Letter from Erica Mackie, Executive Director and Co-Founder
There are many new faces here at GRID Alternatives: new staff and board members, new clients, new team leaders, new volunteers joining us at all those installations we’ve been doing, and our new face on the web.  Sometimes I look around our busy office and out the window of our relatively new shared office space with Habitat for Humanity San Francisco and I don’t recognize my own GRID Alternatives face.  Growth is everywhere.  Here at GRID Alternatives we’ve doubled our staff, doubled our budget, and doubled our goal for the number of low-income families we plan to serve this year. The solar industry is growing too, thanks in part to 10 more years of stable rebate funding under the new California Solar Initiative and the New Solar Homes Partnership. In the month of March alone, GRID Alternatives is installing 7 solar electric systems for low-income families here in San Francisco.  If you're looking like the calendar like I am, you’ll notice there aren’t even that many weekends in March.  It’s enough to make your head spin like all those meters that are now spinning backwards.  Yet despite all the growth and change, GRID Alternatives is still the place where we believe solar power can benefit everyone regardless of their economic background, can be an industry involving everyone, and can make one heck of a fun weekend event filled with new faces and old friends.  The new faces around here are looking forward to meeting all of you at an upcoming event. Thanks for growing with us!  -- Erica

Volunteer Projects Update
Since our last newsletter we've been very busy, installing 21 solar electric systems for low-income folks from Bayview/Hunter's Point to Livermore. Thanks to all of our amazing volunteers and team leaders who made these projects happen. Upcoming solar installs include more installations in San Francisco's Bayview/Hunter's Point, Potrero, and Mission neighborhoods, installations on the Peninsula, in East Oakland, and more! We've also tentatively scheduled this year's Solarthon event for Saturday, October 6th in East Oakland - save the date, with more information to come as the date gets closer. We'll also be hosting our spring Energy Efficiency Team days with Rebuilding Together - April 21st in Oakland and April 28th in San Francisco. We'll send the details out to our volunteer mailing list soon - email us at info@gridalternatives.org if you're not on the list and would like to be added.

Seen our new website?
The new GRID Alternatives website is finally live! Thanks to the hard work of a dedicated team of volunteers and the Taproot Foundation, GRID Alternatives brand new website is live at www.gridalternatives.org. In addition to a great new look and improved navigation, the website now has two often-requested features: a schedule of upcoming trainings and installation events and a blog with updates and photos from recent installation projects. Let us know what you think - you can email comments to website@gridalternatives.org.

New Team Leader Training Program
We have recently launched a new formal Team Leaders Training Program, which allows volunteers to become certified to assist GRID Alternatives staff during solar installations by leading teams of volunteers either on the ground (mounting inverters and disconnects, running conduit, and wiring inverters and disconnects), or on the roof (installing racking, installing panels, wiring junction boxes, etc.). Team Leaders provide guidance for other, less experienced volunteers, and help ensure that other volunteers have a positive and safe experience and all work is done to GRID Alternatives’ standards. Any volunteer can qualify - just complete at least five GRID Alternatives installations, complete one of our Team Leader Training sessions, and complete the Team Leader Skills Checklist with a GRID Alternatives staff member. We also have Team Leader opportunities for professional solar installers - this is a great way to network with our volunteers, many of whom are interested in getting a solar installation for their own homes. If you're a solar professional or a repeat volunteer interested in becoming a team leader, send us an email for more information.

New Staff and Board Members
We've recently added staff here at GRID Alternatives to help accomodate our recent and future growth: Bob Batista, Solar & Energy Efficiency Program Assistant, Utuma Belfrey, Outreach Coordinator, and Faisal El-Azzouzi, Construction Manager. We've also added two new members to our Board of Directors, Robyn Beavers and Gillian Moxey. You may have already met some of these folks out at a recent training or installation. Bob is a graduate of Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. His professional background is in aerospace engineering, where he spent 3 years designing, building and testing space-based sun observing instruments. Utuma has a professional background in both community outreach, including three years as a Community Health Outreach Worker for a UCSF/CDC public health initiative, and in electrical work, including seven years as a journeyman electrician with IBEW Local #6. Faisal has been installing and designing solar electric systems for four years, most recently with Sun Light & Power, one of the oldest and largest solar installers in California. He has a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Arizona and is certified by Solar Energy International. He's also a training coordinator with Engineers Without Borders. Robyn is Corporate Environmental Programs Manager at Google, Inc., and is working on Google's huge new 1.6 megawatt solar installation at their headquarters in Mountain View. Gillian is Associate Director of Development at the Low Income Investment Fund, has over 15 years of fundraising experience, and has an MBA in Sustainable Management from Presidio School of Business. We're lucky and excited to have these folks on our team, and hope you'll join us in welcoming them into the GRID Alternatives family!

Thank You!
We have a lot of folks to thank for providing the financial and in-kind resources to support all of this growth. We'd like to thank Pacific Gas & Electric Company for their ongoing support of GRID Alternatives' efforts, most recently through the expansion of their Solar Habitat Initiative and through their volunteer installation teams in San Francisco. We'd also like to thank The Home Depot Foundation, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, and PowerLight Corporation for their recent major contributions to help finance our recent expansion. We want to thank Heller Erhman, LLP for providing pro bono legal services, Google, Inc. for donating web advertising to help promote our new website, Whole Foods Market in Berkeley for donating the food for our winter Friendraiser event, La Peña Cultural Center for providing the Friendraiser event space, and OnGrid Solar for donating their Financial Analysis Tool to help our clients project long-term cost savings from their solar electric systems. We also want to thank the Corporation for National and Community Service for supporting our participation in the AmeriCorps*VISTA program. And last but not least, we want to thank Ben Gallant, who completed his Board service this winter, for his years of service on the GRID Alternatives Board of Directors.

GRID Alternatives eNewsletter
995 Market Street, Suite 801, San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 839-8437 | info@gridalternatives.org | www.gridalternatives.org
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