In rural corners of Western North Carolina, keeping power on can be difficult because of mountainous landscapes, tree patterns and other ecological phenomena. But, when Tropical Storm Helene hit nearly two years ago, power grids across the region were wrecked and some places were left without in the dark for weeks.
After Helene, sustainability advocates and state and local agencies came together to find ways to build back greener and prevent such a widespread loss of access to power and water from happening again.
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One of their solutions? “Power bees” — or microgrid technologies that keep communities powered up through solar and battery-powered energy.
Mobile Beehive Microgrids power a food bank
Last year, the NC Department of Environmental Quality’s State Energy Office announced that they would be investing $5 million in permanent and mobile microgrids in Western North Carolina.
In mid-June of this year, DEQ, along with regional partners, came together at MANNA Food Bank in Mills River and showcased two microgrid hubs, which are rapidly deployable batteries that provide immediate power outside of the central grid in the event of extreme weather events. Eventually, one beehive hub will be stationed in the western part of the state, and the other will be located in the east.
These mobile microgrids, which are trademarked as “Beehive Microgrids” are essentially solar-powered shipping containers with panels on the top and batteries on their sides. The inside can be used to cool produce, medication and other materials that might need refrigeration. These are crucial for elderly and disabled populations who oftentimes cannot afford to lose power.
Right now, the bees are parked outside of MANNA, a food bank that serves Western North Carolina. MANNA’s original location in Asheville, off of Swannanoa River Road, was destroyed during Tropical Storm Helene by a 20-foot water surge, leading to the loss of more than a million pounds of food. The only thing that remained was a fleet of trucks that were moved offsite before the storm.
In the days after the storm, the organization, which serves 16 western counties and the Qualla Boundary, pooled together resources with other food banks in the state, like Charlotte-based Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina, and continued food distributions at the WNC Farmers’ Market.
“We never stopped keeping food moving to our communities,” said Micah Chrisman, the director of marketing and communications for MANNA.
MANNA has since relocated to a former FedEx facility in Mills River, in northern Henderson County. The new location recently installed a freezer cooler building to keep food donations cold without relying on diesel-fueled tractor-trailers with cooler storage units. The new room has three times the capacity for cool storage as the food bank’s old location did.
The cooler bees have the potential to be deployed for those in need during future storms, but they are currently parked outside the food bank, storing excess in-season produce that local farmers have donated.
Especially now, during peak farming season, MANNA will store this produce, which is at risk of turning into food waste, then give it away to churches and regional food banks that come to pick up materials, Chrisman said.
While the food bank won’t permanently house the bees, they provides the organization with crucial assistance in keeping it sustainable while construction continues on its new facility. In the event of an emergency anywhere in the state, the bees will be launched into another community and provide essential power and essential cooling processes for food and medication.
“The cool thing about the bees is that they are able to be deployed if there is a crisis or natural disaster,” Chrisman said. “It could be utilized in other communities depending on the need.”
Microgrid hubs for WNC communities
Microgrids are small, independently operated power grids that generate electricity for a localized area. They provide low-cost energy and are an alternative to typical utility services, like Duke Energy, the Tennessee Valley Authority or Blue Ridge Power, which provide electricity for most of Western North Carolina.
Besides the two mobile microgrids, 24 other permanent microgrids, or “power bees,” by this coalition are in progress in counties affected by Tropical Storm Helene. The microgrids will be called Community Resilience Hubs — and they’ll be installed in community spaces such as food banks, libraries and fire departments in Avery, Buncombe, Madison, Mitchell, Rutherford and Yancey counties.
“It was a really cool demonstration of this public-private partnership coming together to deploy equipment in a way that’s nimble and responsive to community needs,” said Matt Abele, director of the NC Sustainable Energy Association.
NCSEA, a nonprofit organization, works closely with the NC Utilities Commission and the legislature to secure more opportunities for clean energy in the state.
While the microgrid installations will begin this summer, DEQ will continue to look for additional sites to expand the program. These initial sites are spaces that were instrumental in providing a place for residents to congregate in the days, weeks and months following Helene.
The East Asheville branch of the Buncombe County Public Library, which provided food and water for residents after the storm, will be getting a 120-kilowatt-hour battery to support its existing collection of solar panels. Beacon of Hope, a food bank in rural Madison County, will receive a solar panel collection and battery power. A number of other rural community centers and fire departments will receive microgrids, with additional sites to be announced. Ultimately, four sites will be located in each of the target counties.
