CAMPAIGN 02 - Hunting Park Community Solar Initiative
The Hunting Park Community Solar Initiative, or HPCSI, is a neighborhood non-profit focused on strengthening homes, jobs, and finances through energy efficiency and weatherization, rooftop solar, and solar installation job training.
The initiative was started in November 2020 by CWP East Coast Regional Organizer, Allen Drew, in partnership with two HP pastors and a local solar Installer, Solar States. It is now a legally organized 501c3 non-profit, and has an active board made up of 2 HP block captains, 2 HP non-profit leaders, the HP Community Garden director, and Allen. The board is in further partnership with mutiple other HP churches and nonprofits as well as two solar installers. You can find us at www.hpsolar.org.
In 2021, we ran two sets of neighborhood educational workshops focused on energy efficiency and weatherization, solar installation, and solar job training. You can watch them at bit.ly/hpcsiworkshopvideos.
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In late 2021, we built a solar installer training classroom at a partner vocational school in Hunting Park, Vocatio Career Prep HS, and ran our first class in the spring of 2022. In July 2022, we graduated our first 5 students OSHA 10 certified and job site ready to join a solar installation crew. In the fall of 2022, we ran another class with similar results. And in FY '23-'24, we ran two more full classes, graduating another 19 students with rave reviews. The program has been funded throughout by a PA DEP Environmental Education grant, and we've received a renewal again for FY '24-'25 to run another 2 classes. We're also part of a HP collaboration that recently received a 3 year EPA community climate resilience grant, which will provide funding for us to run an additional bilingual English/Spanish class once a year for the next 3 years. If you are in the Philadelphia area and are interested in registering for our solar installation training class, go to bit.ly/hpsolartrainingclass1.
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We also have partnerships with two solar installers, Solar States and Posigen.
Through our Solar States partnership, we offer solar ownership. Solar ownership is an excellent financial investment. With the federal tax credit and the home equity increase taken into account, the initial investment of rooftop solar should return about 400% of what you put in over 25 years - and at that point your panels will still be operating at about 85% efficiency and able to offer you many more years of free energy. The rate of return is like investing your money in the stock market at 5% monthly compounding interest - a very good rate of return, and one that will be steady as long as the sun keeps shining. Furthermore, if you get solar through our partnership with Solar States, it will create a savings of $200/kW of system installation size, which will either (1) go to you as savings if you live in or near Hunting Park, or (2) be donated to the work of HPCSI if you live outside of HP.
To sign up for a free solar ownership quote through our partnership with Solar States, go here: www.solar-states.com/hpsolar.
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While solar ownership is a better investment over time than solar leasing, for many people the upfront cost of solar, even with excellent financing (which Solar States offers), is either not preferable or not possible. For those interested in solar leasing, we have an excellent option through our partnership with Posigen. They offer a 20-yr fixed rate rooftop solar lease for your home that costs $0 upfront, guarantees net electricity savings of at least 10% the first year (and likely more in following years), includes a free home energy efficiency upgrade, and covers all maintenance of your roof and panels for the duration of the lease. It's a good deal, and when people sign up through our partnership, HPCSI gets $400 for every new lease and a free used solar system and home energy efficiency upgrade for a family of our choice in Hunting Park for every 10 leases.
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To sign up for a free solar leasing quote through our partnership with Posigen, go here: bit.ly/posigen-hpcsi-lead.
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Spreading solar throughout Hunting Park improves home energy empowerment, reduces energy costs, and reduces regional emissions, fighting climate change. Through our partnerships, it also creates a revenue stream. Our goal is to use this revenue stream to run our solar training program, as well as to build an additional cool roof installation training program.
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If you are interested in learning more about getting rooftop solar through this program, or about HPCSI in general, contact Allen Drew.
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Finally, HPCSI, in its efforts to help solarize Hunting Park, has been involved in helping implement the Philadelphia Energy Authority's Built to Last program. Built to last uses public funds to repair, weatherize, and solarize low-income homeowners in Philadelphia. Over the past three years, they ran a pilot of the program and solarized 50 homes citywide. HPCSI was involved in leveraging our connections to ensure that 10 of those 50 homes were in Hunting Park. A documentary was filmed that interviewed 6 of these homeowners, one of which is an HPCSI board member (Gail Pryor). You can watch it here.
