GRID Alternatives eNewsletter
Tim and Erica with 2004 SF ClientsLetter from Erica Mackie, Executive Director and Co-Founder
Another spring is here, and everything is coming up new again. It's hard to believe that just five years ago Tim and I were installing our first two solar electric systems, running GRID Alternatives from my kitchen table. Back then we did everything ourselves, from finding the clients to training the volunteers to installing the systems. The picture on the right was in San Francisco on our second installation, and I still remember all the work we put into making that one project happen. As we've grown since then, we've been able to build a unique and replicable model to bring solar power to low-income families in partnership with volunteers, job trainees, and the homeowners themselves.

In some ways we're going back to the beginning here at GRID Alternatives, as we work to recreate this model on a much larger scale. Some of you know about the months of work that happens behind the scenes to make each of our installation projects a reality. Expansion not only means multiplying all of those "back-office" tasks, it means we're spending time on tasks like working with state regulatory agencies and building organizational infrastructure. These things aren't as exciting as installing solar panels on a rooftop, but they're necessary if we want to really bring our model to scale and make a much larger impact throughout California and beyond. Thanks to all of you for your understanding and patience, and happy spring! --Erica
Go Solar California LogoSingle-Family Affordable Solar Homes (SASH)
Program Update
We are excited to announce that the California Public Utilities Commission selected GRID Alternatives to administer the Single-Family Affordable Solar Homes (SASH) Program. As part of the California Solar Initiative, the SASH Program provides low-income families with a substantially higher rebate than the general market CSI Program. The SASH Program serves low-income homeowners who live in qualifying affordable housing and who live in the service areas of Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), Southern California Edison Company (SCE), or San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E). 

Since 2001, GRID Alternatives has worked to bring the power of solar electricity and energy efficiency to low-income homeowners, and to provide community members with training and hands-on experience with renewable energy technologies. We are thrilled to see our vision become a statewide movement and are looking forward to working with more communities throughout California. To learn more about the SASH Program and specific program qualification requirements please contact your regional GRID Alternatives office.
GRID Alternatives Install with Richmond BuildVolunteer Projects Update
While we have been working hard to ramp up for the SASH program, we have still been very busy with volunteer solar installation projects in Benicia, East Palo Alto, El Cajon, Oakland, Redwood City, Richmond, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Bruno, Santa Clara, and Fresno. Many of these projects were completed in partnership with local Habitat for Humanity chapters, including East Bay, Fresno, Greater San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego and Silicon Valley. Several installations were completed with job trainee volunteers from our partner job training agencies including Job Train, Richmond BUILD/Solar Richmond, and the Cypress Mandela Training Center.

We will have additional installations throughout California in the upcoming months -  if you are interested in participating and would like to be notified of upcoming volunteer opportunities, please sign up for our volunteer e-mail list. Please note that our volunteer trainings and projects are extremely popular and are typically heavily oversubscribed, so you may not be able to attend the first project of your choice. Thanks for your patience! And save the date - we've scheduled SOLARTHON 2009 for Saturday September 12th in Oakland. We'll be installing 16 solar electric systems this year, our biggest one-day event ever! Check out the SOLARTHON 2009 website for more information and corporate sponsorship opportunities, with more details to come.
RickyStaff Profile: Ricky Thigpen
In 2005, New Orleans-native Ricky Thigpen had his life turned upside down by Hurricane Katrina. After being rescued from New Orleans, Ricky was relocated first to Fort Smith, Arkansas, and then Little Rock, where he says, "I realized I had lost my home and everything I'd worked for and was unable to return to New Orleans. I had to start over."  After two years, and finding few opportunities in Little Rock, he decided to move to California where he had family, and began his search for work and a new beginning.

Ricky enrolled in the City of Richmond's job training program, Richmond BUILD, and as part of their program completed a low-income solar electric installation with GRID Alternatives. Ricky says "I knew if I was going to do well in this industry more training was necessary," and he liked the idea of helping local families and the environment while building the skills he needed to rebuild his career and life post-Katrina. After graduation, GRID Alternatives hired Ricky as a Solar Installer Trainee, and has since been promoted to Solar Installation Supervisor.  "For me this is a chance of a lifetime," says Ricky. "I have met many wonderful people at GRID Alternatives that are like family. They have taught me a lot about the solar industry, and encourage me to excel."
Plug In to GRID! LogoPlug In to GRID!
Electric Vehicle Celebration and Fundraiser
Join GRID Alternatives for Plug In to GRID! - an exclusive afternoon party to learn about plug-in vehicles while raising money to bring renewable energy to low-income families. We will have dozens of electric vehicles on hand to check out and in some cases test ride or test drive - high-end sportscars like the Tesla Roadster, futuristic prototypes displayed by Stanford and PG&E, plug-in hybrid conversions, motorcycles, scooters, neighborhood electric vehicles and much more. We'll also have leaders from the venture capital and EV worlds on hand to talk about the future of electric transportation, including Josh Becker from New Cycle Capital; Sherry Boschert from Plug In America; Anup Jacob from Virgin Green Fund; John Suh from GM Advanced Technology Silicon Valley; and Saul Zambrano from PG&E's Clean Air Transportation Program.

