
We've all seen the horrific images of entire neighborhoods destroyed by the fierce fires that have been burning in and around Los Angeles, CA since last week. The fires have killed more than two dozen people and destroyed more than 12,000 structures.
EBL doesn't normally work in the area of disaster response and emergency relief, but just as we were compelled to after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, we are responding. We're partnering with the global energy management technology company, Enphase Energy, to provide solar generators to communities impacted by the LA fires and to fire fighting strike teams that have been deployed from the Bay Area to help battle the blazes. (If you want to support our efforts in LA, click here.)
EBL co-founder and board member, Marco Krapels, and EBL technical advisor, Captain Richard Birt (retired from Las Vegas Fire & Rescue), are in LA distributing 25 of Enphase’s IQ PowerPack 1500s, a portable solar generator with portable solar modules, that can be used to charge cell phones, laptops, radios, lighting, and other small critical devices. Fifteen of the solar generators are being deployed to the strike teams battling the fires to power fire personnel’s radios and cell phones. Six solar generators are also being distributed to World Central Kitchen providing infrastructure support to community hubs in low-income neighborhoods without power, and the remaining units are going to a preschool and community organizations in Topanga Canyon. These units will power lighting, cell phone and laptop charging and powering of other small personal devices.Â
Homes and businesses have historically relied on diesel generators when the power grid fails, but diesel is unreliable, costly and polluting. Many LA neighborhoods already have poor air quality, and burning diesel will only make their air quality worse (affecting both visibility and health). These solar generators are intended to provide critically needed energy and help firefighters and others transition off diesel generators–helping break the negative feedback loop between environmental disasters and fossil-fuel-based responses.Â
Stay tuned for more updates and reports from on the ground...
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