Happy Solar Summer!
Here at GRID Alternatives Greater Los Angeles we are working to share the sun with everyone this summer and this June we celebrated the soltice with Randy Bishop, CEO and Cofounder of Verengo Solar, and a highly professional team of Verengo volunteers, who installed a 2.3 kW solar electric system for the Carrillo Family of Long Beach. This system will reduce the Carrillo?s energy bills by about 87% while reducing over 140,000 lbs of greenhouse gasses and other pollutants, the equivalent of planning over 200 trees. The solar electric system was provided at no cost to the family and made possible in part by the philanthropic support of Verengo Solar.
Vernego has proudly hired a number of GRID-trained volunteers, helping to build Los Angeles? still-growing green jobs base at at time when so many workers have been downsized out of other fields and are seeking new employment. CEO and Cofounder Randy Bishop (shown here with GRID Team Leader John Toone) rolled up his sleeves and joined his company?s volunteer team on the roof, "Three of our company values are responsibility, teamwork and enthusiasm," he said, "Which is why Verengo is honored to be partnered with a like minded organization such as Grid Alternatives on this special solar installation for the Carrillo Family of Long Beach."
Homeowner Felicitas Carrillo is a widow, supporting her multi-generational family by working as a packing machine operator at a local snack foods company. She expressed her relief and gratitude for the energy cost savings her solar electric system will provide, but also was eager to be a part of the environmental solution for her community as well: "I already try to help the planet by using reusable bags for shopping instead of plastic bags and things like that, but now I feel like I can really make a difference by using clean energy."
The day of the installation was one of celebration for the family but with many thoughts for a missing member: one of Mrs. Carrillo?s grandchildren was in the hospital that day for asthma-related respiratory complications, a condition that she was already familiar with, as it had afflicted one of her other grandchildren as well.
.JPG)
This is not an uncommon story in the area. Pollution in Long Beach has resulted in a childhood asthma rate that is twice that of the average child in the US, and a recent study from USC?s Keck School of Medicine found that asthma care related to traffic pollution consumes up to 8% of household income in the community. This puts many low-income families in the double bind of paying two high prices for fossil fuel-based energy, first by paying a higher percentage of their income on their electricity costs than the average household, and second with the health (and the subsequent health care costs) of their children.
One solar electric installation can?t eliminate all the sources of air pollution in Long Beach or cure childhood asthma, but it will make a difference, and looking out from the Carrillo?s roof, I could see panels glittering on rooftops from at least three other GRID Alternatives solar installations in the neighborhood and a familiar GRID slogan came to mind, ?One rooftop at a time,? I thought. ?One rooftop at a time.?
Click here to share the sun this summer and support solar for families like the Carrillo family in Long Beach and throughout the Greater Los Angeles Area: Give Solar!