The launch of a solar microgrid was celebrated in November 2023 at New Wine Christian Fellowship in LaPlace, Louisiana. The microgrid is a solar plus storage resilience hub constructed by an organization called Together Louisiana. The organization, which has more plans for the state with similar installations, calls its microgrids “community lighthouses.”

A community lighthouse is a community scale solar and battery storage microgrid sited at a church or community center. During extended power outages, the lighthouses will serve as resilience hubs, offering immediate aid to the community by providing heating or cooling stations, charging stations, food and medical aid distribution and other critical services.

In 2022, when the New Wine lighthouse project was announced, the Pastor Neil Bernard said he was excited because the microgrid will provide the church with even more resiliency to serve the neighboring community during times of disaster.

Current Energy provided the battery energy storage system (BESS) for the project. Through consultation with the contractor, a 125kW-440kWh system paired with a PV system was chosen. In 2024 a generator will be added to the site for long term resiliency.