Full Video Transcript
– [Speaker] I envision a future where every resident in New Orleans knows that they’ll have relief after a major storm with power outage.
– Right after Hurricane Ida, our grid went down for 10 days in some other communities, maybe more.
– So it can be a life changing experience just one storm and sometimes not even a major storm. As soon as the power goes out, everything changes.
– Many of our residents don’t have the ability to leave. You look at Ida, we have about 20 deaths. The majority of them were due to heating shocks, we’re due to the power going out.
– [Pierre] What’s currently happening in New Orleans is there’s a resiliency movement and it’s being led by two organizations, Together New Orleans and Feed The Second Line. It’s a network of resilience homes. Typically rooftop solar are integrated with more residential style backup batteries like Tesla power walls. And we’re also integrating a SPAN panel for that added benefit of knowing exactly where your energy draw and and load demand is coming from.
– [Speaker] These institutions are embedded really in the center of these communities, a place to come get cool to get a bite to eat.
– [Speaker] When you look through the lens of a power outage or disaster response, you have kind of limited fuel supply. Solar panels only produce so much power. The batteries only have so much capacity.
– [Shaka] The SPAN app allows you to extend that battery life another 40%. That extra level of control will just allow us to be able to do more for people.
– [Speaker] If the grid goes down again and my neighbors in the community can come in, cool down ’cause it’s gonna be hot as heck, and of course they’ll get some Caribbean food to have the restaurant and also have this capability of the solar panels and I can give back to the community. I mean, I’m glad that I was able to secure that for my neighborhood.
– Soon as the power goes off, we all bond together. It’s just part of who New Orleans is.
