ANN ARBOR, Michigan — The Bryant community, a low-income residential area on the fringes of this midwestern college town, isn’t used to getting attention from government leaders. But these days things are different.
The city of Ann Arbor is helping residents of Bryant reduce energy use and cut their heating and electricity bills with solar panels, new insulation and electric appliances. The projects are funded by the Biden administration’s climate initiatives and state money that’s now flowing after Democrats took control of the state legislature and passed a comprehensive climate bill last year promoted by the state’s Democratic Governor, Gretchen Whitmer.
Ann Arbor has long been a bastion of progressive politics, but Democratic leaders there say the election of a pro-climate president and state government has been key to accelerating their ambitions for the city to become carbon neutral by 2030.
“The outcome of elections can be transformational,” said Mayor Christopher Taylor. “We’ve experienced a sea-change from almost overwhelming headwinds to wind at our back and downhill.”
Since the passage of the Biden administration’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), two years ago, Michigan has announced 30 IRA projects, the most of any state. It has also received the fourth-most funding among states, $11.7 billion, behind Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, according to E2, a non-partisan group that tracks IRA funds. The projects include battery factories, solar power facilities and lending for energy efficiency.
Whether this recent trend will continue may depend on the outcome of the United States presidential election next month, as Donald Trump has said he would dismantle most or all of the Biden/Harris administration’s climate programs. As a swing state, Michigan will be one of the key states deciding which candidate will be in the White House next year.
In cities like Ann Arbor, and especially in communities like Bryant, the impact can be personal.
Conversion help
Michigan has lagged in clean energy, with only 15% of its energy coming from renewable sources, compared to more than 21% nationwide. But last year, the legislature passed a historic climate bill backed by Whitmer. It set ambitious goals of cutting emissions in half by 2030 and reaching net-zero emissions by 2040.
The state has embraced efforts by Detroit automakers and other companies to secure funding from the federal government to set up battery plants, boost the production of electric cars and build renewable energy.
The city of Ann Arbor passed its own hyper-ambitious decarbonization plan in 2020 and has tapped into the new federal and state enthusiasm and funding to accelerate its decarbonization. Residents even approved, with 71% support, a tax on themselves that generated $7.2 million last year to pay for the work.
A solar panel array over a parking lot at Burns Park in Ann Arbor, Michigan in September 2024. Photo by Bill Spindle.
Solar panels have gone up in dozens of facilities, from parks to community centers like the one in Bryant. Municipal car, bus and garbage truck fleets are going electric.
The city also established a department that helps individual homeowners come up with comprehensive plans to reduce their emissions. Advisors provide home assessments free of charge and take advantage of federal, state and city funding to help pay for everything from home repairs, new appliances and installing batteries and solar panels.
“We’ll create a customized path for you to get to net zero in your home,” said Missy Stults, the city’s sustainability and innovations director.
Accelerating change
Ann Arbor, also home to one of the world’s largest public universities, The University of Michigan, is an example of how the election of climate-conscious politicians across the country — in Washington, in Lansing, Michigan’s state capital, and on the city council — have accelerated the uptake of clean energy.
Such efforts will be even more squarely before Ann Arbor voters next month. A city-sponsored ballot proposal would set up a new local utility that could more easily implement clean energy solutions within the city’s borders.
The Bryant Community Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan is home base for many of the neighborhood’s energy initiatives. Photo by Bill Spindle.
The new utility would help the city connect rooftop solar panels on homes with good sun exposure to nearby homes without solar panels and encourage landlords to put solar installations on rental housing. Both are challenges Bryant faces in boosting the use of solar power to cut residential electricity bills.
The new utility could even help Bryant tap into heat hundreds of feet below the neighborhood: The city is studying geothermal energy as a heating source for the neighborhood, backed by funding from the U.S. Energy Department as part of the Biden administration’s climate initiatives.
Local impact
The Bryant neighborhood encompasses 262 homes along winding residential streets with an elementary school at its center. Inside the local community center, which is covered with solar panels, sits a scale model of the geothermal heating plant under study.
Community center representatives use the model during neighborhood meetings to explain how the geothermal system would work if it were eventually constructed.
Derrick Miller, who leads the clean energy initiatives in the Bryant community, stands next to a model of a proposed geothermal energy facility the city is studying for the area at the Bryant Community Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan in September 2024. Photo by Bill Spindle.
Residents are more aware of home assessments the city provides through the community center as well. While the assessments aim to increase energy efficiency and lower emissions, homeowners can also get assistance tapping state and federal funds to make repairs, improve drainage and install waterproofing and plumbing.
From the street, recently placed solar panels are visible on dozens of homes.
Leaner Webster, 74, lives with her sister and two nieces in a home her mother bought when the community was developed. She’s nearing the end of a months-long, city-guided home upgrade that has included everything from new front steps to a new electric dryer, stove and refrigerator, largely paid for by federal, state and local programs.
Glancing up toward the new panels on her roof, she said she can’t wait to receive her first electric bill with the new system fully in place. A neighbor told her that her bill had dropped by about one-third after installing panels, Webster said.
“I’m looking forward to having the money to buy some new furniture,” she said.
Source: This story was originally published by ciphernews, Bill Spindle
Photo by Binyamin Mellish: https://www.pexels.com/photo/blue-and-gray-concrete-house-with-attic-during-twilight-186077/
