Last month, the Flyer reported on Mayor A C Wharton’s Clean and Green initiative, though which he vowed to cut energy usage in city-owned buildings by 20 percent by retrofitting many of the 600 city-owned buildings to run more efficiently, installing solar panels on some buildings, and other energy-cutting measures.
Now Memphis Bioworks has launched Memphis Civic Solar, a crowd-sourced funding campaign to raise money for solar panels to be installed in 30 municipal buildings. Combined, the panels will produce 1.5 megawatts of solar energy. Bioworks is using an IOBY page, the same tactic used to crowd-source funds for the Hampline bike lane in Binghampton, to raise the money.
Once complete, Memphis Civic Solar will be one of the largest municipal solar projects in the country. Funds raised though the campaign, which has a goal of $49,000, will make up about one percent of the total estimated cost for obtaining and installing the panels.
