On Thursday Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and non-profit GRID Alternatives announced a pledge under which the local chapter of GRID will install solar on the homes of 500 low-income families over the next two years, as well as training 500 new solar workers.
The 500 installations will add up to 1.6 MW of new solar capacity in the city, and GRID estimates that it will also save up to $15 million in utility bills for the families over the useful life of the PV systems.
The announcement took place at the home of a single mother in South Los Angeles where GRID Alternatives of Greater Los Angeles (GLA) is installing a PV system at no cost, which it estimates will reduce her utility cost by 80%. Her system and other PV systems which GRID Alternatives installs, are funded by proceeds from California’s cap-and-trade greenhouse gas regulation program.
GRID GLA has installed more than 1,100 PV systems across the region to date, including over 100 in the City of Los Angeles, and will be funded by the state to supply PV systems to more than 2,900 families in low-income communities through mid-2018. The organization also receives funding from private individuals and through other means.
Along the way the non-profit has provided nearly 71,000 hours of workforce training to nearly 3,500 individuals, and states that it has helped to place more than 220 local workers with jobs in the solar industry.
Los Angeles currently has the most solar installed of any U.S. city, at 215 MW of capacity.
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