GRID Alternatives Announces Partnership with Invest In Our Future to Advance Economic Development

GRID Alternatives, a national nonprofit working to build community-powered solutions to advance economic and environmental justice through renewable energy, has received a one-year grant of $1.7 million from Invest In Our Future (IOF) to work towards a shared vision of a just transition to a clean energy future. This grant will allow GRID Alternatives to expand the capacity of its workforce development program, laying the foundation for building an equitable clean energy workforce in low-income communities (LIC) on a national scale.

“Partnerships are key to building holistic ecosystems that drive impact and positive change for our communities,” said Adewale OgunBadejo, GRID Alternatives’ Vice President of Workforce Development. “This newly developed partnership between IOF and GRID fortifies the foundation of our workforce development engine. It provides critical support for sustainability and growth at a time when clean energy is at the forefront of the charge to build cleaner, healthier environments for generations to come.”

GRID Alternatives secured its grant from Invest in Our Future to exponentially expand its national and tribal workforce development programming. Over the next year, GRID will strategically invest in staff capacity and systems to expand its industry-recognized Installation Basics Training (IBT) and job development services, deepen its curriculum, and build the framework necessary to grow the Contractor Services Network nationwide.

“This grant from Invest in Our Future marks a pivotal step forward in our mission to strengthen tribal energy sovereignty,” said Tanksi Clairmont, Co-Executive Director, Tribal Energy Alternatives. “It enables us to build on generations of Native knowledge and innovation, while accelerating the transition to clean, resilient energy systems for our communities. We are honored and energized to carry this work forward in partnership with our people and future generations.”

After 2025, GRID Alternatives will have an established system to scale comprehensive workforce development programming and services to support training, career pathways, and entrepreneurship to benefit residents of LICs across the United States. This system will better position GRID to execute two initiatives funded by the Inflation Reduction Act’s Solar for All program: the Solar Access for Nationwide Affordable Housing Program (SANAH), a 10-organization, multi-state effort to provide clean energy benefits to 37,500 low-income households in rented and owned single-family and multifamily affordable housing across 29 priority states and territories, and the Western Indigenous Network-Solar for All (WIN-SFA), GRID’s collaboration with three nationally-recognized tribal nonprofit partners to provide clean energy benefits to at least 3,400 Native American households across the Southwest U.S.

“Our partnership with GRID Alternatives helps ensure that communities receive a vast array of economic benefits from the addition of solar energy,” said Carlos Jimenez, Vice President of Programs for Invest in Our Future. “Not only will these communities benefit from working with GRID’s installation teams to receive low-to-no-cost solar solutions that reduce their energy burdens, they’ll gain the opportunity to participate in workforce and small business development initiatives that help build wealth in their communities.”

The unprecedented investments flowing into the clean energy economy create a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build power, wealth, and resiliency in underserved communities nationwide. As the nation’s largest nonprofit installer of clean energy technologies and an industry leader in providing high-quality, real-world training opportunities for job seekers from EJ communities, GRID Alternatives is uniquely positioned to ensure that these investments are leveraged to increase equity and inclusion across the industry workforce.