HRES Virtual Workshop Presentation
EmPower Northeast Kansas City, Missouri
Solar Power is for ALL!
Saturday, August 24th, 2024 at 10 AM CDT
Historically in the United States, the high up-front cost of residential solar installations has generally meant that these installations are only feasible for middle- to upper-income individuals. The only federal incentives available have been in the form of tax credits, which isn’t much of an incentive for low-income individuals who don’t have the “tax appetite” to benefit from these credits. However, low-income individuals could potentially benefit the most from clean energy installations, because the lower an individual’s income is, the higher percentage of that income is spent on energy. EmPower the Northeast, a program at Jerusalem Farm in the Kansas City, Missouri Northeast neighborhood, is trying to address this problem. Through an innovative financing model, EmPower Northeast KCMO is making solar power affordable to the people who stand to benefit from it the most.
About the speaker
Adam Rossi is an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer with the Kansas City Public Library. His placement site is Jerusalem Farm, a nonprofit organization and intentional community in The Northeast of Kansas City, MO. He started EmPower the Northeast at Jerusalem Farm, a program that aims to make rooftop solar power systems affordable for low-income homeowners in the Northeast. He has worked on this project for nearly two years, and has been at Jerusalem Farm for over four years total. Before coming to live and work at the Farm, he was a high school environmental science teacher.