“One of the things that we heard quite frequently after Helene was the lack of places for people to go immediately after the storm that had access to power, clean drinking water, and access to the internet or telecommunications,” Abele said.
But, microgrids won’t just help in disasters. They have the potential to provide lower utility costs for rural communities.
Renewable energy in disaster response
Footprint Project, a nonprofit organization based in New Orleans, has responded to natural disasters nationwide by deploying solar and battery storage as a temporary disaster response to reduce people’s reliance on gas and diesel to run generators. Footprint has responded to wildfires in Hawaii and the widespread grid outages in Puerto Rico. Its mission is to “build back greener after natural disasters.”
Days after Helene, Footprint came to Western North Carolina and began deploying Starlinks for internet access, solar panels and water purification systems. Unlike diesel- and gasoline-powered equipment, solar and battery-powered grids do not require a constant stream of fuel, which was scarce in the aftermath of Helene.
But access was difficult, considering how the storm destroyed remote roads and infrastructure. The National Guard worked with the Footprint Project to distribute these resources. Some stories tell of electric motorcycles transporting batteries and solar panels to remote locations in places where Helene had destroyed the roads, Abele said.
Ian Bailie, a regional planner who works at Land of Sky Regional Council, helped bring the Footprint Project into the region in the days after Helene. He is native to the area and has worked in clean energy for decades, so off-grid energy solutions aren’t new to him. After the storm, he got to work and helped on the ground as the Footprint Project and other entities, like solar companies, deployed renewable energy tools, he said.
He saw a need for a centralized project where communities have the opportunity to build battery assets to keep for future power grid disruptions.
“We were already planning to try to build out fixed sites one at a time, being scrappy and finding funding and combining resources, figuring out a way to build reliable energy for a lot of these rural communities,” he said
Later, NCSEA helped pitch the project to DEQ to secure funding for microgrids. Both Bailie and Abele said the $5 million from DEQ was a quick turnaround for state funds. NCSEA is a network of members, which includes other nonprofit organizations and businesses with clean energy goals. After Helene, NCSEA leveraged its resources to bring more equipment and raise about $900,000 in donations for affected areas.
“What we did was help connect the dots between the Footprint Project and other local organizations that were out in Western North Carolina to help ensure they had an idea of sort of the landscape and geography, and where the greatest need was to deploy that equipment,” Abele said.
Bailie said he sees the $5 million from DEQ as “seed money.” The project will by no means be done when the community hubs are finished, and the funding is used. Microgrids are a tool that can be utilized in any part of North Carolina that experiences extreme weather, which has become more common due to dangerous heat, extreme rainfall and other changes in the climate.
“I would like to see us be able to build out these types of fixed locations across the entirety of North Carolina,” he said.
WNC’s sustainable future
Microgrids could also lower utility bills for communities in Western North Carolina. Because they’re powered by solar and battery, the grids exist completely independent of the central grid, which can already provide spotty coverage for remote, mountainous areas.
“When we lost the entirety of the distribution grid and communities and some transmission grid in some areas, and had that long-term outage happen, people really started to understand better how much energy we consume,” Bailie said.
Some residents have begun installing battery-powered energy in their homes. Clary Franko, the chief operating officer of Sugar Hill Solar, said her business has seen an uptick in individuals who want to install solar and battery-powered energy for their homes. When individuals have a battery, it’s like they have their own small microgrid in their homes.
When the power goes out, having a battery for backup means that individuals can maintain power. During Helene, communities relied on neighbors who had batteries, Franko said.
“That one home that had solar and battery backup was basically telling their neighbors, come over and help yourself,” she said.
Almost two years after Helene, other groups in the region have preceded and succeeded in the microgrid initiative and building back with sustainable energy. Footprint has donated more microgrids than just the 24 included in the beehive project.
Gov. Josh Stein asked for $1 million in his budget request for Helene relief, but it wasn’t included in the final budget that the NC General Assembly passed this month. With this current legislature, NC Sen. Julie Mayfield, D-Buncombe, said funding remains insufficient for building back with sustainable energy.
“This legislature has come to reflect the Trump administration’s hostility to renewable energy,” she said.
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