GRID Alternatives' Solar Spring Break is a service-learning program that gives college students from around the country the opportunity to spend their vacation week installing solar in underserved communities while learning how the power of the sun can bring real-world benefits to real-world economic problems. GRID Bay Area hosted a group of 11 UC Berkeley students for one week at the end of March. Solar Spring Break participants Sabina Mahavni and Taeri Song highlight their experience in this guest blog.

When it comes to making clean energy future that includes everyone, Ashley Gremel doesn’t just walk the walk -- she picks up a paddle and starts rowing!

On a crisp and sunny January morning in East Palo Alto, a crew began to assemble in the front yard of a modest and well-cared for single-story home. The group, made up of volunteers from Elemental Excelerator, Sighten and the GRID Bay Area team, was there to install 2.9 kilowatts DC of no-cost solar power for a local low-income family all while celebrating a partnership through the Just Innovation Prize that was making this solar system possible. The Just Innovation Prize has a big impact: Elemental Excelerator is providing funding that will allow no-cost 10 solar installations for income-qualified families to be installed by GRID and designed with Sighten’s software platform, moving forward GRID projects that would not otherwise have been able to be installed due to funding shortages!

The Bay Area has been lucky enough to have amazing volunteers and interns over the years. We want to introduce you to one of our current awesome Bay Area Construction interns, Robin Htun, who found GRID, moved across the country and started volunteering. In the future, he’s hoping to establish solar as the conventional source of energy in his home country of Myanmar. At home in Myanmar, the country is just beginning to grow their energy infrastructure and Robin believes bringing renewable energy technology into the forefront is imperative. Read on to learn more about Robin’s journey with GRID and his passions.

The City of Richmond recently earned a special clean energy milestone as the Bay Area city with the most GRID installed solar, which is currently benefiting more than 400 low-income residents! Now the City of Richmond is leading the way on two more GRID-run clean energy programs. 

Winessa Nartia, who goes by Winnie, is one of GRID's newest SolarCorps Fellows who traded her desk for a rooftop last month as she got to experience her very first solar installation with GRID!

James is GRID Bay Area's Outreach Manager and a lead on our work with electric vehicles. A true believer in the transition to a renewable energy economy, James is thrilled to work for an organization that places such an emphasis on equity. Read on to learn more about James and what inspires him about working at GRID.

As part of our Solar Futures work, we have engaged more than 200 students this year alone through workshops, an internship program, solar presentations and installations!  We interviewed outgoing SolarCorps Workforce an Volunteer Fellow, Marissa Leshnov to learn about the programmatic work she’s been involved in during her term.

For the first time this summer, GRID Bay Area piloted a six-week solar training program for women over weeknights and weekends. Read on to learn more about why this program began, and how GRID is creating a more equitable and sustainable solar industry by providing career pathways for women and non-binary genders.