It's hard to tell what's heating up faster, the weather or our construction activity as we continue to bring solar power to more low-income neighborhoods throughout California. These days we're completing a project a day, thanks to our offices throughout the state and the thousands of volunteers and job trainees who help make each installation happen for low-income families. We also recently received a huge boost for our work by being honored with a James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award, which aims to publicize solutions that can inform policymaking and better the lives of more Californians.

This summer will mark a big milestone for GRID - our first Megawatt of solar power installed! That's enough to generate over $10 million worth of power for low-income families over the systems' lifespans, while eliminating over 40,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions over that period. We're also particularly excited for our upcoming slate of Solarthon events throughout the state. This year's events will be "solar block party"-style retrofits in existing neighborhoods. We'll be bringing together the families on the block with local job trainees and individual and corporate participants for a fun day of solar installation, fundraising, and community building! Spots are already filling up fast for our Greater Los Angeles Solarthon on June 12th and our Bay Area Solarthon on July 31st, and we already have a few houses filled for Central Valley Solarthon on October 2nd, so let us know if you are interested in participating and we'll save you a spot!   -Erica and Tim, Co-Founders, GRID Alternatives

Volunteer Profiles - AmeriCorps*VISTA

GRID Alternatives' amazing growth has been driven by thousands of volunteers, but a special group of volunteers has played a critical role in enabling our expansion. Our AmeriCorps*VISTA volunteers dedicate a full year of service at GRID Alternatives' offices to build our capacity to serve low-income communities throughout California. They do everything from building our volunteer base and job training partnerships, to expanding our outreach capacity, to raising needed funds, to building our infrastructure for future growth.

So here's a huge thank you from the GRID Alternatives family to our current VISTAs - Brendan Beasley, Tara Bush, Lauren Cobb, Gabriela Davila, Dan Dumovich, Katie Kerr, Myshel Prasad, Sarah Shimmin, Van Shu, Kevin Smith, Matt Wilkes, and Elyse Wood. Many of these amazing individuals will be completing their year of service this summer, and we have several opportunities available for folks who are interested in participating in this program. Check out the GRID Alternatives jobs page for detailed position descriptions and an online application.

Volunteer Projects
Update

Thanks to everyone who helped us break our record for installations for the third straight quarter! Since our last newsletter we have installed 71 solar electric systems for low-income families in Alviso, Clovis, Daly City, Encinitas, Escondido, Fresno, Inglewood, Lemoore, Los Angeles, Madera, National City, Oakland, Oakley, Oxnard, Paramount, Pittsburg, Richmond, San Diego, Visalia, and Vista.

Many of these installations were completed through our partnerships with job training organizations throughout California. Our current partners include Alliance for West Oakland Development, Applied Professional Training, California Conservation Corps, California State University - Fresno, City College of San Francisco, College of the Sequoias, Construction Craft Training Center, Dr. J. Alfred Smith Training Academy, Employment and Community Options, Engineers Without Borders - San Diego, Fresno City College, Fresno County Economic Opportunities Commission Local Conservation Corps, Fresno County Regional Workforce Investment Board, Green Team Fresno, Greenfield YouthBuild, IBEW Local 100, IBEW Local 595, International Rescue Committee - San Diego, JobTrain, Oakland Green Jobs Corps - Cypress Mandela Training Center & Laney College , LA CAUSA YouthBuild, LA Conservation Corps, Marin City Community Development Corporation, Proteus, San Francisco Conservation Corps, Solar Richmond / RichmondBUILD, South Bay Workforce Investment Board, Swords to Plowshares, Treasure Island Job Corps, Tulare County Office of Education, and Young Community Developers. Participants in these programs get hands-on field experience with solar installation while helping local families go solar who otherwise couldn't afford it.

Solarthon Greater LA & Bay Area filling up fast!

Excitement is building as we bring our Solarthon solar installation block party and fundraiser statewide. On June 12th we're having our first-ever Greater Los Angeles Solarthon, installing eight solar electric systems in the City of Piru in beautiful Ventura County. That will be followed on July 31st by our 5th Annual Bay Area Solarthon, where we'll be installing nine solar electric systems in West Oakland.

There is still limited space available at these events for individuals, teams, or corporate sponsors, but they're going fast - check our website for more details or to sign up. If you haven't been to a Solarthon before, it's a ton of fun - check out photos of last year’s event on PicasaWeb, or or watch a video of the event produced by RND Creative. We'll have events later in the year in Fresno on October 2nd, and San Diego is tentatively scheduled for October 30th, so there will be opportunities for folks throughout California to participate. See you on the roof!

We want to thank the James Irvine Foundation, the City of San Diego Redevelopment Agency, the San Francisco Foundation, Wells Fargo Bank, the California Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Justice Small Grants Program, Union Bank of California, Salesforce.com Foundation, the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund, and Sony Pictures Entertainment for their recent tremendous support for low-income solar. We also want to thank Applied Materials, Applied Professional Training, Stanford GRID and Berkeley Energy Resources Collaborative for sponsoring recent GRID Alternatives installations in Alviso, Clovis and Oakland, and to our supporters at SunPower for helping complete the first SASH installation in the City of Richmond. Thank you to Mark Kaldunski and Bay Appliance for their generous donation of warehouse space near our Bay Area office. Last but not least, we want to thank Schneider/Square D for their generous donation of disconnects, circuit breakers, and ground bar kits; ClifBar for their generous donation of Clif Bars, Builders' Bars, and Mojo Bars for all our volunteers; the Mills Legal Clinic of Stanford Law School for their pro-bono legal assistance; the producers at Gopher Hole Productions for producing our new client outreach video; and Teatro Zinzanni for donating a night out for several of our fabulous AmeriCorps*VISTA volunteers.

We also want to welcome our new staff members, including Inland Empire Outreach Coordinator Lisa Castilone, Bay Area Development Officer Maura Fallon-McKnight, Greater Los Angeles Construction Assistant Randy Ortiz, Greater Los Angeles Administrative Assistant Mercedes Headen, SASH Program Assistant Cathleen Monahan, and Central Valley Solar Installation Supervisor John Nichols. Thanks to Ray Roberts, San Diego Construction Assistant, for his invaluable help over the last few months as well. We also want to thank Koralie Hill for her service as a Solar Installation Supervisor. Finally, a tremendous thank you goes to Michelle Andry, who helped launch and grow the Greater Los Angeles office from the beginning and helped many clients as an Outreach Coordinator. She was a great part of our team and is sorely missed.  Good luck Michelle!