Lightstar named: Duggan announces Detroit's first three solar neighborhoods
Mayor Mike Duggan on Monday announced the first three neighborhoods chosen to take part in a project to convert blighted lots into solar farms to help power municipal buildings.
Detroit — Mayor Mike Duggan on Monday announced the first three neighborhoods chosen to take part in a project to convert blighted lots into solar farms to help power municipal buildings.
Last year, Duggan unveiled his plan to convert 127 municipal buildings from 33 megawatts of fossil-based energy into solar by installing six neighborhood solar fields totaling 200 acres. The city hopes the fields will reduce its $8 million annual power bill by $4.4 million.
Since then, 18 neighborhoods applied and officials narrowed them down to eight finalists. On Monday, Duggan announced that Gratiot/Findlay, Van Dyke/Lunch and State Fair communities are the neighborhoods selected for phase one. Combined, the three areas would create a total of 104 acres of solar arrays.
Phase two will commence in 2025 with three more neighborhoods and will take about two years to build out.
“Detroit can take real action to fight climate change and address some of the worst blight in the City,” Duggan said during a press conference on Fairport Street on the city's east side. “Detroit is now becoming the center of Michigan’s fight to address climate change and we're doing it, while at the same time, helping neighborhoods that think they have been forgotten.”
The city has selected Lightstar Renewables, a Boston-based company that has 20 solar fields across the country, to build out the State Fair and Gratiot/Findlay neighborhood; and DTE Energy, which has already built three solar fields, will be building out Van Dyke/Lynch.