Schooled in Solar: How Partners and Students Brought Clean Energy to Denver’s Classrooms

This summer, 1,429 solar panels went up on the roofs of two Denver Public School (DPS) buildings, and many of the hands that put them there belonged to DPS students and our corporate partner volunteers. Teams from United Airlines, Invenergy, and Accenture joined the GRID Alternatives Colorado crew at Montbello High School and the Responsive Arts & STEAM Academy (RASA), driven by a shared commitment to sustainability, community, and real impact.

As the National Corporate Partnerships Development Officer supporting volunteer partnerships, the most meaningful part of this project wasn’t the size of the systems. It was who helped build them – our partners and the students themselves. There’s real power in students getting hands-on experience on the roof

of their very own school, learning a skill that could become a career while helping lower the energy bills of the place where they learn every day. It’s the kind of full-circle moment that reminds me why I keep coming back to this work.

Bringing partners onto an install site is still one of our favorite parts of the job. Every workday starts with a safety orientation, then volunteers work side by side with experienced installers (no prior experience needed) and see firsthand where their support goes. Our installation supervisors are teachers at heart. They love sharing what they know and answering every question along the way, and it shows.

Corporate Volunteers on the Roof: United Airlines, Invenergy and Accenture

Employees spend a day working alongside GRID’s professional installers, learn how a solar system comes together, and leave with something you can see from the street. Here’s what our three corporate partners had to say about their day on the roof.

From Runways to Rooftops

On July 14th, the United Airlines Denver team joined GRID’s installation crew at Montbello High School – a school close to home for the community they serve every day. 

“Our team traded our usual routines for hard hats to install solar at Montbello High School right here in our community. We’re proud to support work that will benefit the school, the students, and build resilience to rising energy costs for decades to come.” – Justin Petrochko, Senior Manager, Community & Market Impact, United Airlines  

United Airlines first partnered with GRID Alternatives in 2015 – and in 2020 deepened that commitment by supporting GRID’s work on a national scale through both philanthropic funding and access to United flights. The longstanding partnership supports GRID and its tribal affiliate, Tribal Energy Alternatives (TEA), in strengthening its reach to remote communities, tribal partnerships, and expanding workforce development opportunities across the country. 

Six years and counting: Invenergy at RASA

Invenergy is a longtime GRID partner and champion of our workforce development programs – supporting job trainees across our Installation Basics Training, SolarCorps Fellowship, and TEA training programs. At the RASA installation, Invenergy volunteers rolled up their sleeves alongside our crew, contributing a combined 30 hours of hands-on installation work. 

“This is our sixth year supporting and volunteering on GRID installations, and the RASA school solar project stands out as a true highlight for the Invenergy team. It’s genuinely rewarding to know that we helped build a system that puts more resources toward students and less toward the electricity bill.” – Alicia Russo, Manager, Social Impact, Invenergy

Invenergy’s commitment to GRID’s mission runs deep – their teams have now contributed a total of 230 volunteer hours across GRID’s offices in California, Colorado, Washington D.C., and internationally in Mexico.

From the Cloud to the Rooftop

Accenture’s volunteers rounded out the RASA team, helping build the 673-panel array that now tops the school.

“Our team loved rolling up our sleeves on the RASA solar project and supporting the GRID crew. Knowing that we’re making an immediate impact for the school and the community is the most rewarding!” – Margie Southwell, Program Manager, Accenture Federal Services

Accenture has been a key partner in scaling GRID’s programs for over a decade – supporting people and communities across the country, helping build our partnership with Goodwill Industries, and most recently helping position and scale our holistic model delivering renewable energy and workforce development as a pathway to lasting community wealth. Their partnership has been instrumental in building the pipeline, relationships, and track record that enable GRID to create lasting impact for families and communities nationwide.

Solar Careers Start Early: DPS Students on the Job

The volunteers weren’t the only new faces on the job site. Four DPS high school interns worked on the project this summer, contributing 380 internship hours in total.

Three of them, Jeremiah, Jordan, and Jaeshon (pictured here), each completed a full 110-hour internship through the Denver Youth Employment Program. A fourth student completed 50 hours through the DPS Launch Program. Jordan didn’t stop there: he went on to graduate from GRID’s Installation Basics Training program, a hands-on course that prepares people for entry-level solar jobs.

This is the part of the story I keep coming back to. The same panels that will lower a school’s energy bill also gave students their first taste of a solar career, right on their own campus!

What the project made possible

Over the course of the project, GRID Alternatives’ Colorado team hosted 16 volunteer and corporate workdays, with volunteers giving 686 hours of their time to bring clean energy to both schools. This project was made possible thanks to the partnership of United Airlines, Invenergy, and Accenture, whose investment helped bring clean energy, hands-on training, and lasting savings to both schools.

The results will last for decades. Together, the two schools’ solar systems will save up to $4.5 million over their lifetime and prevent more than 24,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions, the same benefit as planting roughly 374,000 trees. Montbello High School’s 756 panels account for nearly 13,000 tons of carbon emissions averted, and RASA’s 673 panels account for about 11,500 tons. 

For a school, every dollar that doesn’t go to the electric bill is a dollar that can go back to supporting their students. These systems will help both schools lower their energy costs for years to come, freeing up resources for classrooms, programs, and the young people they serve.

Bring Your Team to the Roof

Projects like this happen because companies decide to show up, with funding, with volunteers, and with a belief that clean energy should reach every community. If you’d like to see what that looks like for your team, here’s how to get involved:

• Learn how your organization can get involved: Learn about corporate partnerships 
• Support the work: Make a gift to GRID Alternatives to help bring solar and job training to more schools and families.

Thank you to United Airlines, Invenergy, Accenture, and every partner who helped light up these two schools. We can’t wait to see what we build next.

It took a wide circle of partners to make it happen: Accenture, the Colorado Energy Office’s Skilled Trades Externship, Denver’s Office of Climate Action, Sustainability & Resiliency (CASR) and Denver Economic Development & Opportunity (DEDO), the Denver Public Schools Sustainability Office, Energy Outreach Colorado, Goodwill Industries, GRID’s Board of Directors and staff, Invenergy, Kaplan Kirsch, Mile High Youth Corps, Schneider Electric, United Airlines, and trainees from GRID’s Installation Basics Training (IBT) program.