A stormwater garden tucked into Hollygrove is about to do double duty as a backup power source for the neighborhood. Two 450-watt solar panels, outdoor cooling fans and an ADA-accessible entrance ramp are being added to the Hollygrove Community Stormwater Garden, with the goal of turning the space into somewhere residents can gather and plug in when the lights go out elsewhere.
The nonprofit behind the upgrades, Groundwork New Orleans, is expanding the garden into a gathering place for residents, according to its own account of the project. The two solar panels carry a combined rated generating capacity of 900 watts, and the system will also have connection ports for additional panels down the line. Groundwork New Orleans intends for the setup to help power outdoor cooling fans and other small electrical needs, with the broader aim of letting the garden serve as a neighborhood resource during power outages.
Fans, a Ramp and Who's Building Them
New outdoor fans are going in beneath the garden's shade structure, while workers separately build out the ADA-accessible entrance ramp, per the same account. The project was nearing completion as of the report, though the organization had not announced a specific completion date.
The work is being carried out by Ground CREW, Groundwork New Orleans's paid workforce development program for young adults ages 19 to 25, in partnership with the Hollygrove Neighbors Association. Participants are gaining hands-on experience in solar infrastructure, electrical installation support, carpentry and sustainable construction as they build. Ground CREW emphasizes sustained employment and hands-on training rather than short-term certification programs, and Todd Reynolds, executive director of Groundwork New Orleans, said the program trains participants on real green infrastructure, solar and reforestation projects. Reynolds also said community partnerships benefit from neighbors' own knowledge of their neighborhood.
A Pattern of Solar-Powered Green Spaces
Hollygrove isn't the first Groundwork New Orleans project to pair stormwater management with solar backup power. The organization opened the Vision 2 Reality Stormwater Management Park on North Claiborne Avenue in September 2025, investing more than $400,000 to build a green space that includes a bioswale, solar-powered charging stations, cooling fans and other amenities. Ground CREW members completed 99 percent of that park's construction work, the same report notes.
Groundwork New Orleans is also working on a Touro Street project featuring a solar-powered gazebo, native plantings and bioswales designed to capture stormwater and help reduce neighborhood flooding. In August 2026, the organization received a $10,000 grant from the Greater New Orleans Foundation's Racial Equity Fund, which supports youth development, environmental improvement and neighborhood resilience programs.
Hollygrove's Long Run of Green Infrastructure
The Hollygrove improvements land in a neighborhood that has spent years building out green infrastructure piece by piece. Since 2018, Water Wise Gulf South and the Hollygrove-Dixon Neighborhood Association have implemented 14 completed green-infrastructure sites across the area, providing a combined water-storage capacity of 49,543 gallons. The initiative has also held 13 outreach events, five Green Infrastructure 101 workshops and four tours, engaging more than 750 participants in hands-on education, according to the group.
Zoomed out further, Water Wise Gulf South and its community partners have installed more than 150 green stormwater infrastructure projects citywide that collectively hold more than 200,000 gallons of stormwater per rain event, per the Kresge Foundation. Separately, Together New Orleans has pushed to expand its Community Lighthouse solar-hub program to 86 hubs citywide and 500 statewide, backed by $2 million from the city and $3.8 million in community project funding secured by U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, as reported by NOLA.com.
Hollygrove has also drawn its own dedicated nonprofit attention outside of Groundwork's work. The organization Peace by Piece has focused on the neighborhood since 2016, building five community gardens and a neighborhood pantry with a solar-powered fridge over the following decade, according to NOLA.com.
Other Solar Backup Experiments Around the City
Groundwork New Orleans has tried combining solar power with community resilience before. In summer 2017, Public Interest Design Fellows worked with the organization to design and build a prototype solar-charging bus stop in the Lower Ninth Ward, intended to provide clean energy for transit users and serve as an emergency neighborhood power source, according to Tulane University's School of Architecture.
More recently, Groundwork New Orleans partnered with Footprint Project to create the Gentilly Beehive Microgrid, a solar-and-storage backup power project listing a combined capacity of 38 kW and 74 kWh across its Queen Bee and mobile Bee units, according to the Clean Energy Group. That project hit a setback in February 2025 when the EPA issued a termination notice for its funding award, forcing the project team to scale back the design, the group reported.
