On Monday December 15th, Congresswoman Judy Chu visited a GRID Alternatives Greater Los Angeles (GLA) solar electric installation in Pasadena, California. At the event, the Congresswoman presented GLA with a Certificate of Congressional Recognition for their extraordinary service to the community.

On Thursday December 11th, volunteers, board members, and staff gathered at El Cholo for our annual Volunteer Appreciation Event, hosted in honor of the individuals that make our work possible. This year, our volunteers worked over 15,000 hours to complete over 140 installations, more than any other year in GLA history.

If you stopped by GRID Alternatives Greater Los Angeles this year, you probably saw someone working diligently behind a desk when you first came in to the office. Vivi Fuentes, who has been working this year as our Project Fellow, has been sitting behind that desk, designing solar electric systems and pulling permits for our installations. Vivi’s journey with GLA has been an exciting one so far, read on to see how she went from being a volunteer to a full-time designer.

A few weeks ago, GRID volunteers Brian Scotti and Aldo Aldama saved the day when a mother locked her baby inside the house by accident. Read on the see how Rikiya Graham, retells the story through a cartoon.

For the second year in a row, Mitsubishi Electric and students from Cal State Long Beach joined forces to install a solar electric system for a Long Beach family.

Sometimes GRID comes into people’s lives without knowing the added, long term impact we might have. Two years ago, Daniela Escobedo’s family received the gift of solar through GRID Alternatives Greater Los Angeles (GLA). Today Daniela works in a lab at UCLA doing research and development for a solar company.

On Thursday, October 30th, volunteers from Salesforce joined GRID Alternatives of Greater Los Angeles to install a 1.72 kW solar system in Lynwood, California. The system is expected to create over $15,000 in savings for the family over the system’s lifetime and reduce carbon emissions by 47 tons. The family that received the system is truly thankful.

Three volunteer teams came out for the U.S. Green Building Council's Green Apple Day of Service in El Monte, CA. Check out a short, fun video of volunteers from Vons grocery stores installing solar with GRID! In addition to Vons volunteers, we also had a group of high school students getting a hands-on introduction to solar.

On Saturday, October 18th, twelve women in the solar and sustainability sectors joined GRID Alternatives Greater Los Angeles (GLA) for our annual Women Executives’ Build in Long Beach. This event is one of many taking place across the country this year, as part of GRID Alternatives National Women in Solar Initiative, a partnership with SunEdison.

Saturday was a perfect day for solar in Long Beach thanks to a joint effort between Building Healthy Communities: Long Beach (BHCLB) and GRID Alternatives Greater Los Angeles (GLA). During the community awareness event, local leaders joined a group of GLA and BHCLB volunteers to install 2.7 kilowatts of solar for two Long Beach families. While solar went up on the roof, it also spread door to door as canvassers walked around the neighborhood talking to community members about solar energy.