By Kayla Benjamin for The Washington Informer.
Broadcast version by Brett Peveto for Maryland News Connection reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Service Collaboration

The second-oldest Black community in Prince George's County broke ground last week on a six-home development that centers around new energy technology. A combination of solar panels and energy-storing batteries will power a small subdivision in Fairmount Heights, and the development will run on a microgrid that shares energy between the homes and can continue running even when Pepco's wider system has outages.

Spearheaded by nonprofit Housing Initiative Partnership (HIP), Pepco, and renewable energy platform company BlockEnergy, the pilot project broke ground Oct. 13. Developers say they plan to complete the build by spring 2024, when HIP will market the single-family houses to first-time homebuyers earning 80 percent or less of area median income.

"We are building six zero-energy homes that are going to be affordable to first time homebuyers," said Stephanie Prange Proestel, HIP's deputy director, at the groundbreaking ceremony. "We are going to have clean, resilient, reliable energy for our homeowners that's going to be more affordable."

The term "zero energy" means that a home produces as much energy as it consumes over the course of a year. HIP has helped develop zero energy, affordable houses before, but the microgrid system is a new frontier for the nonprofit-and for the region.

"There are not a lot of these [microgrids] in Maryland, and particularly there are not a lot in communities that have been ignored for far too long, that have been underserved and overburdened," said Maryland Energy Administration Director Paul Pinsky. "A lot of these efforts and innovations over the last 20 to 25 years have been in the middle- and upper-middle class, and that's got to change."

The new subdivision sits where Fairmount Heights' original municipal building used to be. The project aims to celebrate the town's rich legacy with a historic marker and a neighborhood "pocket park" that will serve as the formal beginning of the Fairmount Heights Black history walking tour.

"We've got these two legacy institutions [the town of Fairmount Heights and HIP] that are coming together to do this really new and innovative thing and paving the way for more communities like this in Prince George's County," said Angie Rodgers, the county's deputy chief administrative officer for economic development. "You've got institutions that have been around forever but are still thinking about, how do we make our communities better? How do we be on the cutting edge?"

How It Works

The technology behind the microgrid comes from BlockEnergy, an energy platform company that works with utilities to provide power in this new form. The Fairmount Heights development will be the third BlockEnergy community in the world; the first two are in Florida and New Mexico.

Each of the houses will have its own solar panels and energy storage battery. All the homes are linked through an underground network and will automatically share power with one another, and with a bigger battery station that stores more energy and connects to Pepco's main power grid.

"We're basically reinventing the way that we get energy into communities, because we really haven't changed that fundamentally for over 100 years," said Rob Bennett, founder and CEO of BlockEnergy, in an interview.

Bennett and other stakeholders said they expect the system to produce and store enough energy to cover the community's typical household needs, but it also has the ability to draw on Pepco's main grid when more energy is needed.

Cool New Tech - Hefty Costs

Unsurprisingly, the battery and network technology for BlockEnergy's grids remains expensive. The individual homes' battery boxes, which resemble large A/C units, currently cost between $30,000 and $50,000 each, according to BlockEnergy's Vice President of Emerging Technology, Gary Oppedahl. Pepco bought the systems for Fairmount Heights.

The boxes are made mostly in the United States, Oppedahl said, in part to meet requirements for receiving federal clean energy incentives. He also emphasized that pilot projects often have high upfront costs, and that savings on fuel costs and maintenance can mean lower costs for utilities in the long run.

BlockEnergy leaders also say they expect costs will go down as the company scales up and similar technologies become more common.

"The systems in place today are very reliable, very good, very well tested and proven because we've been doing it that way for 100 years," Bennett, BlockEnergy's CEO, said. "So it's difficult to move away from that and adopt something new until it's proven that it really is the better way."

Pioneering a new energy system also added costs on the developers' side, with extra funding needed for the microgrid's planning and design, Prange Proestel, HIP's deputy director, said.

"It is something that really requires a nonprofit bundle together these different sources of funding, in order to do this demonstration project," said HIP Executive Director Maryann Dillon in an interview. "It's tough to make the numbers work when there's so few houses to spread the costs over."

