Veterans and families living in Talbert House’s supportive housing developments are getting a boost from clean energy, thanks to solar panels donated by the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden.
The zoo provided rooftop arrays for two Talbert House communities – the Klekamp Family Veteran Residences in Bond Hill and the upcoming Carthage Flats – through its longstanding Community Solar Resiliency Program. At Klekamp, which includes 49 units for veterans, crews installed 79 panels (45 kW). Carthage Flats, serving 45 families and individuals, received 94 panels (54 kW).
Together, the systems are expected to save Talbert House more than $450,000 over the next 25 years.
Jessica Powell, Talbert House’s VP of housing and asset management, said those savings will go directly back into residential programs, which include comprehensive behavioral health and social services such as addiction treatment, mental health care and housing for adults and families.
“Over the next 25 years, we’re going to see savings in the hundreds of thousands, and that’s money we can put back into operations to support our residents,” Powell said. “Speaking as an affordable housing operator, we have really thin margins, and we can always use savings in order to provide better support services or staffing.”
The Cincinnati Zoo’s green push
Dubbed the “Greenest Zoo in America” by former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, the Cincinnati Zoo has been a leader in sustainability for nearly two decades, conserving billions of gallons of water, building facilities to LEED Platinum standards, and dramatically cutting waste – diverting more than 99% from landfills during major events while donating excess food to local organizations.
Solar energy has become a central part of that effort.
The zoo installed its first array in 2006 on the Harold C. Schott Education Center and has added eight more across its Avondale campus and other facilities. Major installations include a 1.56-megawatt parking lot array built in 2011 – still the largest publicly accessible urban solar array in the country – and a 2.8-megawatt canopy over its Euclid Avenue parking lot in 2024, which now generates about two-thirds of the campus’s electricity.
Through its Community Solar Resiliency Program, the zoo is also sharing panels and expertise with local organizations across Greater Cincinnati, ranging from nonprofits to schools, according to Megan O’Keefe, the organization’s sustainability project manager.
Major CSRP projects in recent years include:
- 30 kW array at New Prospect Baptist Church (2019)
- 12.5 kW array at Rockdale Academy (2021)
- 12 kW array at Lincoln Heights Elementary (2022)
- 13 kW array at John P. Parker Elementary (2023)
“These projects help reduce emissions, help improve our air quality and help get those electricity bills down for trusted community organizations… that can really benefit from those savings,” O’Keefe said. “We’re in a bit of an (energy pricing) crisis right now, so this is one way to get those bills down and use those funds wisely.”
Supporting Cincinnati residents, communities
O’Keefe emphasized that the program’s success comes from collaboration. “We’re really proud of the momentum we have – all the partners helping with these projects. It’s not just the zoo, it’s the Talbert House, Cincinnati Public Schools, the Reds Community Fund, all of our electrician partners who have donated services, and the list goes on,” she said.
Powell singled out Garber Electrical Contractors and Model Group for their work coordinating the installations at Talbert House.
The zoo is moving at a record pace with its Community Solar Resiliency Program in 2025, fueled in part by an intentional strategy during last year’s roughly 5,000-panel array installation over Euclid Avenue. Instead of shipping partially empty boxes to Cincinnati, it ordered 165 kilowatts of extra panels to donate to community buildings in neighborhoods such as Avondale, East Price Hill and Bond Hill.
“With our last big canopy installation… we thought, why stop here? Let’s fill up those shipping containers with all the solar panels that we can in the hopes that we could deploy them to trusted community centers, schools and churches across Cincinnati,” O’Keefe said.
O’Keefe said the zoo has already completed three solar array projects this year: the two at the Talbert House properties and one at Frederick Douglass Elementary School in Walnut Hills. Those donations amount to 222 solar panels, many of which the zoo team has helped install.
For Talbert House, the impact goes beyond the panels themselves. The investment provides more stability for residents and frees up funds to support the organization’s mission, its programs for families and the broader Cincinnati area.
“These solar panels aren’t just about saving money; they are creating a healthier community for all of us,” Powell said.
By the end of 2025, the Cincinnati Zoo expects to have installed most of the extra panels it ordered during its 2024 Euclid parking lot project. But O’Keefe said there’s more on the way. While she didn’t get into specifics she said there are some exciting projects on the horizon for late 2025 and 2026 – with more to come.
“We’re not stopping anytime soon,” O’Keefe said.
Cincinnati Zoo sustainability efforts
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