U.S. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy visited an installation at the home of Jerry Shumate, a disabled man who stands to save big with solar.

Running Jerry Shumate’s array of medical equipment consumes a lot of electricity, and costs a pretty penny, but a new solar array installed on his roof Friday will ease that burden.

As soon as workers turned on the new solar panels atop Boyd Reagan’s roof for a test run, he said the energy meter went backwards. And for the 64-year-old retired bookkeeper living on a fixed income, it was a sign of relief.

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.

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.

PBS SoCal TV coverage - A modern day barn raising, except this time instead of building a structure to store grain and farm animals, this project stores the energy of the sun.

Established in 2001, GRID Alternatives is a nonprofit organization that provides low income communities access to solar energy. GRID Alternatives was founded by two engineers who are driven to make clean energy accessible to the low-income communities that need solar energy the most.

Susie Chang is the Greater Los Angeles Regional Director for GRID Alternatives, a non-profit organization that installs solar electric systems for low-income homeowners in partnership with volunteers

and job trainees.

PBS SoCal TV coverage - A modern day barn raising, except this time instead of building a structure to store grain and farm animals, this project stores the energy of the sun.

PBS SoCal TV coverage - A modern day barn raising, except this time instead of building a structure to store grain and farm animals, this project stores the energy of the sun.