Scotland Recreation Center Resilience Hub

About the Program

Category: County Resiliency (Best in Category)

Year: 2022

Montgomery County's Office of Energy and Sustainability (OES) has developed the existing Scotland Neighborhood Recreation Center into a Resiliency Hub. Resiliency Hubs are facilities designed to remain powered during electric grid outages and provide a haven for the local community. Extreme weather events are expected to increase because of climate change and the deployment of Resilience Hubs is a method of adapting existing facilities to support the community with critical infrastructure. To accomplish this, a rooftop solar photovoltaic system with backup battery storage was installed at the recreation center. The Scotland Recreation Center will now be a location where residents can take refuge from the heat of summer or the cold of winter when their residences lose power. Moreover, residents will be able to refrigerate critical medicines, charge electronic devices, and safely gather with neighbors. The newly installed systems are also helping Montgomery County advance towards reaching its greenhouse gas reduction goals by providing clean, renewable energy to the center during normal day-to-day operations. The Scotland Resiliency Hub is the first of several that Montgomery County is aiming to develop in Low-to-Moderate Income (LMI) communities.