Overview
- Ann Arbor’s community-owned Sustainable Energy Utility launched an opt-in pilot to add rooftop solar and FranklinWH home batteries to about 150 houses in the Bryant neighborhood.
- The utility says this is the first U.S. city-run program to buy and deploy residential solar and batteries for use behind the meter.
- The city picked Bryant, where many households spend over a third of their income on energy, to cut bills and provide backup power during outages.
- Michigan Solar Solutions, Homeland Solar, and Oak Electric Service will install the panels, and Texture will connect the homes with software so they can act as one controllable resource.
- The city will measure bill savings and grid benefits during the pilot, with plans to expand the program to 1,000 homes by 2027.