The weekend of October 22nd, 15 members of the Greentech Renewables team traveled to the Mendocino coastline for Grid Alternatives' Camp Solar. Grid Alternatives is a non-profit organization bringing together community partners, volunteers and job trainees to implement solar power and energy efficiency for low-income families across the nation with a focus on empowering people, sustaining the planet and providing employment. Greentech Renewables partnered with Grid to install a 4.4 kilowatt (kW) solar photovoltaic (PV) system for a low-income family in Fort Bragg, California that will provide the family with almost $42,000 in direct savings and the carbon offset equivalent of planting over 2,000 trees over the lifetime of the system.
Contributing to the installation gave the Greentech Renewables team a hands-on opportunity to understand the technical requirements of a solar installation project. Account manager, Olivia McShea, gained a deeper appreciation for the expertise required to install a solar system while installing the panels:
“While solar may be very technical, the installation process takes skill that can only come with practice, practice, practice. Installers make it look so easy but it's hard! With their experience, I am so impressed by how they get it right the first time - just feeling it out, judging with their eye and making a few quick measurements.”
Suveer Bahirwani from the Boston team was equally as inspired by the positive impact the installation was having on the family it was being given to:
“I had a long chat with the homeowner and she said how they’ve always tried to live within their means, at times struggling … so this energy system is going to take some of the load off (literally!).”
Since their founding in 2001 Grid Alternatives has overseen the installation of over 27 Megawatts of solar capacity. This represents a lifetime savings of over $215,000 for nearly 7,000 low-income families across the nation. With the help of 27,000 volunteers, Grid Alternative’s projects account for 530,000 tons of Greenhouse gas emissions kept out of the atmosphere.
The Greentech Renewables team would like to thank Grid Alternatives for an outstanding weekend of on-the-job training, giving back and bonding.
Fort Bragg, CA 95437
United States
