The Footprint Project, a non-profit organization that provides microgrids and other emergency energy systems during disasters, is seeking equipment donations as it gets ready to respond to Hurricane Ida on the northern Gulf of Mexico.
The Minnesota-based organization plans to dispatch mobile solar equipment to meet emergency power needs in the area, according to an email sent Sunday by Will Heegaard, operations director.
Footprint has four solar trailers and 60 portable battery packs staged in Nashville to respond in the aftermath of the hurricane that was bearing down on Louisiana Sunday as a Category 4 storm.
The organization is monitoring road conditions, will assess potential deployment sites, then activate based on local requests for power, he said. Footprint also is working with suppliers to prepare surge shipments of portable power packs for field response partners.
Footprint is seeking partners with additional mobile solar assets in the Southeast that can be used respond to power outages caused by the hurricane. For details contact [email protected], or fill out Footprint’s Solar Asset Intake Form.
The organization also needs enclosed trailer frames and lithium chemistry batteries. A list of emergency donations Footprint accepts is here.
The Footprint Project has delivered mobile microgrids and other forms of green emergency power to help victims of several disasters in recent years, including last winter’s Winter Storm Uri in Texas.
The organization also installed a microgrid for a COVID-19 clinic at a camp of about 3,000 asylum seekers, and it has also helped power shelter and communications operations created to address California wildfires. Footprint showed up with emergency solar electricity within 24 hours after 200,000 Iowans lost power in August 2020 because of a derecho. Footprint Project is credited with bringing in some of the first volunteers following the January 2020 earthquakes in Puerto Rico.
Footprint recently got a big boost with multinational giant Schneider Electric coming on as a strategic partner to support the organization’s microgrid efforts.
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