All this plus drinks, hors d'oeuvres, and a silent auction under Google’s solar-powered carport at their campus in Mountain View. Tickets must be purchased in advance - space is limited and this event will sell out. For more information or to purchase tickets online, visit www.gridalternatives.org/plugin. All proceeds support GRID Alternatives' work bringing renewable energy to low-income communities throughout California.

San Diego Staff!San Diego Office Opens!
GRID Alternatives is now bringing solar energy to San Diego communities! We will be serving San Diego County through our new office in the Barrio Logan area near downtown. The San Diego office will partner with local nonprofit housing developers such as Habitat for Humanity San Diego, as well as local City and County agencies, to install solar electric systems for low-income homeowners throughout the San Diego area.  We would like to welcome Paul Cleary, our San Diego Regional Director, as well as the rest of the San Diego Staff: Miguel Reza, Outreach Coordinator; Monique Davis, Outreach Coordinator; Steven Fernandez, Program and Outreach Associate; Natasha Cridler, Volunteer and Training Associate; and Laurel Crump, Development Associate.  Steve, Natasha and Laurel are working with GRID Alternatives through the Americorps VISTA program.

The San Diego office would like to thank everyone who helped us get up and running by donating furniture and equipment to our office, we managed to furnish the place entirely through donations!  We will be completing an installation on May 21st and 22nd in conjunction with the Coalition of Neighborhood Councils' 'Green Week' event and San Diego Habitat for Humanity and are working on lining up several other installations in the near future.  Keep watching the GRID Alternatives website for updates!

Fresno signUp next - Fresno!
GRID Alternatives is now in the process of opening up our next Regional Office in Fresno to serve the Central Valley. We've already completed several projects in Fresno in partnership with Habitat for Humanity Fresno County, and are now significantly expanding our local presence in the Central Valley to work closely with local cities, counties, and nonprofits to bring the benefits of solar to local low-income families. We've recently hired Tom Esqueda to be our Fresno Regional Director, who has over 20 years of experience in affordable housing programs in the area, working for both nonprofit organizations and local government agencies. Over the next few months Tom will be setting up our new office, bringing on our first dedicated local staffers, and building partnerships with local government agencies and nonprofits. If you're interested in getting involved, call Tom at (559) 261-4743 or email him at infofresno@gridalternatives.org.

Thank You!
Once again we have many people and organizations to thank who have supported us over the past several months and made our work possible. We particularly want to thank the Wells Fargo Foundation, PG&E, the Wal-Mart Foundation, the Weingart Foundation, the San Francisco Foundation, the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund, the Mitchell Kapor Foundation, Applied Materials, the Jon C. and Katherine T. Harvey Foundation, and the Union Bank of California Foundation for their generous support. We are deeply grateful for their strong commitment to supporting renewable energy to low-income communities during these challenging economic times.

We also want to thank our many supporters who support us through in-kind donations of skills and materials, including Atomic Public Relations for providing pro-bono PR and media relations services; Accenture for providing volunteer consulting services to help create our new Intranet site; our project team at the Full Circle Fund, led by Marc Payne, for providing consulting services as part of the Fund's "engaged philanthropy" model; and Solmetric for donating a Solmetric SunEye to our San Diego office, in conjunction with Alyssa Newman and Energy Seeds. We would like to thank everyone who contributed to our 2008 Friendraiser event, including Lanesplitter Pizza and Pub, Charo Cabrera of Charo Peruvian Catering, and Eight Arms Cellars. We also want to thank Nicole Atkinson-Roach and her team from Wachovia (now Wells Fargo) for producing our amazing new video, and Iain Boltin, Ed Caldwell, Alex Chan, Mary Ann Irwin, John Shim, Donna Wilson, and everyone at the Taproot Foundation for helping produce our great new organizational report.

Finally, we want to thank the thousands of volunteers who have made our expansion and success possible, both by volunteering on our installations and at our offices. We particularly want to thank Rob Oxenham, Lois Simonds and Van Shu for their tremendous volunteer efforts out at our Oakland office over the last few months. We also would like to thank the Corporation for National and Community Service for their continuing support of GRID Alternatives through the Americorps*VISTA program. Last but not least, we want to acknowledge the tremendous contributions of Recheal Allamby, Michelle Andry, Anna Bautista, and Colin Bright who have recently completed their year of service as full-time VISTA volunteers with GRID Alternatives. Many of the folks you speak with here about volunteering and projects are actually full-time volunteers themselves, who dedicate a year of their lives to fighting poverty and climate change by building GRID Alternatives' capacity to serve low-income communities throughout the state. We truly couldn't do what we do without them. Thank you!

GRID Alternatives eNewsletter - Spring 2009
Bay Area Office/Headquarters: 3833 Manila Avenue, Oakland, CA 94609, (510) 652-4730
Greater Los Angeles Office: 969 Sandhill Avenue, Carson, CA 90746, (310) 324-8146
San Diego Office: 1827 Main St. Suite #200 San Diego, CA 92113, (619) 239-4743
Fresno Office: (559) 261-4743
www.gridalternatives.org