As SACE’s Digital Communications Manager, one of my favorite things to do every week is search for four positive stories about clean energy across the Southeast. Maybe it’s a team of Florida college students learning to build and race EVs. Maybe it’s Georgia’s latest animal shelter going solar. Or maybe it’s the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians bringing the first electric school bus to North Carolina. No matter the story, each one is a little reminder of the incredible clean energy progress that is happening (and will continue to happen) across our region and the U.S.
Like so many of you, our staff and our families call the Southeast home. It is where we live, work, and play, from Florida to Georgia to North Carolina to South Carolina to Tennessee. And there’s no denying it — between the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene, the destruction caused by Hurricane Milton, a contentious election season, and more, it’s been a tough autumn for our region. I myself live in Asheville, North Carolina, where I unexpectedly found my hometown in the middle of a climate disaster. No matter which way you look at it, it’s certainly true: we’re not in Kansas anymore.
But amidst all the stories of loss, there have also been stories of resilience — stories of neighbors and nonprofits stepping up to help their communities in times of need. From solar-powered churches providing life-saving electricity to electric vehicles keeping a veterinary clinic running to Florida residents throwing pizza parties for lineworkers, we’ve picked just a few of our favorite stories of neighbors helping neighbors, communities coming together, and clean energy providing much-needed hope.
Left photo of solar-powered First Grace United Methodist Church courtesy of AP Photo/Matthew Hinton; middle photo of an EV plugged into Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic courtesy of InsideEVs
Climate solution: In the swelter of hurricane blackouts, some churches stay cool on clean power
As Hurricane Helene approached the U.S. Gulf Coast, New Orleans couple Verna Lee and Ronald Bailey, both 71, worried how long the batteries would last on the breathing machine Ronald relies on at night. Then they remembered their solar-powered neighborhood church still had power. There, they were able to charge the breathing machine and go back to sleep in their own home. The church is part of the Community Lighthouse Project, founded to provide essentials to community members facing blackouts using solar. Read more.
Her vet clinic went down in Hurricane Helene. Two EVs powered it back up
“Because we’re a vet clinic, we have to be available for emergencies.” When Dr. Erica Lacher’s veterinary clinic—which provides round-the-clock emergency care near Gainesville, Florida—lost power, she knew she needed a solution. So she plugged in her two EVs, a Ford F-150 Lightning and a Kia EV9. Thanks to the cars’ bidirectional charging, the power was back on in minutes, allowing her and her team to perform emergency care on cats, dogs, and even two horses. “It definitely saved lives.” Read more.
Solar companies unite in Helene disaster relief in North Carolina
Greentech Renewables Raleigh, Footprint Project, Land of Sky Regional Council of Governments, and the NC Sustainable Energy Association are partnering to support disaster relief in Western North Carolina, recently devastated by the impacts of Hurricane Helene. Together these organizations have set up microgrids and solar-powered generators so that areas without power can charge cell phones, power medical and mobility devices, and use WiFi. Read more.
Left photo of lineworkers enjoying a pizza party courtesy of LkldNow/Kimberly C. Moore; middle photo of The Footprint Project at work in Bakersville courtesy of AP Photo/Gabriela Aoun Angueria; right photo of an EV courtesy of driveelectric.gov/Jason Smith
Lakelanders show gratitude as effort to restore power winds down
Residents all over Lakeland, Florida thanked lineworkers who restored their service after Hurricane Milton knocked it out. Residents of Camphor Heights shared their carport fish fry with utility workers from Alabama, while residents of northwest Lakeland threw a pizza party for a crew from Wisconsin. These crews were among 500 additional lineworkers who were in Lakeland in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, helping to restore power to the more than 86,000 people who lost it during the storm. Read more.
Volunteers bring solar power to Hurricane Helene’s disaster zone
In the wake of Hurricane Helene, Bobby Renfro set up a community resource hub near Bakersville, North Carolina. But he had a power problem. The loud gas-powered generator, which cost him $1,200, made it hard to hear the nurses, neighbors, and volunteers. Then came the Footprint Project, a nonprofit that provides solar energy to communities in crisis. The community’s new solar generator and six solar panels could now be used to keep medicines cold, power medical equipment, pump well water, and charge phones. Read more.
Electric vehicle keeps Asheville residents charged during Hurricane Helene
“It was a lifeline during those dark, anxious hours.” When Asheville resident Jason Smith’s friends joined him to ride out Hurricane Helene, it soon became obvious that their 3-kWh battery power bank was only going to get them so far. So his friends plugged in their Kia EV6. Thanks to the cars’ bidirectional charging, Smith and his friends were able to keep the fridge, lights, and electronics on. Without power at home for two weeks, they were able to top up the Kia’s battery at the local Sam’s Club fast chargers. Read more.
