12/22/2011 - Public Schools are Finding Learning Opportunities
B udget cuts and revenue losses are clouding financial forecasts at schools across California. Yet even as classroom sizes balloon and arts programs wither, one capital-intensive trend is making notable gains: solar power.
11/11/11 - Veterans Day Solar and Wind Special
On this Veterans Day, keep in mind "the very alarming and embarrassing employment rates for combat vets," urges Ian Thomson, the founder of CleanTechies and a board member of Grid Alternatives.
10/22/11 - Eight Homes now benefit from Solar Power in Templeton
A Templeton neighborhood is now running off the power of the sun, thanks to today's "Solarthon" Celebration.
10/22/11 - 8 Low-Income Families Get Solar Electric Systems in Homes
TEMPLETON - Low-income families in one Central Coast community are getting help lowering their electric bills with new solar systems installed in their homes.
10/20/11 - San Jacinto: Saving Energy, One Family at a Time
Utility customers across the state are helping to bring solar power to limited-income families in a program that reached the Inland Empire this year.
10/11 - Photon Magazine, Photo of the Month
GRID Alternatives recieved a two page photo of the month spread in Photon's tenth issue.
9/29/11 - Nonprofit Helps City Heights Go Solar
At first glance, Hugo Sandoval's home on Pepper Drive in the Asalea Park neighborhood of City Heights doesn't look much different formt eh others on the block. It's modest but well-kept, blending in with the rest of the neighborhood. But closer examination reveals...
8/1/11 - Nonprofits spearhead green jobs of tomorrow
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6/30/11 - Using the sun's energy, Dinuba couple receive free solar energy system
Since opening a Fresno branch office, GRID Alternatives has provided and installed solar energy systems — free of charge — to 120 Central Valley low-income homeowners.
6/27/11 - After 1,000 home installations, GRID Alternatives poised for interstate expansion
Californian not-for-profit solar installer has racked up its 1,000th photovoltaic installation and is ready to expand to other states with established solar economies.
6/16/2011 - SASH program brings solar to low income homes
Several years ago the California Legislature passed the California Solar Initiative and funded the program to expand the use of solar technology to low income households through the Single-family Affordable Solar Homes (SASH) program. The contract to administer SASH was awarded to the non-profit GRID Alternatives in 2008.
6/11/2011 - Hogar con energía que le cae del cielo
Este verano, cuando se pronostica un incremento en las temperaturas, Celia Juárez, de 72 años, no pagará la tarifa habitual de al menos $85 al mes por consumo de electricidad. La ayuda, literalmente, le ha caído del cielo... del sol, para ser precisos.
6/10/2011 - Central Coast News: Solar Panels for Low Income Houses
HOLLISTER, Calif- New homes energized by the sun but you don't have to shell out millions. It's something low income families can afford.
5/5/2011 - PHS students help install solar panels
Porterville High School’s students climbed on top of a couple of roofs Wednesday and Thursday to help GRID Alternatives of Fresno install solar electric systems on local affordable-housing projects.
5/4/2011 - San Diego Leads Effort to Bring Solar To Latinos
It's a bright sunny day in San Diego, the kind of day that makes installing rooftop solar worth the extra trouble and initial expense.
5/3/2011 - Porterville students to pitch in on solar install
A group of Porterville high school students will be getting a crash course on solar power May 5 when they help install a photovoltaic system on an affordable housing project in the city.
4/23/2011 - Vallejo may lower fees for installing solar panels
Vallejo charges considerably more than two dozen other area cities to install solar panels, and that bothers at least one area solar nonprofit company.
4/23/2011 - A North Richmond family goes solar for Earth Day
In celebration of Earth Day, a nonprofit solar panel installer helped a family in North Richmond reduce their electricity costs.
4/22/2011 - An Earth Day gift in Richmond: solar power
Earth Day brought solar power and the promise of drastically lower energy bills to two low-income homes in Richmond. PG&E volunteers and Solar Richmond graduates installed more than two dozen solar panels atop the homes on Malcolm Avenue on Friday.
