Many of our neighbors, especially in rural communities, pay 20%, 30%, or even 40% of their entire household income to keep the lights on. Imagine what cutting electricity bills in half would mean for their families and our communities.
Today, Groundswell is delivering more than $3 million per year in energy savings to more than 6,500 families to cut their electricity bills in half. By 2030, we’ll be cutting electricity bills in half for 30,000 families, including more than 17,000 across small towns, rural communities, and a few big towns across the Southeast.
While the scale of impact is new, Groundswell has been doing this work for more than a decade – in the Southeast, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Heartland. The particulars of how we work to cut electricity bills varies from Indiana to Alabama because state energy policies and local priorities aren’t always the same. But it’s the same approach everywhere: Locally driven programs that combine community solar, energy storage, and residential energy efficiency to reduce energy costs and improve resilience. You can see what our work looks like in practice in projects like the Vicars Community Resilience Center in SW Atlanta or the many homes we’ve repaired and made more energy efficient across rural Troup County.
Last year, Groundswell – together with our rural utility and municipal partners across Alabama, Arkansas, North Central Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Central and Southern Virginia – was blessed with two federal awards that will invest $176 million over the next five years in local energy projects that will result in more than $400 million in electricity bill savings that will last 20 years. Both awards are under contract, and we are confident in the cost-cutting impacts and local economic development benefits they will deliver across a part of our country that has often been overlooked – the Rural South. We are confident in the value of cutting electricity bills in half for tens of thousands of families, and we look forward to moving this important work forward when the dust settles in Washington.
We invite you to join us in this joyful work—whether by spreading the word, exploring our programs, or connecting with us to see how you can help.
With gratitude,
