200 Detroiters receive up to $15,000 in energy efficiency upgrades

Every time it rains, east-side Detroit resident Sandra Turner-Handy's basement floods. It's a problem for her and many of her neighbors in the Houston-Whittier Hayes area, and Turner-Handy says climate change is partly to blame.  

Now, her backyard is one of the construction sites for over 165 acres of solar panel fields, part of Detroit's Solar Neighborhood Initiative.  The vacant land in Turner-Handy's neighborhood will now help Detroit meet its clean energy goals, while she and her neighbors receive upward of $15,000 in repairs to their homes, including electrical upgrades, new doors, attic insulation, new basement windows and a new central AC unit. 

In a recent update to the project, Detroit's City Council voted 6-3 to allow DTE to take over construction of three of the five planned solar fields, including the sites at the Houston/Whittier-Hayes, State Fair, and Gratiot/Findlay neighborhoods. The two other project locations, Greenfield Park and Van Dyke/Lynch, DTE already owns. 

Approximately 200 Detroit residents will receive these repairs to their homes as part of Detroit's Solar Neighborhood Initiative: a project that uses vacant land in Detroit neighborhoods to build solar panel fields and generate energy for Detroit's municipal buildings. 

"To move toward solar energy, even though that solar energy is only currently going to provide energy to municipal buildings, that's ok because we're moving in the right direction," Turner-Handy said. 

The Solar Neighborhood Initiative began in 2023, with Detroit neighborhoods applying to have their vacant land used to construct solar panels that power city buildings. The initiative will use a total of 165 acres of vacant land to build solar panels, generating enough energy to power 127 municipal buildings. Some of those buildings include City Hall, police and fire stations, recreation centers and health clinics.  

The Detroit City Council approved a contract shift allowing DTE to move forward with three Detroit solar energy projects that had been put on hold.  Lightstar Renewables, a Boston-based power company, initially planned to build solar panels in those three locations but dropped out after a private equity firm purchased the company.  

As both a resident receiving repairs and an environmental activist, Turner-Handy said she is excited to see the city make much-needed progress with its clean energy goals.  

"As we look at climate change, it's real, and we understand that it's real because we're looking at the magnitude of our rain patterns, our heat patterns, different things going on that's really impacting our health," Turner-Handy said. 

The city selected 209 owner-occupied homes near the solar field projects to receive energy efficiency upgrades. Upgrade funding ranged from $15,000 to $25,000, depending on the size of the nearby solar field. Instead of repairs, any renters received 18 months' worth of rent in addition to moving expenses.  

While the city council approved the contract changes, some city council members have reservations about DTE taking over construction. Some members argue that DTE has failed to follow through on past promises to improve conditions for residents surrounding solar energy projects in the past and that the current project will subject the city to high costs. 

"What I want residents in the city to know is I am absolutely in support of clean energy; I feel deeply that as a city, as a state, as a country, we need to move away from using fossil fuels," Detroit City Council Member Denzel McCampbell said. "With my vote on this contract, it was not so much about the solar itself; it was about the terms of the contract, the cost, and really the overall deal." 

McCampbell said that members in his district, District 7, had experience with a previous project: the O'Shea Solar Park that DTE worked on several years ago.  Many of the community members surrounding the O'Shea location have not seen benefits from the solar park, according to McCampbell.  DTE's recent rate hikes also do not help the company's case, the council member said.  

"Residents were promised a lot more in their area, not only around beautification in the area, but also benefits around the solar array, and we just not have seen that being recognized and actually happening in that neighborhood," McCampbell said.  

The two contracts, one for Houston-Whittier Hayes and the other for State Fair and Gratiot/Findlay, will each last for 35 years, as the solar panels will require regular maintenance. All five solar projects have an estimated completion date of early 2027. The exact costs of the project will be determined annually but are expected to cost $477,606 in 2028, increasing to $3.2 million for 2029.