It's not very often that we have the opportunity to engage communities in a manner that allows us to make unexpected impacts on the lives of families not generally served by GRID Alternatives because of geographical limitations in funding availability. However, on January 21, and again on February 18, 2014 GRID Alternatives’ Central Valley office was able to parlay its generous gift from the Honnold Foundation and leverage rebate opportunities from Turlock Irrigation District in order to make solar a reality for families in the city of Delhi as well as the city of Turlock. In total, the Honnold Foundation will support four installations in the Turlock/Ceres/Modesto area in partnership with GRID Alternatives, TID, and Ceres High School whose students volunteer on GRID installations as part of a formal partnership created with Ceres High. These talented students provide the labor needed to complete the projects.
The practical implication of this generous support is that through the strategic use of resources dedicated to helping the Central Valley provided by Honnold, GRID is able to help families save $168,000 on monthly electrical utility bills (amount calculated over the lifespan of the installed systems), provide “Classroom on the Roof” experience to students of Ceres High School’s Green Technology and Manufacturing Academy, and reduce 528 tons of greenhouse gases in the air we breathe. GRID Alternatives would like to extend a warm thanks to the Alex Honnold Foundation that provided the impetus in making these installations a reality.
Looking to the immediate future, GRID will complete installations in March/April of this year and looks forward to additional opportunities in serving families of the Central Valley in a manner that is consistent with GRID’S mission of helping communities in need with renewable energy, energy services, equipment and training. From the staff and leadership at GRID Alternatives Central Valley office, thank you for your generous support.