As we gear up for another busy year at GRID, we want to take a moment to reflect on and celebrate our success in 2015. Thanks to all of our supporters, homeowners, and volunteers, it has been an amazing year in the Bay Area! Here are a few key wins from 2015:

The holidays came early for the Granados family of San Francisco this year. On Friday, December 18, a team of employee volunteers from PG&E’s distributed generation team came out with GRID Alternatives to put solar panels on their roof, providing them with energy cost savings for years to come.

Five years ago, Rosana Francescato found herself on a construction site surrounded by unfamiliar tools, gleaming solar panels, and countless GRID-tee-shirt-clad volunteers. She landed there after hearing GRID co-founder and CEO Erica Mackie speak at a green networking event about the upcoming Bay Area Solarthon, GRID's signature fundraiser and solar 'block party.' Eager to get out of the office and experience solar first-hand, Rosana signed herself up.

“We just went around the world and I didn’t even leave this job site!” joked GRID’s Solar Installation Supervisor, Ron Griffin, at an install late this October. Why? Because this install hosted a remarkable group of emerging clean energy leaders from Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East in partnership with TechWomen.

Ladies, get your career in solar started - with a free eight day training program hosted by GRID! This women-only program provides a positive learning space for you to gain knowledge about solar career paths, with skill building in several difference areas.

GRID Alternatives’ Bay Area team is excited to announce that this year’s Bay Area Solarthon will take place in Richmond, CA on September 26th! Solarthon is GRID’s flagship community installation event, bringing together homeowners, volunteers, corporate sponsors and job-trainees to install solar for multiple low-income families in one day. This year, GRID is proud to host our second Solarthon in Richmond CA, a diverse and historically-rich community in the East Bay that while once was a center of industry, is now best known for high rates of crime, poverty, and pollution.

This summer, GRID Alternatives’ Bay Area hosted two awesome student interns, Diane and Julia, in the Outreach Department of our Oakland office. The students both had busy summers in the office, and we are incredibly grateful to them for their efforts on behalf of GRID! Check out what Diane and Julia got up to this summer below!

The small Humboldt County city of Arcata is known for environmental firsts. From being the first city in the U.S. to have a Green Party majority city council, to building a living wastewater treatment system atop an old solid waste dump, Arcata embraces new ways of thinking and acting on behalf of the environment.

GRID Alternatives, in partnership with the PG&E Pacific Energy Center and NorCal Solar, hosted its 3rd annual Solar Jobs Fair in conjunction with the Intersolar North America conference in San Francisco. The event connected over 250 job seekers with nearly 20 actively hiring solar companies from around the Bay Area.