The feasibility study and additional utility work also meant a longer timeline, which increases costs. HIP first bought the land from the town of Fairmount Heights in 2019. The town aims to earn certification under the statewide Sustainable Maryland program, which recognizes municipalities that make progress on green goals.

"This is a realization of a dream that we've had for quite a while," said former Fairmount Heights mayor Lillie Thompson Martin, under whose administration the project began. "This is the trend of the future... it's very important that we keep the stride going so that Fairmount Heights is not left out of the big picture."

Ownership and Energy Costs

Pepco will own and operate the network and the batteries, while a local community solar company will own the solar panels. That means the new residents will pay for their energy, rather than using it free and selling excess back to the grid the way traditional rooftop solar owners can.

However, it also means that any maintenance costs for the expensive tech-either the solar or the batteries-will not fall on the first-time homeowners.

"These are first-time low-income homeowners, and if there's a $200 problem with their own battery, they can't afford to get it fixed-and so suddenly there's no clean energy coming to their home," said Tony Ruffine, a renewable energy consultant working with BlockEnergy. "Instead, this is the utility's [battery]."

The whole system will have 262kWh of battery storage capacity, according to BlockEnergy, and 48kW worth of rooftop solar. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory's solar output calculator estimates that a solar panel system of that size in Fairmount Heights would likely produce just over what six average households would need in a year. That doesn't account for the fact that these homes will be more energy-efficient than most.

"We put in a lot of green features to really make the housing affordable to whoever moves in, so they're not burdened by utility bills," said HIP Executive Director Maryann Dillon in an interview. "A key driver in making housing affordable is controlling your utility bills, and obviously it's the right thing to do with global warming."

Lowering Impact and Increasing Resilience

In his remarks at the groundbreaking, Pinsky, the director of the Maryland Energy Association, discussed how this project encompasses two key responses to climate change. On one hand, the high-efficiency homes are expected to produce enough solar energy to cover their usage-that means they avoid using additional fossil fuels that add planet-warming greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere.

At the same time, the microgrid offers a potentially more stable energy source as climate change increases the frequency of severe storms that often knockout traditional power lines. In the community using BlockEnergy technology for 37 houses in Tampa, the lights stayed on during Hurricane Ian even as more than 2 million Floridians lost power.

"The surrounding area was out of power for three or four days-the people in Southshore Bay [the Tampa mini-grid community] didn't even know there was a power outage," Bennett said. "They, I think, entertained a lot of their neighbors who didn't have power, who came over to charge phones and things."

"Because of climate change, natural disasters seem to be happening more and more," Bennett continued. "So it's important to have communities that can survive and stay safe and secure with electricity."


Kayla Benjamin wrote this article for The Washington Informer.


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CO2 pipelines are on the increase in the United States, and like all pipelines, they come with risks. Preparing for those risks is a major focus of the Community Benefits Agreement between Nebraska-based Bold Alliance and Tallgrass Energy Solutions.

Tallgrass plans to modify an existing gas pipeline that crosses Nebraska to transport CO2.

Bold Alliance Director Jane Kleeb said her organization stands with communities facing energy infrastructure projects, to help ensure they have what they need and that the company is giving back. She pointed to Satartia, Mississippi's 2020 experience with a massive CO2 pipeline leak as evidence of the importance of first-responder training.

"We have real money in here," she said, "$400,000 initially, and then an additional $200,000 for training and $100,000 for an emergency response system that first responders will get, to equip their mostly-volunteer firefighters."

Not only did the Mississippi first responders lack the training for a CO2 disaster, Kleeb said, but some were unaware the pipeline even existed.

Tallgrass has said it will conduct yearly training for first responders in the 10-county area, and send yearly notices to all landowners along the route. Kleeb said she expects the firefighter training to begin within the next few months.

CO2 is colorless, odorless and displaces oxygen, making it potentially deadly. It can disable internal-combustion engines on vehicles needed for evacuation. Although CO2 pipelines cover more than 5,000 miles in the United States and continue to be built, Kleeb said federal regulations aren't yet in place.

