Building Resilience in Boise

September 2026

In this issue:

Building Resilience in Boise

Our new solar-plus-battery installation in Boise powers our building, shades our cars & boosts our resilience - and looks super cool, too.

Hi Friends —

I spend most of my time in Boise — but last week I was working at our small satellite office in Portland when, poof, the power went out.

It was no big deal at first. I mean, it was a sunny day, so we didn't miss the lights; the A/C quit, which was almost a relief in our over-air-conditioned building; and my laptop didn't even flicker. It got trickier when we found both our office key cards and the elevator were dead — meaning we could leave the building, but not get back in! We chanced lunch anyway: stoplights out, restaurants closed, our whole part of town without power for about three hours. In all, we suffered a little inconvenience and a bit of discomfort — and then the lights came back and our day resumed.

That night I mentioned it to a family member, who said, "Well, that's nothing compared to Gary."

They meant Gary, Indiana, where a storm with winds near 100 mph tore through on August 11 and left much of the city without power — thousands still in the dark nearly two weeks later. Gary is a city of about 70,000, nearly 80% Black, with a third of residents below the poverty line. This is not the first time – and sadly will probably not be the last – that Gary has suffered from weaker infrastructure, and a harder recovery.

My three hours without power in Portland and Gary's two weeks in the dark are not remotely the same. But the juxtaposition of recent events has sharpened how I think about resilience — as a human right, rather than as a privilege. As it stands, the grid doesn't lose power equally, and it doesn't come back equally either.

These recent events have provided a chance to reflect on just how grateful I am for the resilience we’ve been able to build in Boise with our new solar-and-battery installation — and even more committed to investing in that same resilience for historically vulnerable communities like Gary, which too often face the harshest disruptions and the slowest recovery.

To resilience everywhere!

Lisa & The Figure 8 Team

What We Built

This summer we finally completed our solar installation at Figure 8's Boise headquarters. Our property now includes a solar-covered carport, additional panels on the rooftop, and a battery system that stores and manages our power — and keeps the building running when the grid goes down. The panels shade our cars and feed our newly all-electric building (we’ve completely ditched the need for a gas line), and the battery supplies energy when the sun isn’t shining.

Our new system includes:

40 panels total: 30 Thornova "Tangra S Black" bifacial modules on an MT Solar rack, turning the parking lot into a power plant; 10 more are propped on the roof
N-type solar cells, which are more efficient & degrade slower than traditional P-type technology, and help the array maintain its output over a 30-year life
Capacity to generate 17.6 kWh of electricity in a single hour, in full sun (for reference, the typical US home uses 30 kWh of electricity per day)
An integrated battery & inverter system (Tesla Powerwall 3) with 13.5 kWh energy capacity, delivering up to 11.5 kW of continuous backup power

Overall, the system provides meaningful power in the early morning and late afternoon — when the sun is low, demand is high, and the grid is most strained — and it's built to keep running through extreme temperatures and weather events. It’s still early days but so far, the system has exceeded our expectations.

The Results: Our First Month

How our solar performed for July 2026 (we’ll learn more over time)

86% of the electricity we used came straight from the sun

We harvested up to 30% more energy than expected by using bifacial panels, which capture light off front and back

We sent 1,800+ kWh back to the power grid*

*earning $120+ in excess-generation credits in the process

Our utility bill dropped from $180 to $8*

*For July 2026 vs. July 2025

What We Learned

It's been a journey to get here, and we've learned so much. Our key takeaway: this is super doable.

Even without supportive government policy, adding solar power can make great sense for both small businesses and individual households. Importantly, better batteries are reshaping the solar energy landscape, enabling a more consistent supply of power and back-up for when the grid is under strain.

For anyone who's a steward of a building or a patch of land: you can do this too. Here are a few things we learned along the way:

First, electrify as much as you can. For us, that meant capping our gas line and going all-electric, with mini-splits for heating and cooling, and an electric water heater in place of the old gas one.

Next, get creative with the sun! For us, the standard “panels on the roof” simply could not work: we’re in a historic district which limited our rooftop use, and our building’s remaining footprint wasn’t optimal for gathering sunlight. With parking constraints as another key consideration, a solar-covered carport solved a remarkable number of these problems at once.

Finally, you can often source local. After years of not-quite-right arrangements, we found a local installer who sourced U.S.-made panels, and the carport structure itself came from a small company in Montana. Not everything could be sourced ideally — we landed on a Tesla Powerwall for the battery, which brought resilience features we couldn't find elsewhere.

Altogether, our new system has made resilience real for us in Boise. Yes, we've watched our July power bill fall to $8 — but we also know that when the next storm takes the grid down, our Boise office will still have its lights on.

The critical work now is making resilience a reality for a lot more people.

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You should always consult a financial, tax, or legal professional familiar with your unique circumstances before making any financial decisions. This material is intended for educational purposes only. Nothing in this material constitutes a solicitation for the sale or purchase of any securities.