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Pepco has partnered with the District’s Department of Energy and the Environment, Jubilee Housing, New Partners Community Solar, and several local and ecological entities on the construction of a new 96.3-kilowatt community solar panel on the rooftop of Pepco’s headquarters in Northwest.
The project has been installed by New Columbia Solar and supports the DOEE’s Solar for All program with the focus on directly benefitting limited-income residents of Jubilee Housing, an affordable housing development in the Adams Morgan neighborhood in Northwest. The installation team consisted of working-class income job trainees from WDC Solar, a Ward 8-based community-focused solar job training program.
Solar energy generated by this rooftop will support about 170 limited-income households, including approximately 20 additional households that will benefit from the solar atop Pepco’s headquarters. The project is expected to cover 50% of eligible residents’ estimated average monthly electric bills, targeted at $500 per year, per household.
“For residents with limited disposable income, those energy savings can have an outsized impact,” said Jim Knight, president and CEO of Jubilee Housing. “Residents in Jubilee’s Maycroft building who currently participate in Solar for All have told us that the extra Pepco credit of $40 to $50 a month has allowed them to purchase other necessities like food, clothes, and medicine.”
This is the second community solar project installed on a Pepco building in the District, following the development of a 1,156-kilowatt solar facility at Pepco’s Benning Service Center.
“This is an incredibly important and impactful project that will directly benefit people who may otherwise face barriers to energy affordability,” said Tyler Anthony, president, and CEO of Pepco Holdings. “We are 100% committed in support the District’s clean energy goals. It is of vital importance to make this transition equitably.”