When Hurricane Helene tore through Western North Carolina in September 2024, it knocked out power, internet service, and roads across much of the region. Communities that suddenly found themselves cut off from the outside world improvised ways to support neighbors — churches became supply hubs, fire stations served as lifelines, and volunteers scrambled to restore even small amounts of electricity.
That chaotic moment also sparked an ambitious effort to rethink how communities power themselves during disasters.
Now, a new $5 million microgrid initiative by the Land of Sky Regional Council, NC Sustainable Energy Association (NCSEA), Footprint Project, and a network of regional partners aims to build solar-plus-battery systems at community hubs across six counties in Western North Carolina, helping ensure that critical facilities can keep operating even when the main electric grid fails.
A Regional Organization Steps In
The Land of Sky Regional Council is a council of governments serving Madison, Buncombe, Henderson, and Transylvania counties. Like many regional councils, it coordinates programs for member communities — everything from transportation planning and workforce development to digital equity initiatives and housing programs.
Within that broad portfolio, economic and community development specialist Ian Baillie has been working on clean transportation initiatives through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Clean Cities and Communities program. But Baillie also brought another passion with him: microgrids.
“Generating power at giant plants far away and transmitting it across long lines is inefficient and extremely vulnerable,” Baillie said. “If we generate power inside communities and keep the distribution inside those communities, outages affect smaller areas and are easier to fix.”
Even before the storm, Baillie had been pitching the idea of building resilience hubs, or community centers equipped with backup power systems that could provide services during emergencies.
But funding applications for those ideas initially went nowhere.
One federal grant proposal was rejected shortly before Hurricane Helene struck the region. The reason? Western North Carolina had been labeled a “climate haven,” an area considered relatively safe from climate-related disasters.
Then the storm arrived.
A Disaster Response Powered by Clean Energy
Helene knocked out communications across the region. Baillie was among those scrambling to help restore basic connectivity.
An amateur radio operator, he helped relay messages between stranded residents and family members outside the region. When power went out at his home, he used the battery in one of his electric vehicles to keep his internet router running so he could continue communicating.
Meanwhile, his colleagues began sourcing solar panels, batteries, and satellite internet equipment.
Through the NCSEA, the Land of Sky team connected with the Footprint Project, a nonprofit disaster-response group that specializes in deploying clean energy systems after emergencies.
The Footprint Project’s volunteers arriving from Louisiana initially expected a routine deployment.
“When they finally got into Asheville, they realized it was potentially the biggest disaster they had ever managed,” Baillie said.
For weeks afterward, volunteers worked nearly nonstop installing temporary solar systems, battery storage, and mobile energy trailers at sites across the region—food distribution centers, community hubs, and emergency facilities that were helping residents recover.
Donated equipment poured in. Companies sent pallets of solar panels, batteries, and inverters. Schneider Electric alone shipped dozens of pallets of equipment, including prototype portable power systems that had not yet been released to the public.
The experience demonstrated just how critical distributed energy can be during emergencies.
Turning Emergency Lessons into Long-Term Infrastructure
As the immediate response phase ended, organizers began thinking about a more permanent solution.
“In the first month, it was about saving lives. It really was… As time went on and the power started coming back on throughout the region, as electric cooperatives and Duke were rebuilding the distribution grid, that’s where we started having extensive conversations with the State Energy Office to talk with them about, how do we expand the efforts thus far that have been made to date, and do it in a way that better prepares communities throughout Western and Eastern North Carolina for future storms like Helene?” – Matt Abele, Executive Director, NCSEA
The result of all of this collaboration is a $5 million grant from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, funded through the U.S. Department of Energy, to install permanent solar-plus-battery microgrid systems across the region AND create two mobile resilience hubs (nicknamed the “Beehives”) for deployment across the state.
The program aims to build up to 24 systems in six counties: Buncombe, Madison, Rutherford, Yancey, Mitchell, and Avery.
