Transcript:
To help communities cope with disasters, a government-funded project in North Carolina is taking inspiration from bees – who go out, do a job, and return to the hive.
Sara Nichols is at the Land of Sky Regional Council, a multicounty planning and development group. She says the idea came from conversations about how to build back better after Hurricane Helene.
Nichols: “What does the state of North Carolina need when it comes to responding to these kinds of storms?”
She says having power in an emergency is critical. So her group is partnering with the nonprofit Footprint Project and others to install solar and battery systems on about two dozen buildings and to create two portable units called beehives.
Each hive will be made of four shipping containers that can be trucked to wherever needed and that contain solar-powered trailers, batteries, and other gear.
Nichols: “The concept is that everything fits into the hive.”
Once on site, the four containers can be assembled into one large support center with a solar roof.
And the solar-powered trailers – or bees – can be sent from there into the affected community to charge phones, refrigerate medicine, and more.
So the portable system will help get electricity where it’s needed most.
Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy / ChavoBart Digital Media
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