energy and Boston-based Lightstar Renewables each plan to develop three projects.
“Today, Detroit is taking a step toward a major national leadership role in the fight against climate change,” Duggan said at an event in the wake of the Gratiot-Findlay project.
“One hundred and twenty-seven city buildings currently operate on 33 megawatts per year of energy from conventional sources, mostly fossil fuels,” Duggan said. “In the next two years, we intend to build solar fields that will produce 33 megawatts of renewable energy, and we will efficiently generate all the energy for city buildings from solar fields.”
Duggan spearheaded the Neighborhood Solar Initiative to combat climate change and reduce illegal dumping by fencing off abandoned sites. But there was a flurry of community engagement around the plan, with some seeing it as a unique opportunity to clean up abandoned blocks and invest in neighborhoods, while others fear that large solar arrays could hurt property values and further discourage investment.
Duggan said Monday that the program targets “some of the most disadvantaged areas of the city” and will “help neighborhoods that feel they’ve been forgotten.”
Homeowners in the footprint of the proposed solar sites would receive twice the fair market value of their homes or $90,000, whichever is higher, and tenants would receive 18 months’ rent to move out. Homeowners in the community benefit areas surrounding the projects will receive $15,000 to $25,000 each for energy efficiency upgrades.
A total of 21 homeowners will be relocated under the first three projects. The city will use the condemnation to acquire the properties of homeowners and vacant lots.
Duggan said 28 of the 31 homeowners in the five neighborhoods still slated for solar have already signed letters of intent to sell their homes. He proposed using a $4.4 million equity fund to buy those homes, which is funding from the Public Utilities Conversion Fund, which is legally required to be used for energy conversion. In addition, $14 million in capital expenditures for the initiative will be paid for with the fund.
The city expects total operating costs for the first three projects to reach $1.1 million a year after deducting energy credits and city utility savings for the area in the solar footprint.
Duggan said the Inflation Reduction Act reduced the cost of the program by 30% with automatic tax credits.
Detroit’s solar energy initiative could create jobs and clean up neighborhoods, residents say
Several Detroiters told Planet Detroit that the solar initiative could help clean up neighborhoods, help residents make important home repairs and create jobs in the city.
Gratiot-Findlay resident Donna Anthony said the solar panels would be a nice change from the misery in the neighborhood, where waste is a constant concern.
Anthony also hopes to pay for several home upgrades with the community benefits money, including a new furnace. But he said the program could have a bigger impact for those selling their homes.
“Some people have experienced so much crime, so much violence, so much misery,” he said. “And they don’t want to retire in a house or an area where they might be the only person on the whole block.”
Tammy Black, a Jefferson Chalmers resident and CEO of Communities Power, which installs solar panels in low-income neighborhoods, said she hopes the initiative will help the environment while creating good jobs for Detroiters.
“Young people, they don’t have a mission right now,” he said. “They are very concerned about everyday life.”
He said solar industry jobs can alleviate some of that economic stress and help educate the public about environmental action.
Some neighborhoods lack support for Detroit solar
Support for solar arrays in urban neighborhoods is not unanimous. Detroit scrapped plans for a project at Grixdale Farms after residents expressed concerns that solar fields could hurt property values or add to blight and crime problems in the area where the project has no footprint.
A recent study of solar sites in California, Connecticut, New Jersey, Minnesota and Massachusetts found that properties within half a mile saw a 1.5% drop in values, although results varied by state.
Although experts say solar energy is crucial to combating the climate crisis, studies show that solar arrays can cause localized increases in temperatures. That could be a problem in Detroit, where the heat island effect, or the ability of hard surfaces to absorb and redistribute heat, can raise temperatures by 8 degrees or more.
A fall 2023 survey of 158 Michiganders by Michigan State University’s Energy Values Lab found that residents would be more supportive of solar development if it reduced community energy costs, while less than half supported nearby solar projects.
Support was even lower near DTE’s 10-acre O’Shea Solar Park on Detroit’s west side, the city’s first large-scale solar development. Only one-third of residents near O’Shea supported the project, with respondents saying they favored housing over solar development by an 18-to-1 margin.
The Detroit solar plan still needs Council approval
After Grixdale Farms was considered for the solar project, Duggan spokesman John Roach told Planet Detroit that the remaining neighborhoods all have “tremendous support” for solar, both from homeowners who want to sell and from nearby neighbors.
The city council is currently reviewing the first three projects, which will require approval before land acquisition, community benefits and solar installation. The last three projects will be announced and presented to the city council in 2025.
Councilwoman Angela Whitfield Calloway said last week she supports solar fields in the city, but not in mostly Black neighborhoods or parks. However, Councilmen Coleman A. Young II and Fred Durhal III expressed support for the initiative at a news conference, while Duggan praised Councilman Scott Benson’s involvement in the project.
Durhal said the solar program is important to creating a cleaner environment for future generations and encouraged residents to talk to others about its potential.
“Promise your neighbor that we’re cleaning up Detroit now, we’re taking steps forward,” he said. “This is not old Detroit; we’re talking about the new Detroit.”