Detroit plans to harness solar power on vacant lots throughout the city

DETROIT (AP) — Patricia Kobylski remembers when there were lots of people living in her eastside Detroit neighborhood. There aren't as many anymore — and haven't been for a long time.

“Right now, on our side of the street there are probably only 10 houses. Should be 50, 60,” the 78-year-old Kobylski said Monday after the city announced a plan to bring to her neighborhood solar arrays, which are blocks of ground-based solar panels.

Detroit is using something it has plenty of — vacant land — to produce something the city needs — clean and relatively inexpensive energy.

Pending approval by the City Council, Kobylski's Gratiot-Findlay neighborhood eventually will see solar arrays on about 23 acres (9.3 hectares) of land. Not far away, another eastside neighborhood is to get arrays on nearly 41 acres (16.5 hectares), while a third will get arrays on nearly 40 acres (16.1 hectares).

Five other neighborhoods are finalists to also get solar arrays. Resident groups had to apply to be considered for the program.

The city is looking to build solar energy arrays on about 200 acres (81 hectares). The arrays would produce enough clean energy to offset the electricity used currently by 127 municipal buildings.

Detroit will use $14 million from an existing utility fund for up-front costs that include acquiring and clearing the land. The solar fields are expected to ultimately save the city $4.4 million per year.

“We have seen property values and income tax revenues grow dramatically in other neighborhoods where the city has made investments,” Mayor Mike Duggan said. “I'm confident our $1.1 million-a-year investment in these long-forgotten neighborhoods will produce a real recovery in these communities.”

The city touts its Solar Neighborhoods project as a national model for finding solutions to climate change. Duggan revealed plans a year ago following a challenge by President Joe Biden for cities to use more solar power while taking advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides federal tax incentives of 30% or more of the costs to cover renewable energy.

Over the past year, neighborhood groups held meetings to consider hosting solar fields. Those selected will receive $15,000 to $25,000 in community benefits to pay for energy efficiency upgrades. They can choose to use the benefits for new windows, roof repairs, new energy efficient appliances, new furnaces and hot water heaters, better home insulation, smart thermostats, energy-efficient lighting and battery back-up for outages.

Duggan said he hopes to break ground on the project by the end of the year.

Donna Anthony, 63, also is in one of the three neighborhoods announced Monday. She wants to get new attic insulation, vinyl siding and a new generator for her home. Anthony also looks forward to not having vacant lots and abandoned houses nearby, which often become sites for illegal dumping.

“When you come outside you get depressed when you see all this trash being dropped,” Anthony said of discarded tires and construction materials. “You go out and clean it up and it's right back there the next day.”

Under Duggan, the city has made leaps in stabilizing and fixing up neighborhoods that had been deteriorating and in advanced stages of blight. Primarily with federal funds at its disposal, Detroit has demolished at least 24,000 vacant structures since 2014, according to the mayor's office. Hundreds of others have been transferred to the Detroit Land Bank which has fixed up many houses and resold them to families. Dozens of vacant lots — left by the razing of homes — are being sold to people living next door to maintain and beautify what otherwise would become overgrown, weedy eyesores.

Secure solar farms could also be an aesthetic benefit in these areas, according to Sarah Banas Mills, director of the Center for EmPowering Communities, Graham Sustainability Institute at the University of Michigan.

“There are not very many communities that would say ’You know, the thing that would make this better is a solar farm,'” Mills said. “A neighborhood might want a solar farm there to effectively fight illegal dumping. That’s a really unique way of thinking.”

“On more developed land, places that aren’t green field right now, solar is sometimes perceived as a negative change to the landscape,” Mills continued. “In places that already are industrial, it is as an improvement.”

About 633,000 people call Detroit home — more than a million fewer than the 1.8 million who lived in the city in the 1950s. What Detroit may lack in population, it makes up for in land. Currently, about 19 square miles (49 square kilometers) of the 139-square-mile (360-square-kilometers) city is vacant.

“The challenge with solar is that it’s an industrial investment," said Anika Goss, chief executive of Detroit Future City, a nonprofit focused on improving the lives of the city’s residents through community and economic development. “Unlike trees or some sort of stormwater management, it has its downsides," she continued. Since the panels absorb energy from the sun, they can also create heat islands — or parts of cities with higher average temperatures than the surrounding areas — "in places that might already have challenges with heat islands.”

Goss also said she is disappointed that the energy produced by the solar arrays will not be used to lower utility bills for residents in the selected neighborhoods.

“The checks that they’re giving as a community benefit for energy, I think that's a good thing,” she said. “They can use it for window upgrades. They can use it for their own stormwater management. It’s not enough for a new roof, but it could be enough to put something in that could make their own home energy efficient."

The city says 21 homeowners in the selected neighborhoods have chosen buy-outs to allow for demolition of their houses to make way for the arrays. Renters will receive the cost of relocating and 1.5 years of free rent when they move.

