Impact Story

Fairfax Village Gets a New Energy Source

Fairfax Village, a collection of condos built in 1941 and one of the oldest communities in Southeast DC, is home to approximately 450-income-qualified residents in Ward 7. With some residents calling this historic neighborhood home for decades, it’s only natural Fairfax Village is quickly becoming a District leader in employing solar capacity.

Aligned with the DCSEU’s core value of making clean energy more accessible and affordable for all District residents, we offered $900,000 to develop and build out solar systems. Through the Solar for All program, we partnered with Flywheel Development who installed the Community Renewable Energy Facility (CREF) solar systems and the DC Green Bank who provided the construction loan for the project. 

“This project will deliver critical electricity bill savings to keep money in residents’ pockets for the next 15 years, while also strengthening our local economy and workforce,” said Ted Trabue, former Managing Director of the DCSEU. 

“Our continued partnership with DC Green Bank, DCSEU, and Flywheel Development has allowed our community to bring down utility costs for District residents and to do our part to improve the environment in the District,” said Lem Walker, Fairfax Village Community Association President. “We are blazing a path for other communities to follow to become clean, green, and remain affordable.”

Since 2020, the DCSEU has incentivized Solar for All projects in 8 of the 9 residential groupings that are part of Fairfax Village, while installing a total of 17 solar CREF systems at the location – the latter benefitting not only Fairfax village residents, but also income-qualified residents elsewhere in the District, now able to subscribe and obtain energy from these community solar installations.

To support these projects, DC Green Bank provided $1.7 million in construction loans, alongside more than $900,000 in Solar for All funding through the DCSEU.  Through this project, which is located in Wards 7 and 8 and primarily installed in Fairfax Village, a substantial number of the buildings in the community have solar installed on their roofs, with additional solar capacity in the community coming from a ground-mounted unit.