For those of you following our work in community resilience, you may have wondered what we’ve been up to. At Footprint Project, our work extends to many community projects outside of our Western North Carolina Solar Free Store. If you’ve been waiting for our WNC Solar Free Store to open again, we appreciate your patience! Here is just a small fraction of what our tight-knit team has been working on.

As we continue to grapple with the long-term impact of Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina, we take time to reflect on what community resilience looks like and how we can best serve them.

Emily is a DC-based solar professional who has spent nearly 20 years scaling equitable, distributed solar across the country. Prior to joining Footprint, Emily served as Senior Special Advisors for the EPA’s Solar for All program and the Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technology Office. Before the Federal government she spent 13 years scaling Solar United Neighbors (SUN).

After months of designing and building, we recently met up with worker-owned cooperative Chispas at their headquarters in Asheville, NC to deliver a new solar trailer. While sharing some amazing food, our team trained Chispas members to use the trailer to power essentials under blue or grey skies.

Ahead of Winter Storm Fern, our Appalachia team opened a battery library at our warehouse in Mars Hill, North Carolina, and preemptively supported the Buncombe County Emergency Operations Center, Black Mountain Fire Department, Swannanoa Resilience Hub, and Swannanoa Grassroots Alliance with power for communications at warming centers.

In Lake Providence, Louisiana, a small town in the Mississippi Delta where ice toppled trees and transmission lines, we partnered with Together Louisiana to power a warming shelter, heated blankets, and home health devices like feeding tubes, medical beds, and oxygen machines.

Power can protect communities. It can also terrorize them.

We would like to introduce you to our newest board member, Sara Rossi. Sara is the Managing Director of the Health Resiliency Fund at Direct Relief.

In her work, she oversees initiatives and grant-making programs that strengthen health facilities’ resilience and sustainability in the face of disasters and a changing climate, domestically and around the world.

As the first major storm of 2026, Winter Storm Fern has kept us busy here at Footprint Project! We hope that everyone who has been impacted by the ice, snow and cold temperatures stays safe and has received help as soon as possible.

On September 22, 2024, Hurricane Helene emerged in the Caribbean Sea, rapidly intensifying into a devastating Category 4 storm aimed at Florida and later impacting six states, particularly wreaking havoc in North Carolina. Our team mobilized quickly, deploying renewable energy solutions and establishing essential support hubs to aid communities in desperate need.

On September 22, 2024, Hurricane Helene emerged in the Caribbean Sea, rapidly intensifying into a devastating Category 4 storm aimed at Florida and later impacting six states, particularly wreaking havoc in North Carolina. Our team mobilized quickly, deploying renewable energy solutions and establishing essential support hubs to aid communities in desperate need.

Footprint Project is pleased to announce our Request For Proposals (RFP) for Solar and Atmospheric Water Generators!

Footprint Project’s partner in resilient power for health, Direct Relief, donated $250,000 to proactively fund the deployment of mobile solar and battery storage to communities impacted by disasters this year.

When was the last time your power went out? I don’t mean those split second events, almost imperceptible but for your blinking microwave clock. I’m talking about a day or a week or a month or more without electricity. Whatever’s in your refrigerator is going bad.

Disasters exacerbate disparities. From Hurricane Katrina to the pandemic to Hurricane Ida, food insecurity is perpetuated by New Orleans’ high rates of poverty and vulnerability to extreme weather events.

We sat down with PV Magazine to discuss the Maui wildfires, decarbonizing disaster response, and duck curve financing.

When fires devastated communities on Maui in August, we watched in horror as the news traveled across the Pacific, reports growing deadlier and more devastating by the hour. Never having been to Hawai’i, we began to strategize about how we could help.

Early this spring, a series of tornadoes devastated several communities in rural Mississippi. We joined forces with local partners requesting emergency power: Delta Health Center in Rolling Fork, the Fannie Lou Hamer Center for Change in Eupora, and the Zion Baptist Association in Winona. These hubs would go on to serve as foundations of recovery and resilience in their communities.