GRID on The California Report

Submitted by Zach Franklin on Wed, 07/21/2010 - 12:55pm.

GRID Alternatives' long-time volunteer Marc Fontana was featured on The California Report, a weekly public radio program produced by KQED and broadcast on more than 30 public radio stations from Arcata to San Diego. Rachel Cohen interviewed Marc as part of The Giving State, their feature on California volunteerism. You can listen to the interview here. Marc is a GRID Alternatives Team Leader and has volunteered on over 50 installations since 2006, our most prolific volunteer ever!

Megawatt!

Submitted by Zach Franklin on Thu, 07/15/2010 - 11:19am.

GRID Alternatives has now installed over 1 megawatt of solar power for low-income families across California! We crossed this threshhold last week when we led a team of volunteers from SunPower to install a 1.5 kW solar electric system with the Galvez family, at a home built by Habitat for Humanity East Bay in the City of Concord. Check out photos here. Thanks to everyone who has helped to create this amazing community-built, community-owned "power plant" which is delivering more and more benefits for low-income families and the environment every day. Here's to the next megawatt!

Greater Los Angeles Region Hosts the First Solarthon Event for 2010!

Submitted by Tracie Troxler on Tue, 06/15/2010 - 9:02am.

On Saturday June 12th, The GRID Alternatives Greater Los Angeles office hosted their first Solarthon event in Piru, California. During the event, nearly 100 corporate and individual sponsors came out to complete the installations of 8 solar electric systems in one day. These systems will provide significant energy savings to the homeowners who live in the community.

Many thanks to all of our corporate sponsors including our Premier sponsor Wells Fargo as well as other event sponsors including Sun Valley Solar, Tierra Institute International, Bella Electric and Burnham Energy.

Thank you to in-kind sponsors for the event including Bennett's Honey, Matilija Water, Trader Joes of Ventura, Noah's Bagels, Pete's Coffee, Starbucks Coffee, Fresh and Easy of Ventura, and Nextdoor Neighbor Printing Company in Carson. We really appreciate the help of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los
Angeles for lending us their hard hats, tools, and other supplies. Also a special thank you to LA CAUSA YouthBuild and their dedicated Green Team who were Team Leaders with us for the event.

A final thank you goes out to all of the homeowners in this Habitat for Humanity neighborhood who permitted GRID Alternatives to host this event in their community and who graciously fed all of the participants for the event. Thank you families of Piru! 

Click here to see photos of the event in action!

Greater Los Angeles Solarthon 2010

Many Thanks to Dominican University Green MBA Program and Net Impact!

Submitted by Tracie Troxler on Thu, 06/10/2010 - 6:51am.

For the second year in a row, Dominican University's Green MBA Program along with local Net Impact Members partner with GRID Alternatives to sponsor a solar electric system for a low income family. These community members bonded together and cheered each other on to fundraise $5000 in just a little over a week! Congratulations and many thanks to this enthusiastic group of volunteers for your hard work and efforts that will benefit a low income family in Oakland. A special thank you goes out to Jonah Nisenson for leading the group again this year.

You can see this group in action by clicking here.

Dominican University Green MBA/Net Impact 2nd Annual Install

GRID Alternatives Central Valley Fresno Arreola Family-IBEW 100 Install

Submitted by Matt Wilkes on Fri, 05/07/2010 - 9:40am.

• solar

On April 30, 2010 GRID Alternatives Central Valley installed a 7 kW solar electric system with IBEW Local Union 100 for the Arreola Family.

Sam Arreola is a IBEW Local Union 100 member and committed supporter of GRID Alternatives in the Central Valley. Having installed solar with the IBEW Local Union 100 last year as a sponsor and having had Sam out on numerous installs over the past 10 months made this install an awesome reunion party.

Congrats Arreola family and thank you to all participating volunteers!

Arreola Family Installation w/ IBEW

Salesforce.com Partners with GRID-GLA

Submitted by Kevin Smith on Thu, 05/06/2010 - 2:27pm.

• solar

On May 4th, Salesforce.com worked with GRID-GLA to install a 1.9kW solar electric system for a low-income homeowner in Inglewood, CA.  Salesforce.com sent out 10 great volunteers who came out nice and early for this one day installation.  Salesforce has sponsored previous installs for our Oakland office but this was the first for GLA and a great opportunity to build on the partnership.  A huge thanks goes out to Salesforce.com and especially Latifah for making this happen!

Not only was this our first corporate sponsorship here in LA but it marked the first installation done with the city of Inglewood.  It is a great symbol of the work that has been done not only here in LA but across the state and also a great foreshadowing of what is to come in the future.  Another huge thanks goes out to Michelle Andry for making the Inglewood partnership a success, we wish you and your family all the luck in the world! 

Check out pictures of the install here and here.

GRID Co-Founders Win James Irvine Leadership Award

Submitted by Zach Franklin on Thu, 04/29/2010 - 3:17pm.

Exciting news! GRID Alternatives' co-founders Erica Mackie and Tim Sears have been selected as two of seven winners of the 2010 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards. Now in its fifth year, the Leadership Awards recognize and support individuals who are advancing innovative and effective solutions to significant state issues in California. The awards aim to publicize solutions that can inform policymaking and better the lives of more Californians. You can see Tim and Erica's write-up and learn about all the winners at the awards website or watch the great video that the James Irvine Foundation put together about Tim and Erica below:

Erica Mackie and Tim Sears, GRID Alternatives, Oakland from The James Irvine Foundation on Vimeo.

In Honor of Earth Day

Submitted by kkerr on Fri, 04/23/2010 - 1:47pm.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day three of our Bay Area AmeriCorps VISTA members spent an afternoon volunteering with City Slicker Farms at their Center Street farm in West Oakland. Tara, Sarah, and Katie helped with a number of projects around the urban farm including collaring celery and picking and bundling rosemary and mint.

AmeriCorps VISTA is a national service program sponsored by the Corporation for National and Community Service, designed specifically to fight poverty. GRID currently has 12 members serving across the state. These members are invaluable to GRID and we plan to celebrate and recognize their service next month during AmeriCorps Week May 8th-15th.

If you'd like to celebrate Earth Day year round, please visit our Volunteer page and see how you can help bring renewable energy to homeowners in low-income communities. If you are interested in an AmeriCorps VISTA position with GRID, please visit our Jobs page.

Install #400 Fresno Nhim Family

Submitted by Matt Wilkes on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 2:56pm.

• solar

GRID Alternatives 400th solar installation for a low-income homeowner in California took place on Apr 10, 2010 in the Central Valley!

Everyone was super excited to be a part of this install at the Nhim residence here in Fresno. This installation was another in the Habitat for Humanity development Crossroads in Fresno which has seen many rooftops and families transformed by GRID Alternatives and community members coming together to provide reliable delivery and installation of solar electric systems.

This landmark installation finished smoothly with a group of proud volunteers and grateful homeowners.

Install #400 Fresno Nhim Family

Greater Los Angeles is Hosting The First Solarthon Event of the Year!

Submitted by Tracie Troxler on Wed, 04/14/2010 - 11:27am.

Solarthon is GRID Alternatives' annual solar installation block party and fundraiser. Every year we bring together hundreds of individual and corporate sponsors to install solar for several homes in one day, in partnership with local low-income homeowners. This year we're hosting Solarthon events around the state and our first event in the Greater Los Angeles Region on Saturday, June 12^th.  Sign-up now to participate in one of our largest installation projects of the year and gain valuable hands-on experience in solar while helping GRID Alternatives expand renewable energy services to low-income families throughout California.