Kasey Earnest (left), CEO of Boys & Girls Club of Malibu, and Dragon Q Energy CEO Dan Casey (right) with The PowerPole at Third Space Malibu | Credit: Courtesy

To support families affected by the Palisades Fire in Malibu, a plan-B power system called the PowerPole — which, with its thin post and solar panels, resembles a kind of robot umbrella — was put to the test. Soon, they may be hitting the streets of Santa Barbara. 

The battery-packed PowerPole was created by Santa Barbara–based company Dragon Q Energy. Through a partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of Malibu, it allowed people to charge their phones, make calls, and connect to the internet in the wake of the destructive fire. 

The poles are built for reliability in harsh environments and can provide power in areas without traditional infrastructure, making them perfect for this kind of disaster response, said Dragon Q marketing director Liam Casey. 

“While the fires presented an unfortunate test case, the deployment has highlighted the PowerPole’s potential to make a real difference in emergency scenarios,” Casey added.  

Through a collaboration with Santa Barbara nonprofit Unite to Light and the James S. Bower Foundation, they want to bring this same tech to the Central Coast. The Bower Foundation is providing the funds to install 10 PowerPoles — which will cost an estimated $7,500-$10,000 per unit — across communities in Santa Barbara County.

“The PowerPole represents a transformative shift in how we think about clean, reliable energy,” said Megan Birney Rudert, president and CEO of Unite to Light.

Rudert said the goal is to support community resilience efforts in Santa Barbara, and provide off-grid power to emergency shelters and support services for people experiencing homelessness — “creating a model for energy access and climate action around the world.” Unlike traditional diesel generators, the PowerPole operates silently, produces no greenhouse gas emissions, and can be remotely managed and maintained, according to a joint press release.

The project seems to go hand in hand with the county’s goals to make the region more disaster-resilient. And with good cause: Santa Barbara is at the end of the line for both PG&E and SCE power lines, which are in areas prone to wildfire, floods, and debris flows. 

“We are all too familiar with the impacts of climate change, and we need solutions like this one to provide power to residents, especially our most vulnerable, when disaster strikes,” Supervisor Laura Capps told the Independent. “My hope is the county can fast-track approving any kind of required permits to get these poles up and running to serve the community.”

The Santa Barbara partnership will serve as a pilot for improving the poles’ performance and getting them ready for “mass production,” according to the group’s press release.

“The PowerPoles will be deployed across Santa Barbara County. We are in the process of site selection right now,” Rudert said. “We are aiming to have the sites identified by the end of February.”

Depending on where they are, and how the PowerPoles will be installed, however, they will still likely need permits from the City or County of Santa Barbara. “That is still TBD,” she said. 

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