Two Scott County buildings will get solar panels and batteries this year to help provide a safe gathering place with electricity during disasters.
These “resilience hubs” will be at the town hall in Dungannon and at Appalachian Sustainable Development’s Appalachian Harvest building in Duffield.
The goal is for those spots to provide reliable power and supplies during floods, storms and other emergencies, according to a Thursday news release from the nonprofit Appalachian Voices.
The installations are designed to provide one to three days of emergency backup power, although factors such as usage demand would have an impact.
Construction is anticipated to begin and finish this year.
Funding will come from the tech giant Google through the nonprofit Sharing the Power Foundation, as well as Invest Appalachia, a regional investment platform that partners with Appalachian Voices and the Appalachian Solar Finance Fund.
“We are thrilled for this opportunity to direct funds generously granted by Google to implement important elements of the resilience plans we have spent the last several years developing with our friends and neighbors in Southwest Virginia,” Adam Wells, Appalachian Voices’ regional director of community and economic development, said in a news release.
“In addition to serving as a public resource in times of need, this investment in solar and battery storage technology will lower energy bills for our community partners all year long.”
Dungannon’s town hall, a former train depot that now also serves as a community center and library, will receive rooftop solar panels totaling 30.5 kilowatts and 115 kilowatt-hours of battery storage.
Google and Invest Appalachia will provide about $354,000 in grants, some of which will be repaid after investment tax credits are received. Charlottesville-based Tiger Solar will install the system.
The project will require further construction that has not yet gone to bid, but Google will support that work through more grant money, according to Appalachian Voices.
“Thanks to our partners, this new solar project will not only help with the town’s electrical bills, it will also store backup power at our depot, which we are turning into a resilience hub in the case of emergency. … We may be a small town in Southwest Virginia, but we have big dreams and workers who want to see them fulfilled,” Dungannon Mayor Melissa Gillenwater said in the news release.
The Appalachian Harvest facility will get rooftop solar panels totaling 75.6 kilowatts and 246 kilowatt-hours of battery storage.
Google and Invest Appalachia will provide about $419,000 in grants, repayable funding and loan financing. Knoxville, Tennessee-based Solar Alliance will install the system.
The Appalachian Harvest site processes, stores and delivers to market local farmers’ produce and distributes food boxes to organizations throughout Southwest Virginia.
“By harnessing solar energy, the food hub will continue providing fresh, locally grown food to communities — even in times of crisis — while reducing our environmental footprint,” Kathlyn Terry Baker, CEO of Bristol-based Appalachian Sustainable Development, said in the news release.
Appalachian Voices is a nonprofit environmental organization that advocates for renewable energy. The group said the need for such “resilience hubs” has become more apparent in the wake of recent floods and storms.
In September 2024, Hurricane Helene knocked out electricity for more than 280,000 homes and businesses in Appalachian Power’s service territory, including nearly 176,000 in Virginia, according to the utility.
The storm damaged major transmission and distribution lines, some of which were out of service for up to 10 days, according to the Virginia State Corporation Commission.
Since then, Southwest Virginia localities have bought backup electricity generators and have been refining their emergency preparedness plans to be better equipped the next time disaster strikes.