This coverage is made possible through a partnership between BPR and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
On a sunny morning in Marshall, Steve Porvaznik and Ryan Callahan, both electricians with the solar company Rhino Renewables, put the final touches on a solar installation. They drilled white covers over three batteries, each of which contains a nest of wires and conductors and is about three feet high. It’s the end of a week of installation at Beacon of Hope, a community hub in Madison County that has a laundromat, thrift store, and food bank.
The building now has a microgrid.
“We were able to back up the whole store, essentially, with all the freezers and coolers,” Porvaznik told BPR. Now that the batteries are installed, they will store electricity generated by the solar panels, allowing Beacon to keep its electricity going through a disaster without a connection to the larger electrical grid. This is different from regular rooftop solar panels, which don’t always have battery backups and will switch off during a power outage. The full setup, with panels and batteries, is called a microgrid. These batteries store an estimated 68 kilowatt hours of solar power, meaning even without sunlight, the building will have energy to last at least one day.
The Beacon of Hope solar install is the first of 26 microgrids planned for Western North Carolina. Twenty-four of these solar setups will mostly be at community centers, food banks, libraries, fire departments and other essential community buildings. Two will be on mobile trailers. In 2025, the state Department of Environmental Quality granted $5 million for this work to a coalition of regional and local nonprofits.
At Beacon of Hope, a lot of energy is needed day-to day to power freezers, laundry machines, and other appliances that keep the organization’s work running smoothly.
Jessi Koontz, director of Beacon of Hope, told BPR the food pantry currently provides weekly food assistance for about 1,600 families. Hunger has increased by about 50% since last summer, Koontz said. The organization’s power bills can run up to about $1,200 per month.
“Everything's been kind of compounded since the pandemic and I feel like we were just kind of getting back on track when Helene hit,” she said.
Koontz is hopeful now that Beacon of Hope can keep going when the lights are out.
“People already come here,” she said. “So, how can we maximize the resources that are available and the communication that is available when they come here?”
The nonprofits and officials leading the microgrid project are hoping they can expand further, although new state and federal funding has not been allocated yet.
University of Pittsburgh engineer Alex Kwasinski, who studies microgrids and disasters, said funding is a common limitation for scaling such projects across communities and regions. Whether in Western North Carolina or in Puerto Rico, it’s often small-scale. He said large corporations and governments rarely invest wholesale in microgrid technology. Thus, the organizations who do the work are often smaller.
“Probably it is because of who ends up providing this power, which are these, sometimes, not-profits or some other organizations, that make the effort and do these kinds of things,” Kwasinski said.
Sarah Nichols, with Land of Sky, is working to find more community hubs like Beacon of Hope. The ideal candidates are on higher ground and less likely to flood, she said. They also serve communities with high needs.
“Are we looking at equity?” Nichols said. “Should we put it in a more rural area or in a community that might not traditionally get access to government services?”
In the event of a power outage as widespread as Helene’s, these types of community institutions will provide power to store essentials like food and medication, as well as communications like cell service and internet. When the lights are out in nearby homes, this capability gives community centers the latitude to function as a safe, warm, and dry space to land for a few days or hours.
Local leaders are looking ahead to see how people can stay connected to each other during disasters. For communities that can stay connected to power, that also means, potentially, less interruption to communications.