Each system will be installed at an existing community hub that played a role in disaster response after Helene passed through — places like food banks, churches, and fire stations.
“These are places that already stepped up during Helene,” Baillie said. “We’re asking: what did you do for your community, and would resilient power have helped you do more?”
The microgrids will combine solar panels with battery storage systems that can operate independently of the main grid during outages.
Unlike traditional backup generators, the systems will run on renewable energy and require less fuel logistics during emergencies.
The grant will cover the full cost of installation, allowing organizations to participate without providing matching funds.
The Beehive: A Mobile Resilience Hub
While microgrid systems fortify community hubs, the second part of the project involves resilience hubs that can be deployed wherever needed.
“It’s really, really difficult to predict which communities will be impacted most. You can invest in permanent microgrids, but if you’re talking about a natural disaster, you might have a community that’s completely untouched, but then five minutes down the road, a community that’s completely devastated,” Abele said.
Affectionately called the ‘beehive,’ the mobile hub will consist of a shipping container designed to unfold into a transportable command center (the ‘hive’) with solar panels, battery storage, and communications equipment. From the command center, responders will be able to dispatch three trucks (the ‘bees’) to provide power through solar plus battery storage, water generation and filtration, and cooling systems. Two of these beehive systems will be built and stationed in North Carolina, one in the West and one in the East.
“Having a set of solutions that provide sort of permanent infrastructure, while at the same time, mobile infrastructure that can be relocated in a moment, is really important so that we can be nimble and ready in our response efforts to serve large populations in need, but also to serve pockets of communities that are particularly vulnerable with mobile infrastructure,” Abele said.
The beehive will be able to address a number of needs in hard-hit communities, from sending portable batteries and folding solar panels to homes with healthcare devices to providing refrigeration to a food bank.
“You send that bee out to a community hub. It powers the community hub. The community hub will know the people in that community who have home health care needs, the people who are on oxygen, or the people who have CPAPs. So it’s a much more efficient means of distributing that tech out to the folks that need it most in an area,” Baillie said.
The beehive systems will be designed to meet a wide range of community needs, even in clear weather. Rather than remaining in storage, the mobile hubs will be available to partner organizations. For-profit organizations can rent equipment for a small fee to use clean energy instead of gas generators to meet their off-grid or temporary energy needs. Baillie even mentioned powering events such as Bonnaroo, a four-day music festival in Tennessee.
“It helps keep the tech in use, helps get the tech in front of people so they can see it and understand it and experience it, and it generates a little bit of revenue,” Baillie said.
A Pilot for a Much Bigger Vision
While $5 million might sound substantial, Baillie views the project primarily as a proof of concept.
“For us, the five million is seed money,” he said. “It’s enough to prove what can be done.”
The microgrid program is structured in multiple rounds of site selection, with up to six installations planned per round.
The effort is not without challenges. Federal “Buy America” requirements complicate equipment sourcing because most battery systems are manufactured overseas. At the same time, costs have risen sharply in the solar and battery industry.
Still, organizers hope the project will demonstrate how distributed energy systems can improve resilience in disaster-prone regions.
“There’s so many different iterations of what these can look like based on the situation and the need and the community where they’re being deployed,” Abele said. “I think all are incredible in their own ways, but it requires funding.”
If successful, the model could expand across North Carolina and beyond.
“We truly believe in the technology,” Baillie said. “The goal is to prove it works so this can scale across our state and every other state.”
Preparing for the Next Storm
For communities still recovering from Hurricane Helene, the effort represents more than just new infrastructure. It’s an attempt to turn the lessons of disaster into lasting resilience.
During the storm’s aftermath, many community centers operated with limited or improvised power systems while serving thousands of residents.
Permanent microgrids could ensure that the next time disaster strikes, those hubs remain operational from the start.
“In a crisis, power means communication, refrigeration, medical equipment, and the ability to serve people,” Baillie said.
“That’s what this is really about.”
