Kim Sudderth, Mothers Out Front Virginia Organizing Manager, spoke at a ribbon-cutting dedication ceremony for a solar array over the weekend.
Norfolk Solar QOZ Fund, founded in January 2019, had a singular goal of using private investors to install solar for under-resourced communities in Hampton Roads. Nearly 2 years after the initial founding, they have installed just over $1 million of solar in qualified opportunity zones across the region.
The Wesley Union A.M.E. Zion Church is over a century old, bringing its own challenges to the project. However, the compromise of a beautiful ground-mounted solar array, with seeding of natural grasses and wildflowers, will be a
sight to behold for this generation and the next. And, the church will be making its own power from the sun throughout the lives of this generation.
“The investment of solar is only one step in our process, we are continuing to train opportunity zone residents as solar installers on every job,” Ruth Amundsen, Founder of Norfolk Solar and Mothers Out Front Member, shares, “and we also hope to find innovative ways to finance and install batteries, so these sites can serve as resilient shelters for their communities as well.”