As Tropical Storm Debby drenches the south-eastern US causing widespread power outages, a solution developed in New Orleans could offer an essential lifeline when the lights go out.

On a Sunday in the Broadmoor neighbourhood of New Orleans, a church full of voices can be heard singing the hymn This Little Light of Mine. But letting it shine has now taken on a whole new meaning for residents in the city. In 2023, the brownstone Broadmoor Church’s rooftop was kitted out with a raft of new solar panels, turning that sunlight into energy for local residents.

The church is one of 86 planned “community lighthouses”, and part of a wider project to build the nation’s largest network of solar and storage resilience hubs at places of worship and community centres. The project is spearheaded by Together Louisiana, a non-profit organisation supported by local and federal funding, to transform these centres into energy-resilient hubs.

As Tropical Storm Debby, which made landfall in Florida as a category one hurricane, continues to inundate Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, causing widespread blackouts and flooding, the search to adapt to such severe storms is growing. (Read more about how hurricanes are becoming more extreme with climate change.)

New Orleans’ community lighthouses are in their early days, and haven’t yet been tested against a full-blown hurricane. But the project’s organisers hope they could be a life-saving model for providing crucial power in the immediate aftermath of a storm.

The community lighthouses function as solar-powered microgrids to provide power during grid failure and outages caused by extreme weather, such as hurricanes. The solar-power network also has back-up battery capacity, meaning the community can stay powered when conventional power sources are overcome by extreme winds and flooding.

“It takes just four of our batteries that store power from our solar panels to stay around 96% full and allow us to run for around a day when the grid goes down,” the church’s pastor and Broadmoor community lighthouse manager Gregory Manning says.

Manning’s church is part of a hub which will eventually serve 200 people from the surrounding area. During extreme weather, their daily electricity needs can be met – everything from small essentials like mobile phone charging to life-saving services, such keeping medicine cool and providing protection from extreme heat.

Louisiana locals say these community hubs could make a substantial difference during a hurricane. With an extremely active Atlantic hurricane season ramping up, it may not be long before the lighthouses are put to their first serious test.