The future — and the electricity bill — are now looking brighter for Bonnie Campbell, who after a year of effort was able to install a solar electric system on her home in Novato's Meadow Park affordable housing development in mid-May.

The battle against what Gov. Jerry Brown called "the pre-eminent threat to all humanity" continued Friday on a residential rooftop in North Long Beach. Brown was in town to celebrate a solar power installation at the home of Maribel and Jose Mendoza and their four boys.

Several students were hard at work Wednesday helping retired grandmother Marsha Furman go solar. “This is a wonderful program,” Furman exclaimed, as she watched the students working on the roof of her Palmdale home. 

Though rooftop solar is starting to make inroads into California's less-affluent communities, most of the state's millions of low- and moderate-income residents still have to pay their utility bills without much help from the sun. But a non-profit solar installer is trying to change that a little bit at a time. Last week, that "little bit" was two struggling households in Palmdale.

The US EPA gave GRID Alternatives its Climate Change Champion award in a ceremony with the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians.