SolarCorps Fellowship participants are always excited about service during their year, and our current Fellows brought about a meaningful impact while also getting to know one another a better during an activity day last week. As part of their collaborative single-family solar install, current SolarCorps Fellows participated in a "classroom on the roof" experience that really taught them how the multifaceted work of planning a residential project comes together. Through their single day of hard work, a GRID Alternatives customer using Energy for All got to unlock more than $24,000 in anticipated utility bills savings over the next two decades! Plus, a new array of more than a dozen solar panels got to glisten in the Long Beach, CA sunshine.
In order to close a funding gap on this project and introduce almost five new kilowatts of solar to West Long Beach, GRID Alternatives national partners IGS Energy committed to supporting this residential home. As a source of locally-generated, thoroughly-clean energy, the solar panels that our SolarCorps crew installed last week will help Los Angeles County's second-largest city become a hub for accessible, affordable renewable power. Moreover, the environmental impact of these panels is equivalent to taking about a dozen vehicles (and their tailpipe emissions) off of California's roads for a year. In industrial Long Beach, positioned close to major transportation corridors extending out of West Coast ports, this lack of carbon matters!
"Construction projects like this are helpful for people, our planet, and employment," said Lillian Ma, our development officer. "IGS Energy has given our SolarCorps Fellows an opportunity to create something valuable for the local community." Families like the Pinedas, who will benefit from the operation of the SolarCorps Fellow-installed system over the next two decades, have extra good news to be thankful for this November. A cleaner, greener Long Beach is on the way.
The SolarCorps Fellowship Program is part of the AmeriCorps network of programs. SolarCorps is made possible with funding support from AmeriCorps, AmeriCorps VISTA, and Bank of America. AmeriCorps is a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency for volunteering, service, and civic engagement. CNCS engages millions of Americans in citizen service through its AmeriCorps and Senior Corps programs and leads the nation’s volunteer and service efforts. For more information, visit nationalservice.gov.