On the Job With SolarCorps: Young Adults Bringing Solar to Low-Income Communities
Solar
Speaker 1: We're packing out all the equipment. This is a micro inverter right here. The reason I joined the grid is because they are giving solar and renewable energy to people that can't afford it.
Speaker 1: My name is Kevin Simon. I am 32 years old and I am associate project manager. GR Alternatives is a nonprofit solar installer. What we do is anyone within our regulator, government given map under a certain low income threshold can get solar for free. They don't own the system, [00:00:30] but they do get all the benefits of solar. If they qualify, they fill out an application. We come out and do a site visit, get a system size, and then put solar on their house for free. All of the benefits of solar, as in not paying an energy, be able to go directly to that client.
Speaker 2: My name is Carson. I am 20 years old and currently I am a construction assistant for Grid Alternatives. The Solar Core program is a program grim made who get people into the grid alternatives kind of workforce, and it allows them to also teach how solar [00:01:00] panels work, how they're good for the environment and stuff like that, and also get them experience for moving forward within their lives.
Speaker 1: We have different departments of construction design outreach where they do a fellowship for 11 months and just learned the tricks of the trade. I get their foot in the door. That's how I got in in 2021. Started as a construction fellow installation fellow where I was out in the field doing a job a day for about six to seven months, and then I got moved into the project [00:01:30] management stream. After that,
Speaker 2: I had no idea what I was doing in the beginning, but then over time, thanks to my managers and all my coworkers, I was able to learn how to install solar panels effectively.
Speaker 1: We're here early. I get in about 6 30, 6 45. The leads are coming in right after me. Crew gets here at seven. On a normal day, we'll have two residential jobs. They've taken maybe about a day or two.
Speaker 2: Equipment for a solar panels would be of course the modules themselves. The panels, they have the clicks energy. There is a [00:02:00] micro which allows you to transfer, set energy into usable energy, direct current to alternate current. After that goes to wires and into a jbox, which connects all the panels and micros together and go straight to the combiner box, which a sense transfers that towards the main power breaker and then boom, you got solar.
Speaker 3: My name is Pedro Hernandez Jr. I'm 22 years old and I am a junior solar installation supervisor. I heard of the Solar Core program through my dad. He works for Grid and he's been with the company for eight years. I applied [00:02:30] and I got in, went through the orientation, did the training, and I am here now. A lot of the clients we serve are from communities that I feel I'm a part of, especially low income communities who need as much help as they can all the way, all the way. We're the year to Carson Premier. The work that we do helps reduce our impact on climate change by providing renewable energy to clients who, [00:03:00] for the most part wouldn't be able to afford it.
Speaker 1: Being able to fight environmental justice as well as the whole fossil fuel based problem that is changing our climate, warming our globe, not just for the planet but for the people. It is the main reason I'm here personally.
Speaker 3: It feels good, especially after finishing an install, knowing that we've just left someone's home, having given them solar.
Speaker 2: Sometimes we go to the site and they by showing things that sometimes give us food for their gratitude and stuff like that, which is not necessary. [00:03:30] It feels good to make something that actually is useful to the community.
Speaker 1: We love the planet that we have. It's beautiful. I want to be able to not share it just with the people I know, but the people that will come after us.
Speaker 3: Overall, it's a very fulfilling job and it doesn't get much better for me to be honest.
