Policy Memo: Regional Solar-Plus-Storage Powered Resilience Hubs
To: Metro Atlanta Government Leadership
From: Amol S. Naik
Executive Summary
As you are aware, Metro Atlanta faces growing threats from climate driven disasters —heatwaves, severe storms, and displaced residents of neighboring cities fleeing to Atlanta for shelter— while many of our current residents already face energy burdens of 10% of household income.[1]
The City of Atlanta has long been a sustainability leader, including current efforts ably led by Mayor Andre Dickens and his team. One such effort is the creation of the Vicars Community Resilience Hub, the City’s first “resilience hub”, a safe place for people to gather, access reliable power for their essential devices, refrigerate medications securely, and as emergency situations develop receive information.[2] Similarly, the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) has played its usual critically important supportive role, including recently issuing Climate Action Planning for the region.[3]
Scaling this critical, lifesaving resilience hub to support underserved populations in other parts of the City, and ultimately across Metro Atlanta, is the purpose of this memo.
Below is an ambitious, but achievable, plan to protect our most vulnerable neighbors:
- Build on Atlanta’s first resilience hub by scaling to 5–7 additional locations across the City and 12-20 resilience hubs around the Metro Atlanta region in the next 3 years.
- Equip the resilience hubs with solar-plus-storage systems to ensure reliable energy during outages.
- Mobilize public-private partnerships to secure funding and accelerate deployment.
- Leverage federal, state, and philanthropic funding to minimize local costs.
- Prioritize equity by deploying hubs first in high-risk, energy-burdened neighborhoods.
- Partner closely with the community power non-profit Groundswell, which partnered with the City of Atlanta on the Vicars Community Resilience Hub and has demonstrated both technical expertise and capacity to collaborate effectively with community leadership.
Problem Statement: Atlanta’s Climate Vulnerability
Hurricane Helene struck Asheville, NC in September 2024 with catastrophic force. Record flooding submerged neighborhoods and left more than 250,000 residents without power for weeks. Only a handful of facilities equipped with solar-plus-storage microgrids, such as the Burton Street Community Center, remained operational, powering medical devices, refrigeration, and communications. Experts credit these distributed systems with saving lives.[4]
Simply put, had Helene’s track shifted slightly west, it would have been Atlanta’s neighborhoods, hospitals, and families enduring this crisis.
This close call exposes Atlanta’s existing vulnerability. In several South and West Atlanta neighborhoods, low-income households face exceptionally high utility burdens, often spending 10% of their income on energy bills, compared with a national average of roughly 3%.[5] When outages occur, families lose food and medicine within hours. Seniors, children, and people with chronic illnesses cannot safely withstand days without cooling, refrigeration, or power for medical devices. Meanwhile, aging stormwater infrastructure magnifies flood risk in the city, while suburban communities along the Chattahoochee and South River remain highly exposed to prolonged outages[6].
The 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina reminds us that disasters magnify inequities. In New Orleans, it was the poor, the elderly, and communities of color who bore the greatest suffering and the slowest recovery. Atlanta must not repeat this history. Building a network of solar-plus-storage resilience hubs—across both the city and the region—offers a way to ensure that when the next Helene comes, our most vulnerable residents are protected, and our communities are prepared.
Recommendation 1: Build on Atlanta’s First Resilience Hub
Proposal: Expand 5–7 additional facilities in the City of Atlanta and 12-20 facilities across the Atlanta Region in the next three years.
Approach:
- Retrofit existing facilities — libraries, recreation centers, schools, church facilities — as multi-functional hubs.
- Equip hubs with cooling/heating systems, refrigeration for medicine, food storage, and emergency communications tools.
- Fully integrate hubs into Atlanta’s Office of Emergency Preparedness framework and analogous regional plans.
Recommendation 2: Deploy Solar-Plus-Storage Systems
Proposal: Power each hub with solar-plus-storage systems that provide additional resilience to the centralized grid.
