How Firefighters, Animals and Local Organizations are Benefitting from Diesel-Free Microgrids in L.A. Fire Zones

Her team’s goal: to replace diesel generators with quiet, emission-free solar-filled batteries and mobile microgrids at the Rose Bowl and in other areas that lacked power as a result of the fires.

It was a new type of recovery effort for Footprint Project, said Jamie Swezey, program director, Footprint Project, which is lending batteries and solar generators to people and organizations in the impacted area. Generally, the nonprofit works in small, rural areas that are heavily impacted by fires or storms–not a sprawling city.

“Some places were disaster zones, and everyone was moving toward recovery. Two miles away, life was moving on as usual,” Swezey said.

This was the scene after a series of wildfires exploded in the Los Angeles area beginning on Jan. 7, driven by strong winds and dry conditions. The fires knocked out power, destroyed more than 12,000 structures and killed at least 28 people. To avoid setting new fires with electrical equipment, utility Southern California Edison (SCE) had called numerous public safety power shutoffs (PSPS), leaving many customers In the dark.

Clean energy deployed to support efforts to detoxify firefighters’ lungs

Solarpunk and Footprint Project’s work at the Rose Bowl included supporting a wellness center set up by the Integrated Healers Action Network. Solar-filled batteries and solar generators displaced diesel generators, creating a quieter, cleaner space and powering nebulizer treatments to detoxify and heal first responders' lungs. Massage, physical therapy, chiropractic care and acupuncture were also offered by the network.

“We’re trying to ensure zero emissions and not contributing to the fires that started this in the first place,” Chu said.

Solar power for a pet rescue group

In another wildfire response, Solarpunks and its partners supported a group of people on the ground in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood who had installed 20 cameras on trails and were live-streaming footage of pets moving through them so that owners could be reunited with lost pets. Solarpunks gave the pet rescue group solar-powered batteries to ensure that there was enough power for laptops and cell phones.

Solarpunks is also in the process of deploying batteries, along with Sunrun–which provided solar panels–to the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, which is housing about 200 displaced horses, along with its 500 horses.

Much of the equipment was free. At the Rose Bowl, Footprint Project created a library of free batteries and used some of them to displace diesel generators run by the U.S. Forest Service, said Swezey. She estimated that the batteries have to date displaced about 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel the Forest Service would have otherwise used. Footprint Project also deployed a 12-kW solar array that Sunrun helped set up to charge the batteries.

At the Altadena Fire Department, Footprint Project and Sunrun donated solar panels, batteries and other supplies for mobile microgrids.

Powering medical devices during power shutoffs

Footprint Project also helped people who needed electricity to run medical devices such as oxygen machines, said Swezey. For example, the nonprofit provided batteries charged from the grid to help power an oxygen machine for an elderly woman who lost power during a PSPS event.

As of January 18, Footprint Project had rented out, for free for one month, 12 portable solar generators, 14 battery energy storage systems and had served 25 communication hubs, said Swezey.

Footprint Project’s partners include Overdrive Energy Solutions, Solarpunks, Sunrun, Tesla, SmartAid, New Use Energy, Floating Doctors, New Sun Road, Southeast Produce Council, REON, SpaceX, Avon Rents, Filmtools, King Kong/Set Life, Powertrip Rentals, Empowered by Light, Burning Man, Greentech Renewables, Inergy, Mango Power, Integrative Healers Action Network and Volunteer Fire Foundation.

Schneider Electric, Direct Relief, Target, Amazon, PosiGen, New Energy Equity, and Arcadia pre-funded the Footprint Project response.

And Rivian provided Solarpunks with an electric truck and van that served as mobile microgrids to displace diesel generators.

Renting out solar microgrids otherwise meant for the entertainment industry

Critical to the effort were Los Angeles cleantech industry members–like Solarpunks and Overdrive Energy Solutions— whose aim is to use clean energy to power the live music and entertainment business. They generally rent out solar microgrids to film crews, for example, but were busy responding to the fires.

“There’s a booming industry there; rather than providing diesel generators they are providing big battery mobile microgrid equipment as a rental service. We were paying those rental companies for equipment,” Swezey said.

Footprint Project, Solarpunks and their partners encountered some challenges deploying clean energy. They had to work their way through National Guard checkpoints in evacuation zones, not always successfully. Footprint Project also encountered the utility bureaucracy as it tried to plug batteries into the main panels of buildings–fire stations, for example–rather than running extension cords through windows or doors, said Swezey.

“Once you’re working with something connected to the grid or the main panel of a building, there’s more bureaucracy,” she said.

Challenges to installing permanent solar microgrids 

In general, it’s not easy to deploy stationary–as opposed to mobile–microgrids in the Los Angeles area to address risks from wildfires. A number of factors stand in the way, including utility business models that incentivize large-scale capital investments and guaranteed returns, rather than local distributed energy. In addition, regulators and public policies make it difficult to focus on reliability and affordability, said Shawn Burns, director of revenue at BoxPower.

Complex permitting and agency reviews at the local, state and federal levels also add months and years to timelines for installing microgrids, he said.

“For the last several years, we have been narrowly focused on building partnerships with utilities to identify areas of highest wildfire risk where traditional solutions were either impossible or where a remote grid could provide an equivalent risk reduction for significantly less cost,” Burns said.

To address some of the challenges to deploying distributed energy resources such as solar panels, batteries and microgrids, The Climate Center in January released a report that identifies the reforms needed to achieve clean, affordable and reliable electricity in California. They include dismantling regulatory roadblocks, reforming grid planning and architecture and compensating the full value of distributed energy resources.

Chu hopes that the actions of Solarpunks, Footprint Project and their partners during the California wildfires have raised awareness about the benefits of solar microgrids and solar-filled batteries. She hopes the work will yield new ways of deploying solar microgrids to earn revenues.

“One goal is to use these solar microgrids in off-grid mode or to support the grid if they can interconnect to the grid,” she said, noting that interconnection waits are long. “Right now, we’re just using them for free clean energy for communities and nonprofits. But it could be a revenue stream in the future.”

To request support in the wildfire zone, email [email protected].