Fresno has the worst air quality
in the country according to the American Lung Association.
So we did a lot of outreach and education in that community.
A woman who heard about the program is Maria Zavala.
She heard about the ability
to get free solar panels
applied for and got it through our partners
at Grid Alternatives.
At the time Maria's Zavala was a single mom
her husband had died a few years previously
she had a sister-in-law
she was helping to care for
and she had recently passed.
We wanted to make sure that we were able to help
and got her free solar panels.
Maria's energy bill used to be two hundred dollars on average.
After she got the free solar panels
her electricity bill bill went to a dollar fifty on average a month.
The amount of money that she was saving
now she can spend into local economy in Fresno.
The power point that was cranking out the dirty energy
now can crank out a little less dirty energy
improving the air for all of us.
I mean, this really is not one solar panel
it's about the comprehensive benefits
and in the first year alone Maria was
but one of 1,800 free solar panels
that were passed out because of this program.
Since then thousands and thousands and thousands
of solar panels have been invested in
and we're going to continue seeing that grow.
We're incentivizing and growing the solar market
which has been having a really hard time
penetrating into low and moderate income
households and communities.
And so we're helping to accelerate that and build that
and grow the industry which eventually
helps us all to get to a hundred percent solar.
