Making solar energy available in low-income areas can provide lasting financial relief from high electric bills, as well as expanded employment opportunities and improved environmental health, says a new report released this week.

A new policy guide offers decision-makers a suite of solutions geared toward helping Americans in lower income brackets.

GRID Alternatives' Director of Workforce Development, Erika Symmonds, lays out five strategies to help solar installers build a strong workforce pipeline in a rapidly growing industry.

The Colorado Energy Office is beginning a solar pilot project it believes is the first of its kind in the country. Five solar energy projects, installed by GRID Alternatives, will supply electricity to about 300 low-income individuals.

GRID Alternatives completes a special 4-home solar installation project in Austin, Texas with 80 Austin-based emplyees of SunPower, a longtime GRID partner. Volunteers installed 13 kilowatts of solar for low-income residents of Austin's Blackland neighborhood.

 GRID Alternatives is spearheading a new effort with the City of Baltimore, who announced on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day a commitment of $200,000 to advance solar installations for low- and moderate-income residents.

GRID Alternatives installs solar systems on five homes for members of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian Tribe while providing volunteers with job training. GRID has partnered with more than 30 tribes nationwide to provide solar assistance.

GRID Alternatives, an 11-year-old nonprofit based in Oakland, California, has turned the socioeconomics of rooftop solar on its head with its 21st century barn-raising model for installing solar.

In partnership with Wells Fargo, GRID Alternatives is now ramping up a program, called Troops to Solar, targeted at training 1,000 veterans over the next three years. It was launched on Tuesday during a four-part solar installation on the homes of wounded veterans in San Diego.