Volunteers Bring Solar Energy to Low-Income Homes

Here’s a feel-good story that I just caught glimpse of while browsing Sierra Club Green Home. GRID alternatives, a California non-profit whose goal is to provide low-income communities with renewable energy, recently installed 13 solar energy systems in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood.
According to the article by Kathleen Haley, the event was one of several planned for this year’s Solarthon, an “annual solar installation block party and fundraiser for GRID Alternatives…[that] brings together hundreds of individual, team, and corporate participants from their communities to install multiple solar energy systems,” according to GRID alternatives’ site. (A video about the 2009 Solarthon is below.) Other 2011 Solarthon events will take place in San Diego, Fresno, Templeton, and Los Angeles.
200 people, which included volunteers and job trainees, showed up on Sept. 10 to install the energy systems in 13 Bayview homes.

Volunteers had a variety of reasons for spending their Saturday in garages and on top of roofs. [Fleurette] Sevin, and Charles Hanna, a volunteer from Santa Cruz, both say they are interested in pursuing careers in the solar industry.

Meanwhile, Sam Stearns, a volunteer from Oakland, says he wants to bring solar installation skills to Peru next year. He says he’ll be constructing a medical facility in that country, and he wants it to run on solar energy.

According to the article, all that needs to be done now is to wait until PG&E activates the systems (which can’t be done until the city and the company inspect the work first).

If anyone lives in California and wants to help out, GRID alternatives is always looking for volunteers. Information can be found here.

Full article: here

Thank you, ENN