An Eco-Eden in Santa Ana: GRID, EcoSolargy, PBS and the Granados Family

Want to fight pollution and unemployment and foreclosures in your own backyard with a single project that will help a struggling family immediately while making a positive impact on the environment for decades?! Well, the folks at EcoSolargy did just that by joining GRID Alternatives with their volunteer and philanthropic contributions in Santa Ana to support GRID’s work and help bring clean solar energy to the Granados family, and PBS SoCal came out to cover the install for their local Real Orange program.

On a very hot August day, General Manger Alan Lee and his committed EcoSolargy team came out and worked hard, laughed alot, flashed some innovative footwear and got a tough job done.

“EcoSolargy started here in Orange County,” Alan told the PBS crew. "We still here locally in Orange County and through the past three years we’ve shown steady growth and finally we reached a point where we feel like we’re actually ready to give back to the community so we really enjoyed this opportunity.”

Originally from El Salvador, homeowner Noe Granados runs the ministry for his local church and his wife Susana, who was born in Mexico, homeschools their four children. They are a very eco-friendly household, with their own garden and fruit trees (we ate some of the grapes right off the vine, they were delicious), and they even raise their own chickens! They have a rain catchment system on the roof that helps water the plants and have already implemented so many energy efficiency measures, GRID’s energy efficiency assessment couldn’t offer them anything else to do to save energy before going solar. The day of the install, Susana (with some help from the kids) provided an amazing lunch for the whole team and made everyone feel like a part of the family.

“"We and our children were so excited and proud to be receiving support from GRID Alternatives and EcoSolargy,”" Noe Granados said. “"And we are proud to make our home even more environmentally friendly.”"

This solar electric system will reduce the family’s energy bills by almost 100%, leaving the family with more money for food, education, and health care, while reducing over 140,000 lbs of CO2 throughout its lifetime. To learn more about the Granados family install, you can view the PBS Real Orange segment on the install, click here.

For more information on how your company can support an installation in the Greater Los Angeles area, please visit our corporate sponsorship and Solarthon pages, or to contribute to GRID Alternatives Greater Los Angeles click here to Give Solar!