Why It Matters:
- Public Safety: Our most vulnerable citizens will simply need somewhere to go.
- Energy Security: Keeps critical systems online during prolonged outages.
- Affordability: Solar-plus-storage systems are more cost effective than diesel generators, which sit idle most of the year and provide no bill savings. In contrast, solar-plus-storage systems have the potential to both provide daily economic value and deliver back up power during outages.
Recommendation 3: Mobilize Regional & Private-Sector Partnerships
Proposal: Establish a public-private partnership to coordinate resources, technical expertise, and funding.
Key Actions:
- Coordinate with the ARC to align regional planning and funding priorities.
- Partner with Georgia Power and local companies such as battery company Stryten Energy and solar developer Cherry Street Energy to identify hub locations and co-invest in infrastructure.
- Collaborate with universities, nonprofits, and local contractors, most notably the leading national community power non-profit Groundswell.
Recommendation 4: Leverage Federal, State, and Philanthropic Funding
Potential Funding Pathways:
- FEMA BRIC Grants: $2.3B annually for local resilience initiatives.
- DOE Resilience Grants (BIL §40101): $3B available for microgrid deployment.
- Inflation Reduction Act (IRA): Investment tax credits + direct funding for solar and storage.
- Georgia PSC Pilot Programs: Advocate for Georgia PSC pilot and demonstration programs that can support innovative resilience and microgrid deployments.
- Georgia Power Community Partnerships: Investor-owned utility has been an indispensable partner in prior efforts, including the Vicars Community Resilience Hub.
Recommendation 5: Prioritize Equity in Deployment
Proposal: Use energy burden data, climate vulnerability mapping, and community engagement to select hub locations.
Why It Matters:
- Atlanta neighborhoods with the highest energy burdens spend 10% or more of their income on utilities, compared to the national average of 3%.[7]
- Low income communities face disproportionate climate risks while also experiencing inequitable access to climate change mitigation and adaptation resources.[8]
Conclusion
Atlanta can lead the nation in equitable climate resilience. By expanding solar-plus-storage powered resilience hubs, we can protect our most vulnerable residents, accelerate progress toward the City’s 100% clean energy goal, and become a national model for inclusive climate adaptation.
Most importantly, as recent examples so clearly show, it is not hyperbolic to state that this is an opportunity to save lives.
Atlanta has a rare chance to combine clean energy, equity, and resilience in a way that safeguards residents and inspires national replication. Expanding resilience hubs with solar-plus-storage systems ensures that when the next storm or heat wave comes, no resident is left without power, safety, or hope.
References
[1] [“Clean Energy Atlanta,” https://www.100atl.com/, Dec. 15, 2025]
[2] [“Vicars Community Resilience Hub,” https://ccogatl.org/hub/, Dec. 15, 2025]
[3] [“Atlanta MSA Priority Climate Action Plan,” https://atlantaregional.org/what-we-do/climate-resilience/, Dec. 15, 2025]
[4] [Canary Media, “Hurricane Helene underscores need for more solar-battery microgrids,” “https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/distributed-energy-resources/hurricane-helene-underscores-need-for-more-solar-battery-microgrids,” Sept. 22, 2025; Tym, Olivia. “North Carolina Is Still Recovering from Hurricane Helene, and Solar + Storage Is a Lifeline” Solar Power World Online, June 12, 2025.]
[5] [Public Interest Network, “Solar Power for All: Energy Burden and Opportunity in Atlanta,” 2022.]
[6] [“Clean Energy Atlanta.”]
[7] American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, “Energy Burden in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area,” https://www.aceee.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/aceee-01_energy_burden_-_atlanta.pdf, 2020.
[8] Zahnow, Renee, Ali Rad Yousefnia, Mahnoosh Hassankhani, and Ali Cheshmehzangi. “Climate Change Inequalities: A Systematic Review of Disparities in Access to Mitigation and Adaptation Measures.” Environmental Science & Policy, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104021, 2025.