4/22/2011 - The “Teaching Hospital” of Solar: GRID Alternatives
“Low income families need a way to stay in their homes and pay their electricity bills and people need jobs…our model provides both job training and cost savings for low income families,” explains Erica Mackie, the Executive Director and Co-Founder of GRID Alternatives.
4/12/2011 - Residents flip the switches on green power
Five low-income homeowners in a Peoples’ Self-Help Housing Corp. development officially turned on their rooftop solar panels in a “Light Up the Block” ceremony Thursday.
4/7/2011 - Solar panel installers get on-the-job training, help low-income Vallejo homeowners
With the sun glinting off newly installed solar panels Wednesday afternoon, Mark Todd and his family feel like they are living the "American Dream."
3/26/2011 - GRID Alternatives gets a Thumbs Up from the Fresno Bee
GRID Alternatives gets a Thumbs Up from the Fresno Bee for our work in the Central Valley and for "installing solar panel systems throughout Fresno County in between the rainstorms."
1/29/2011 - Affordable homes go solar
Five households in Nipomo are going solar in a project that could provide as much as 90 percent of their electricity use.
1/25/2011 - Students make the sun shine for Nipomo family
Cal Poly’s Power and Energy Society (PES) club helped put seven solar panels on the home of a low-income family in Nipomo Jan. 21 and 22.
$85K in grants to improve Valley air quality
GRID Alternatives receives a grant from the Fresno Regional Foundation for a Hands on Solar project that will engage people, improve public health in low-income areas and reduce air pollution.
"Spreading the Gift of Light"
GRID Alternatives was featured in the article "Spreading the Gift of Light" on the Solar Novus Today website and in their Solar Flares newsletter.
The Fresno Bee Highlights the First Central Valley SOLARTHON held Oct 2, 2010
Seven families in the Sierre Pointe affordable housing subdivision in southwest Fresno will be able to lower their electric bill by 75% a month now that they each have received a free electric system.
GRID Alternatives San Diego staff profiled in Solar Today
Solar Today magazine profiled Outreach Coordinator Miguel Reza and Project Manager Steve Fernandez from GRID Alternatives' San Diego regional office.
It Takes A Village
Molly Peterson of KPCC, Southern California Public Radio, reports on GRID Alternatives' partnership with Enterprise Community Partners and LA CAUSA Youthbuild for the East LA Green Grant Program.
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!
Greater Los Angeles Solarthon Featured by the Ventura County Star
Mike Harris, a reporter with the Ventura County Star, visited the Greater Los Angeles Solarthon in Piru, CA, and spoke with homeowners and volunteers at the event, as well Executive and Program Directors Erica Mackie and Tim Sears and Regional Director Susie Chang.
GRID Alternatives partners with the Tulare Redevelopment Agency
The Visalia Times-Delta/Tulare Advance-Register profiled a recent GRID Alternatives solar installation in Tulare, in partnership with the Tulare Redevelopment Agency.
GRID Alternatives' client op-ed featured in the San Francisco Chronicle
Mardina Graham, a GRID Alternatives client and Board member from San Francisco's Bayview/Hunter's Point neighborhood, recently had an op-ed piece published about her experiences with GRID Alternatives, and the need for solar programs to reach low-income communities.
KMPH 26 News highlights SASH Program and Porterville Installation with Proteus
Check out this great news story from the Central Valley, highlighting the SASH incentive program and our job training partnership with Proteus, Inc. To view the video, visit the article at the KMPH website and click on the Featured Video link in the upper left corner.
Bay Area Outreach Coordinator, Leah Pimentel, wins local Jefferson Award
Leah Pimentel, an Outreach Coordinator in the Bay Area, won this week's Bay Area Jefferson Award for helping senior citizens go green. You can view the video at the CBS 5 website.
GRID Alternatives Teams with SunValley Solar and Canadian Solar to Bring Renewable Energy to Low-Income Homeowners Across California
Partnership empowers communities in need with renewable energy equipment and services to lower energy costs and reduce green house gas emissions.
Southeast San Diego Installation covered on KPBS
KPBS covered a GRID Alternatives installation that took place in Southeast San Diego in partnership with the Coalition of Neighborhood Councils
GRID Alternatives Bayview Installation featured on CBS 5
A recent GRID Alternatives solar installation with a homeowner in Bayview was featured on CBS 5, the video clip can be viewed on the CBS 5 website.
