In Eugene, Oregon the St. Vincent de Paul Society, Lane County’s largest humanitarian organization, has facilitated a solar water heater system that will help lower rents at one of the city’s largest, low-income apartment complexes.
The systems, fitted to 40 units at the Mary Skinner Apartments, are expected to reduce utility fees by about $15 a month – a paltry amount to most, but to Mary Skinner residents, the potential difference between buying needed monthly medications or milk.
The panels cost about $800, but have a minimum 20-year lifetime and – together with energy savings and incentives – predict a much more rapid payoff than solar photovoltaic systems, usually in about three to seven years.
The funding for the Mary Skinner solar hot water units comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as “the stimulus” or ARRA, and three other low-income tenants are on the waiting list for more solar hot water heaters.
The Eugene project is one of many, from Phoenix’ 62-unit Paradise Village retrofitted with solar panels, to the Casa Grande Senior Housing Complex in Petaluma, California, a 58-unit affordable housing module where solar panels and other “clean” energy measures have won complex owner Petaluma Ecumenical Properties the coveted 2009 Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award.
If that doesn’t impress, consider Solara, a new apartment complex in San Diego County completely powered by solar energy whose residents typically make only 30 to 60 percent of the area’s median income ($74,801 for a family of four in 2008/09 figures). This means a husband-wife working team can make about $41,000 a year and be eligible to live at Solara.
Other California solar projects on low-income properties include Hayes, Valley North and Plaza East in San Francisco, all projects built by St. Louis, Missouri-based Sunwheel Energy Partners in cooperation with San Rafael-based Real Goods Solar, the project integrator, and the San Francisco Housing Authority.
In Oakland, part of a former industrial site, now abandoned, has been converted to a 99-unit affordable housing apartment complex powered by a 153.9-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system installed by Berkeley-based Sun Light & Power, which powers all the common areas and administrative facilities, and 32 Heliodyne Gobi 410 solar water heating collectors which provide hot water for laundry facilities, kitchens and bathrooms in almost all of the complex.
In Lounsberry Meadow, New Jersey, a 52-unit senior affordable apartment complex on Valley Road has been equipped with 360 rooftop solar photovoltaic panels delivering 82.8 kilowatts of electricity, or more than enough to light all the apartments and common areas.
And in Vermont, four affordable housing developments – Applegate in Bennington; Highgate in Barre; Salmon Run in Burlington; and Westgate in Brattleboro – have been provided with solar hot water heating systems. Each system will supply 50 percent of the hot water demands at each complex, the entire installation financed through $500,000 in grants from the U.S. Department of Energy via ARRA.