TALENT, Ore. – The City of Talent is one of three communities in Oregon that is getting help from the Department of Energy to create a more resilient power grid.
Talent, along with Pendleton and Warm Springs, was selected for the Energy Storage for Social Equity Initiative. It’s a new program aimed to help underserved and frontline communities.
It hopes to prepare talent for future energy challenges in the face of extreme weather …and make the city more resilient to potential power outages.
Maeve Hogan, Rogue Climate’s RARE AmeriCorps Resilience Organizer, stated, “Rogue Climate sees this as a great opportunity to begin work on the resiliency and storage aspects of the City of Talent’s Clean Energy Plan. In the aftermath of the Almeda fire, incorporating resilience is more urgent than ever. Talent aims to include clean energy infrastructure in the rebuilding process with an equity framework at the forefront, and the technical assistance with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will help us prioritize those who will benefit most from a more affordable and resilient energy system, while allowing our City Planning Department to prioritize their energy on rebuilding and bringing our community members back home. We are excited for this opportunity to work closely with the City of Talent, Solarize Rogue, and PNNL to create a shovel-ready project that the city can implement going forward.”
The exact details are not yet defined but the initiative should lay the groundwork for community solar and contribute to Talent’s Clean Energy Plan.
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