Solar panels produced by Solarworld AG are seen located in a field near to the company’s plant in Freiberg, Germany, on Wednesday, June 12, 2013. Solarworld AG is among companies battling competition mainly from China that pushed solar panel prices down about 20 percent last year after slumping by half in 2011. Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Leaders from San Diego Community Power, San Diego Foundation and Calpine Energy Solutions have announced grants of more than $1.2 million that will be used starting Tuesday for local clean energy and green workforce development projects in San Diego County.
With the backdrop of the Olivewood Gardens, a National City garden that will soon run on solar power and serve as a hub for electricity education, community members joined the announcement ceremony Monday awarding the funds to 16 organizations.
"The solar project with battery storage at Olivewood Gardens will do more than provide clean, reliable power, it will help create a more sustainable and resilient future for our community," said Jen Nation, executive director of Olivewood Gardens and Learning Center. "We are also inspiring others to embrace sustainable practices through educational workshops about clean energy and workforce opportunities funded by the grant."
The Olivewood Gardens Clean Energy Resilience Project submitted by Hammond Climate Solutions will provide a large solar array and battery storage to help the nonprofit reduce its reliance on the electricity grid.
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As a not-for-profit public agency, Community Power was designed to reinvest revenues into the people and organizations it serves. This year's Community Clean Energy Grants more than triple the reinvestment from last year.
"The expansion of this program delivers on Community Power's commitment to meaningfully reinvest in the people we serve," said San Diego City Council President Pro Tem and Community Power Board Chair Joe LaCava. "From energy education to electric vehicles to energy resiliency, we are helping build healthy and sustainable communities."
San Diego Foundation is administering the grants on behalf of Community Power and Calpine Energy Solutions, which provides back-office support to Community Power and other energy providers throughout California.
Grants were awarded to the following organizations:
- GRID Alternatives San Diego - $100,000 to complete 20 single-family clean energy projects in communities of concern within the next year;
- SBCS (formerly South Bay Community Services) - $100,000 to provide low-income, minority and system-involved youth in San Diego with pathways to employment within the solar industry;
- La Mesa Park & Recreation Foundation - $100,000 to host free community electric vehicle and solar power education and install electric vehicle charging stations at a city park;
- Climate Action Campaign - $100,000 toward development of the Refugee and Immigration Cultural Hub in City Heights;
- Hammond Climate Solutions Foundation - $100,000 to build a 16.4kW solar with 35kWh storage project for the National City-based nonprofit Olivewood Gardens and Learning Center and a series of clean energy workshops;
- San Diego 350 - $100,000 to create and pilot a high school program that engages teachers and students in communities of concern in San Diego County's South Bay on clean energy and its importance to environmental health; and
- I Am Green Inc. - $100,000 for its Weatherization & Energy Equity (W.E.E.) program that provides education and training tailored to address the unique challenges faced by individuals in communities heavily affected by poverty, unemployment, incarceration and environmental injustice.
Smaller grants were given to Chula Vista Elementary School District; Groundwork San Diego, Chollas Creek; GoGreenish; Suncoast Market Cooperative; Ocean Discovery Institute; South Sudanese Community Center; La Maestra Foundation, Inc.; MAAC Project; and In Good Company.