GRID Co-Founder Tim Sears profiled by Bay Area News Group
Tim Sears, Co-Founder of Grid Alternatives, was interviewed by Charlotte Cusack of the Bay Area News Group.
GRID Alternatives featured in San Francisco Magazine
The June 2009 issue of San Francisco magazine features profiles of 19 great ideas for doing good that are spreading from the Bay Area, and features GRID Alternatives! You can read the full article on the San Francisco Magazine website, or see a picture of our spread (featuring GRID's first solar installer trainee Lafo Laulu) here.
GRID Alternatives in April/May Issue of Home Power Magazine
The April/May 2009 issue of Home Power magazine featured a story on GRID Alternatives work making renewable energy accessible to Habitat for Humanity Homeowners.
GRID Alternatives/Applied Materials install in Santa Clara featured in local news!
GRID Alternatives completed solar installations with three homeowners in a Santa Clara Habitat for Humanity - Silicon Valley development on May 9, 2009 in partnership with 45 volunteers from Applied Materials. A news clip from NBC 11 (KNTV) can be viewed here and a clip from CBS 5 (KPIX) can be found by following this link. An interview with GRID Alternatives Development Director Zach Franklin on KCBS radio can be heard here.
Radio Bilingüe visits a GRID Alternatives project in Fresno
Radio Bilingüe, a non-profit Latino radio network that distributes Spanish-language programming to public radio affiliates around the country, recently completed a Spanish-language profile of a GRID Alternatives project in partnership with Habitat for Humanity Fresno County.
NPR profiles a Richmond job training success story
NPR's Morning Edition on Dec. 17th featured Andre, a participant in one of our Richmond installations with Solar Richmond and Richmond BUILD, who has been able to leverage that experience to get a job with Berkeley-based Sun Light & Power.
Time Magazine features a GRID Alternatives installation
Time Magazine recently ran a brief article highlighting a recent GRID Alternatives project in the City of Richmond for Annie, a low-income Richmond homeowner. The article uses the project to highlight the broader efforts of Van Jones' Green for All initiative, but the actual installation was done by GRID Alternatives, Solar Richmond and Richmond BUILD. The installation was fully sponsored by SunPower Corporation, including donations of panels, an inverter and related hardware.
KTVU visits our first installation in Richmond
KTVU (Channel 2) news did a piece on our first low-income solar installation project in the City of Richmond, where all the volunteer labor was conducted by local trainees at the City's Richmond BUILD job training program. There was also related coverage of this project in the Contra Costa Times, in the San Francisco Business Times, and on TV20's Your Green Life segment.
GRID Alternatives on NBC 11 (KNTV) News
Erica Mackie, GRID Alternatives' Executive Director and Co-Founder, was interviewed on the NBC 11 morning news by KNTV's Laura Garcia-Cannon.
GRID Alternatives in the Oakland Tribune
GRID Alternatives was featured on the front of the Tribune's business section on July 27th, 2007 in an article on "Green Jobs", including a great photo of our Construction Assistant, Lafo Laulu!
GRID Alternatives in the San Mateo County Times
The San Mateo County Times featured our work with Peninsula Habitat for Humanity at their Brisbane development.
GRID Alternatives on TreehuggerTV
TreehuggerTV did a video feature on our Solarthon 2006 event. Treehugger is a fast-growing web magazine, dedicated to everything that has a modern aesthetic yet is environmentally responsible.
Bringing Light to Low-Income Communities
GRID Alternatives co-founder Tim Sears, P.E. penned this article for Solar Today magazine as an overview of our Solar Affordable Housing Program. This article is republished courtesy of SOLAR TODAY, the award-winning magazine published by the American Solar Energy Society and dedicated to energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies.
Solar Power to the People
An article by Mike Nowak in the San Francisco Bay Guardian in December 2004 as the Solar Affordable Housing Program was finishing its first year of pilot projects.
Green Light: Could solar power become the Bay Area's answer to overpriced electricity?
A column by Carol Lloyd of the San Francisco Chronicle featuring one of GRID Alternatives' earliest solar installations for low-income families.
