Following the 2015 Valley Fire, GRID Alternatives Bay Area/North Coast  began looking for opportunities to pair rebuilt homes with solar and its associated cost savings. Earlier this month, on a scorching 119 degree day, the Wasik Family became the first fire survivors to receive a GRID solar system, nearly a year to the day after moving in to their rebuilt home.

It was a hot, summer day during monsoon season when GRID Alternatives’ Tribal HQ team traveled down dirt-packed New Mexican roads to the tiny town of Ojo Encino on the Navajo Nation.

Sam Laveson is a sophomore studying Geology and Earth Sciences at the College of William & Mary who led GRID’s first Solar Spring Break Intercollegiate Team as they installed solar alongside our North Valley staff members. Read about Sam’s journey as a student leader, and consider joining the next Intercollegiate Team on March 25-29, 2019 in San Diego, CA!

We’re excited to partner with Energy Upgrade California to educate and inspire communities to conserve electricity and preserve our environment.

GRID Alternatives’ Tribal Program and Ecological Action, a student-created nonprofit from Cherry Creek High School in Denver, Colorado, installed solar at Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, serving two veterans.

In a rainy week in June, GRID partnered with the Rosebud Sioux Tribe for a We Build solar installation on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. Two teams of mother-daughter pairs volunteered to install a grid-tied solar PV system.

GRID volunteer, Kari Burman, unites her passions with GRID's mission as a skills-based volunteer.

In mid-June, 10 trainees climbed onto a roof to install solar for the first time. It marked a special day for GRID in Illinois: the culmination of an eight-week training, combining Lutheran Services of Southern Illinois’ (LSSI) Employment Skills School and a GRID Alternatives solar installation bootcamp, aimed at helping individuals who were formerly incarcerated start careers in the renewable energy field.

“I had no idea when GRID showed up at my residence that I would be selected for an opportunity that could change my life,” said Sequarier McCoy. When we installed solar for A New Way of Life, a nonprofit that provides services to formerly incarcerated women, Sequarier, a resident there, was curious about all the commotion outside.

A first-of-its-kind solar training series is opening doors and launching renewable energy careers for youth on the Bishop Paiute reservation in Southern California.