"For folks listening, you may be, like, 'What do you mean they don't have regulations in place?' And that's what we've been saying for the last few years: We need regulations in place," she said. "No pipeline will go into operation in our state until those regulations are finished, and Tallgrass then knows the type of safety valves and other things they have to put in place to be in compliance."

This month, a pipeline rupture in Sulphur, Louisiana, leaked more than 2,600 barrels of CO2 and took two hours to control.

Another provision in the Community Benefits Agreement is annual royalty payments, which Kleeb calls a "significant win" for Nebraska landowners.

"Landowners are now going to be getting 10 cents per metric ton that is sequestered of the carbon," she said. "So, that could be up to $1 million every year that will go back to landowners in the path of this pipeline."

Kleeb said no pipeline companies in the Midwest currently pay landowners a royalty for use of their land.


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April has been "Invasive Plant Pest and Disease Awareness Month," but the pests don't know that. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it's the best time of year for Pennsylvanians to spot invasive species before they can do more damage.

Invasive pests cost the United States about $40 billion a year in damages to trees, plants and crops.

Kathryn Bronsky, national policy manager for USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said hungry pests include not only invasive insects but diseases they carry, which people can unknowingly spread.

"Some examples of what to be on the lookout for are Asian longhorn beetle and spongy moths, and other pests that harm trees and natural resources," she said. "And fruit flies, citrus greening, spotted lanternfly and lots of others that can damage crops and agriculture here in the U.S."

Bronsky said spotted lanternfly eggs have not hatched yet, so she urges people to be on the lookout for their egg masses, which resemble small mud smears. She recommends scraping them into plastic bags with sanitizer, or squashing them directly. Either approach will help diminish the invasive spotted lanternfly population.

Invasive pests attack different types of trees, Bronsky said. The tree of heaven is their preferred host, but a wide range of fruit, ornamental and woody trees also are at risk. Bronsky added that climate change and certain weather conditions can magnify the impact of invasive pests.

"We know climate change can increase the level of plant pest infestation and disease infection," she said. "It also allows these pests to produce more generations each year, and extends the suitable habitat for these plant pests so they can spread to new areas that we didn't know they could previously exist."

She added that it's important to note that such items as firewood can carry pests, from spotted lanternflies to spongy moths, that can then be spread through the movement of firewood. She suggests people avoid this by purchasing only heat-treated certified firewood.

People can report sightings to the USDA online at hungrypests.com.

A new study raised red flags about respiratory health in Pennsylvania, particularly for those living near oil and gas activity.

The study by GeoHealth said nationwide, oil and gas venting and flaring exacerbate asthma in 73,000 children, including nearly 12,000 in Pennsylvania.

Jackson Zeiler, public health analyst for the Environmental Health Project, said energy developers do flaring and venting on a regular basis to remove excess gas. He explained the study looked at the potential health risks associated with the practice.

"There's adverse birth outcomes, there's cancer outcomes," Zeiler pointed out. "Volatile Organic Compounds are a big part of these emissions, which have a whole host of health effects, including respiratory health issues, different neurological effects like headaches and dizziness for people who are working in those facilities, and people who live really close by."

Zeiler noted flaring also contributes to an increased risk of hospitalizations, emergency room visits, worsening asthma and even premature death. But the energy industry said flaring is needed to minimize pressure at well sites, for testing and other reasons.

The study used satellite images and gas-imaging techniques to visualize emissions. Zeiler added companies are required to report their emissions to regulatory authorities and the data is compiled into a National Emissions Inventory through various sensors.

"They looked at the National Emissions Inventory numbers and compared it to the actual imaging that they looked at," Zeiler emphasized. "They found that the imaging saw way more emissions than was accounted for in the National Emissions Inventory. They're able to conclude that companies are underreporting, essentially, what they're flaring and what they're emitting."

He suggested Pennsylvanians could work with lawmakers on stricter reporting guidelines and transparency requirements for oil and gas operators. He also recommended advocating for greater setback distances between well sites and residential areas to minimize exposure.


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