Follow along each week
These stories highlight just a few of the positive things happening in our area! Every day we see signs of hope. The Clean Energy Generation is creating a future powered by clean energy that leads to clean air and water, good jobs, and vibrant communities.
Would you like to see more stories like this? We’ve got just the thing for you! Every Thursday, we share the latest clean energy news on Instagram with #CleanEnergyNews. Join us as we celebrate the progress and signs of hope in the clean energy transition.
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The post A (Solar) Light in the Dark: Six Uplifting Stories from Hurricane Season appeared first on SACE | Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
A (Solar) Light in the Dark: Six Uplifting Stories from Hurricane Season
I challenge anyone to watch this short video and explain how Trump still has enough standing with the American people to remain president.
This is just so embarrassing.
Rich Americans aren’t happy that their country is a laughingstock around the world, but their fortunes are multiplying, so what’s the big deal? How does personal integrity come into play when there is so much money at stake?
The MAGA crowd, i.e., uneducated white people, believe Trump when he says that he has brought back respect for the United States.
At left is the ultraconservative crap that Fox News feeds its viewers.
In fact, the theme of U.S. 250th birthday party would be liberty and justice for all Americans, not just rich white people.
Weather Guard Lightning Tech
Siemens Gamesa Warns Europe, Shell Sells Offshore Wind
Allen covers Siemens Gamesa’s warning that Europe is 40 GW short on offshore wind, Shell’s plan to sell its offshore wind farms, Maine’s multi-state bidding round, and Egypt’s grid financing deal.
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
The wind industry got a warning this week… and it came from the top.
Siemens Gamesa, the world’s largest maker of offshore wind turbines, says governments in Europe may be running out of time. The company’s chief executive sounded the alarm Thursday. Europe is currently forty gigawatts short of its one-hundred-and-twenty gigawatt offshore target for twenty thirty. Sixteen gigawatts of projects in Germany alone are at risk of delay, tangled up in lengthy permitting and grid connection backlogs. The plants are running full today. But without new orders soon, factories could go dark for contracts starting in twenty twenty-eight.
“It is not yet an existential threat,” said Siemens Gamesa chief Vinod Philip, “but it could become one.” He stopped short of predicting shutdowns. But he said the company would likely have to downsize resources if governments fail to act quickly. Europe’s offshore supply chain has already committed fourteen billion euros to meet the twenty thirty targets. That is roughly sixteen billion dollars… with no guarantee the orders will follow.
Meanwhile… one of the world’s biggest oil companies is quietly walking away from wind. Shell is preparing to sell its offshore wind farms in a deal that could fetch more than one billion dollars. The company has hired advisers to run the process, which could launch before the year is out, with a sale expected sometime in twenty twenty-seven.
Shell once dreamed of becoming the world’s largest electricity producer. That vision died when its current chief executive took over in early twenty twenty-three and shifted the focus back to fossil fuels and shareholder returns. Since then, Shell has been unwinding its green power portfolio piece by piece. It sold its European onshore renewables arm. It sold Indian renewable company Sprng Energy, which it had bought just years earlier for one-point-five-five billion dollars. And it walked away from planned offshore wind farms in Scotland. When this latest sale closes, Shell will have little wind left in its portfolio.
But where one door closes… another opens. Up in the northernmost corner of Maine, a region that has sat on one of the best wind resources in the country for years, a long-awaited breakthrough may finally be at hand. The Maine Public Utilities Commission is closing its latest round of bidding for wind and solar generation in Aroostook County, plus the new transmission lines needed to move that power south to the rest of New England. The target: at least twelve hundred megawatts. Enough to power hundreds of thousands of homes.
Maine is not going it alone this time. Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont are sharing the cost of the new transmission infrastructure. The previous attempt in twenty twenty-one fell apart. Costs rose. Deals could not be finalized. Landowners fought the proposed one-hundred-forty-mile power line. This time, officials say things are different. The multi-state partnership changes the math. And northern Maine’s wind resource has not gone anywhere. Dozens of energy companies have signed up to compete, from local developers to major multinationals. If everything goes to plan, the best-case scenario puts new turbines spinning in the twenty thirties.
And half a world away… Egypt is making a major investment to keep pace with its own renewable ambitions. The Egyptian prime minister this week witnessed the signing of a financing agreement worth sixty billion Egyptian pounds, earmarked for the national electricity transmission network. That money will go toward upgrading the grid so it can absorb the solar and wind power Egypt plans to add in the coming years. The target: forty-five percent of national electricity from renewable sources by twenty twenty-eight. The electricity minister said modernizing the grid is a “continuous and evolving process,” and that implementation timelines are being compressed to meet that twenty twenty-eight deadline.
The wind is shifting. The question is… who moves with it.
And that’s the state of the wind industry for the 15th of June 2026. Join us for the Uptime Wind Energy podcast tomorrow.
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