Overgrown empty lots sit on Detroit's eastside, Monday, June 24, 2024. The eastside neighborhood is one of a few that are expected to receive solar arrays as part of Detroit's efforts to remove blight and find uses for underpopulated areas in the city. (AP Photo/Corey Williams)

Donna Anthony, 63, points to a map of her neighborhood that was chosen to receive solar arrays, Monday, Jun 24, 2024, in east Detroit. The arrays would produce enough clean energy to offset the electricity used currently by 127 municipal buildings. Residents will receive funding to make their homes energy efficient. (AP Photo/Corey Williams)

Donna Anthony, 63, points to a map of her neighborhood that was chosen to receive solar arrays, Monday, Jun 24, 2024, in east Detroit. The arrays would produce enough clean energy to offset the electricity used currently by 127 municipal buildings. Residents will receive funding to make their homes energy efficient. (AP Photo/Corey Williams)

Trash and debris little an empty lot on Detroit's eastside, Monday, June 24, 2024. The eastside neighborhood is one of a few that are expected to receive solar arrays as part of Detroit's efforts to remove blight and find uses for underpopulated areas in the city. (AP Photo/Corey Williams)

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — When Hungary takes over the helm of the European Union on July 1, many politicians in Brussels will have the same thing on their minds: whether populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will use the role to further his reputation as the bloc’s main spoiler.

Orbán in recent years has seemed to relish opportunities to block, water down or delay key EU decisions, routinely going against the grain of most other leaders on issues like the war in Ukraine, relations with Russia and China, and efforts to defend democracy and the rule of law.

His public opposition to EU policies and stances has long frustrated his partners in the bloc and pushed him to the margins of the continent's mainstream. Hungary's motto for its presidency — Make Europe Great Again — raised eyebrows for its resemblance to the famous tagline of former U.S. President Donald Trump.

The EU presidency rotates among its member countries, and while the post holds little real power, it does allow countries to put their priorities high on Europe’s agenda.

Now, as Hungary resides over the 27-nation bloc for the coming six months, it will likely keep up its anti-EU rhetoric, said Dorka Takácsy, a research fellow at the Centre for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Democracy.

But the timeline of its presidency — beginning with a lengthy summer break and a transitional period of forming a new European Parliament and executive commission — will give Budapest few opportunities to derail the bloc’s priorities significantly, she said.

"These six months are altogether not that long, which means that ... Hungary cannot do potentially much harm, even according to the critics," Takácsy said.

As Hungary's takeover approached, leaders in Brussels rushed to push through important policy decisions while Belgium was still at the helm. On Tuesday, for example, the EU launched membership talks with candidate countries Ukraine and Moldova.

Orbán has vocally opposed and threatened to block Ukraine's candidacy. His government has also held up EU efforts to supply Ukraine with badly needed funding.

Yet with Ukraine's accession process already initiated, Takácsy said, the most Hungary can do now under its presidency is delay further steps toward its EU membership, a process that in any scenario is likely to take many years.

“All the meaningful steps from the European side regarding Ukraine were already done," she said. “(A Hungarian) delay, according to most European leaders, is already calculated and being taken into consideration as if it’s something which is most likely going to happen.”

Orbán has long been accused of dismantling democratic institutions and violating the EU's standards on the rule of law, leading the bloc's legislature in May to call for the presidency to be taken out of Hungary's hands entirely.

In a resolution, the EU parliament argued that democratic deficiencies raised questions of “how Hungary will be able to credibly fulfill this task in 2024.” Two years ago, the European Commission froze billions of euros in funds to Budapest over concerns about democratic backsliding by the government.

But some Hungarian officials have stressed that they plan to act constructively during their presidency. Last week, Hungarian minister for EU affairs János Bóka told reporters that “we will be honest brokers, working loyally with all Member States and institutions.”

“Carrying out the functions of the presidency is our obligation, but we see it primarily as an opportunity," Bóka said. “At the beginning of the new institutional cycle, we can initiate a debate and set the agenda on issues that are important to us.”

Among the issues that Hungary has prioritized in its seven-point program is the enlargement of the EU in the Western Balkans for countries like Serbia, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania through a “merit-based” procedure.

Budapest has also vowed to strengthen the EU's external borders and step up against illegal immigration, and to address “demographic challenges” that involve an aging population in Europe — two priorities that reflect Orbán's image as a staunch opponent of immigration and defender of family values.

But after years of campaigns portraying the EU as forcing unwanted policies on Hungary — Orbán has repeatedly compared membership in the bloc to more than four decades of Soviet occupation of his country — he may find it difficult to restore goodwill among his EU partners.

“The Hungarian government has been using the image of Brussels as a punching bag,” Takácsy said. “Now it’s somewhat difficult to communicate that for these brief six months, we are basically the Brussels that Hungary is waging war and a freedom fight against.”

With some words of advice for Orbán before Hungary assumes its role, the prime minister of Belgium said the position “does not mean that you are the boss of Europe.”

"The presidency means that you're the one that has to make the compromise,” Alexander De Croo said to reporters in Brussels on Thursday. “Being in the position where you have to make the compromise is an interesting position to be in at least once in your life, so I can definitely recommend it to Mr. Orbán.”

FILE - Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, left, arrives for an EU summit in Brussels, June 27, 2024. When Hungary takes over the helm of the European Union on Monday July 1, 2024 many politicians in Brussels will have the same thing on their minds: whether populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will use the role to further his reputation as the bloc’s main spoiler. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)

FILE - Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, left, arrives for an EU summit in Brussels, June 27, 2024. When Hungary takes over the helm of the European Union on Monday July 1, 2024 many politicians in Brussels will have the same thing on their minds: whether populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will use the role to further his reputation as the bloc’s main spoiler. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)