Disaster preparedness is a key issue for large urban areas, especially in areas that experience not only natural disasters such as floods, high winds and earthquakes, but power outages on the local, regional and multi-state areas. Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems are a natural and wise solution for disaster preparedness because of their sustainable, stand-alone operation capabilities. The City of San Jose has undertaken a project to explore, identify and test priority applications of renewable energy systems for disaster management and for building disaster-resistant communities. The City is particularly interested in identifying "dual-use" applications, such as the use of solar electricity on school facilities that are also used as shelters during disaster situations. Our approach to spurring widespread application of PV for disaster management is to get PV equipment in the hands of emergency response teams, let them use the equipment for training and during emergencies, and have them evaluate the effectiveness of the technology in meeting their needs.
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