{"id":6631,"date":"2016-02-08T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-08T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gridalt.wpenginepowered.com\/the-current\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T12:05:06","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T16:05:06","slug":"sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/es\/the-current\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\/","title":{"rendered":"SunPower Employees Bring Solar to Austin’s Blackland Community"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Lone Star State may not be on the GRID Alternatives service map, but when our longest running equipment partner, SunPower, asked us to help their Austin, Texas-based employees give back to their community, we just couldn\u2019t say no. That\u2019s how, over two crisp, sunny days in late January, we found ourselves installing solar for four families in Austin\u2019s Blackland neighborhood with more than 60 SunPower employee volunteers. <\/p>\n

The homes are among 48 affordable homes built by Blackland Community Development Corporation (CDC) to serve low-income families, seniors, and people with disabilities. Residents of all ages gather daily to play dominoes, bingo and basketball at the nearby Alamo Recreation Center, a central hub for the neighborhood. Across the street is the Alamo Community Garden, with a planter box that reads \u201cLove and grow\u201d in bright paint.<\/p>\n

Blackland has a long history with solar starting in 1990 when the CDC got a grant from the Department of Energy to put panels on the Blackland Neighborhood Center. The system powers six cottages housing elderly residents. Another system powering a duplex was donated by the University of Texas School of Architecture, and a small off-grid system powers a communal refrigerator to preserve residents\u2019 medicine during the neighborhood\u2019s frequent and prolonged power outages.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cWe are really appreciative of the help,\u201d said Bo McCarver, Board President of the Blackland CDC, noting that the GRID projects would more than double the solar capacity of the community. \u201cThere is no way we could have afforded to do this without GRID Alternatives\u2019 and SunPower\u2019s super help. These four roofs shelter struggling families — the savings will go straight to the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the SunPower volunteers, it was an opportunity to have an experience their counterparts in California have enjoyed since the partnership with GRID began in 2006. <\/p>\n

\u201cGRID provided the opportunity for us to give back to those in our community who really need and deserve reduced electric bills, as well as hands on learning for our employees,\u201d said Rich Clark, a development engineering manager for SunPower who was out volunteering.<\/p>\n

At the end of the second day, volunteers, families and GRID staff celebrated together as the systems were switched on. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been amazing out here knowing that we are impacting the lives of four families so directly,\u201d said Erin Nelson, Chief Marketing Officer for SunPower.<\/p>\n

Special thanks to Austin-based SunPower by Freedom Solar<\/a> for their incredible support in making this project a success.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Austin, Texas-based SunPower employees give back to their community with four GRID Alternatives solar installations in Austin’s Blackland neighborhood.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5543,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[],"audience":[],"content-type":[12],"focus-area":[18,26,27],"region":[],"series":[],"content-author":[],"class_list":["post-6631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-organizational-stories","content-type-news","focus-area-events","focus-area-sponsors","focus-area-volunteers"],"acf":{"hero_media_type":"image","hero_media_image":null,"hero_media_url":"","hero_media_poster":null,"hero_video_play":"inline","related_stories":null,"pattern_override":null,"story_callouts":null,"media":null,"featured_blog_post":null,"featured_event":null,"pdf_download":null,"blockquote":null,"author":null,"notice":null,"social_embed":null,"contact_card":null,"meta_details":null,"faq":null,"table":null},"yoast_head":"\nSunPower Employees Bring Solar to Austin's Blackland Community - GRID Alternatives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Austin, Texas-based SunPower employees give back to their community with four GRID Alternatives solar installations in Austin's Blackland neighborhood.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/es\/the-current\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SunPower Employees Bring Solar to Austin's Blackland Community - GRID Alternatives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Austin, Texas-based SunPower employees give back to their community with four GRID Alternatives solar installations in Austin's Blackland neighborhood.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/es\/the-current\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"GRID Alternatives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-02-08T14:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-03T16:05:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_0125-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1530\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"GRID Alternatives\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"GRID Alternatives\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutos\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\\\/the-current\\\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\\\/the-current\\\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"GRID Alternatives\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/bd03a3f27e7552f400a4ea78534bad32\"},\"headline\":\"SunPower Employees Bring Solar to Austin’s Blackland Community\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-08T14:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-03T16:05:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\\\/the-current\\\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":419,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\\\/the-current\\\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/IMG_0125-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Organizational Stories\"],\"inLanguage\":\"es\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\\\/the-current\\\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\\\/the-current\\\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\\\/\",\"name\":\"SunPower Employees Bring Solar to Austin's Blackland Community - GRID Alternatives\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\\\/the-current\\\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\\\/the-current\\\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/IMG_0125-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-08T14:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-03T16:05:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/bd03a3f27e7552f400a4ea78534bad32\"},\"description\":\"Austin, Texas-based SunPower employees give back to their community with four GRID Alternatives solar installations in Austin's Blackland neighborhood.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\\\/the-current\\\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"es\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\\\/the-current\\\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"es\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\\\/the-current\\\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/IMG_0125-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/IMG_0125-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1530,\"caption\":\"Large group of volunteers in hard hats holding SunPower banner in front of houses under renovation\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\\\/the-current\\\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"SunPower Employees Bring Solar to Austin’s Blackland Community\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\\\/\",\"name\":\"GRID Alternatives\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"es\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/bd03a3f27e7552f400a4ea78534bad32\",\"name\":\"GRID Alternatives\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"es\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/74b89874a4d7444b6c4477b5dbf40a8e8c8a893e01904a8588afb1173ed67a38?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/74b89874a4d7444b6c4477b5dbf40a8e8c8a893e01904a8588afb1173ed67a38?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/74b89874a4d7444b6c4477b5dbf40a8e8c8a893e01904a8588afb1173ed67a38?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"GRID Alternatives\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"SunPower Employees Bring Solar to Austin's Blackland Community - GRID Alternatives","description":"Austin, Texas-based SunPower employees give back to their community with four GRID Alternatives solar installations in Austin's Blackland neighborhood.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/es\/the-current\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\/","og_locale":"es_MX","og_type":"article","og_title":"SunPower Employees Bring Solar to Austin's Blackland Community - GRID Alternatives","og_description":"Austin, Texas-based SunPower employees give back to their community with four GRID Alternatives solar installations in Austin's Blackland neighborhood.","og_url":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/es\/the-current\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\/","og_site_name":"GRID Alternatives","article_published_time":"2016-02-08T14:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-09-03T16:05:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1530,"url":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_0125-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"GRID Alternatives","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"GRID Alternatives","Est. reading time":"2 minutos"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/the-current\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/the-current\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\/"},"author":{"name":"GRID Alternatives","@id":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/#\/schema\/person\/bd03a3f27e7552f400a4ea78534bad32"},"headline":"SunPower Employees Bring Solar to Austin’s Blackland Community","datePublished":"2016-02-08T14:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-09-03T16:05:06+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/the-current\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\/"},"wordCount":419,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/the-current\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_0125-scaled.jpg","articleSection":["Organizational Stories"],"inLanguage":"es"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/the-current\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\/","url":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/the-current\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\/","name":"SunPower Employees Bring Solar to Austin's Blackland Community - GRID Alternatives","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/the-current\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/the-current\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_0125-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2016-02-08T14:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-09-03T16:05:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/#\/schema\/person\/bd03a3f27e7552f400a4ea78534bad32"},"description":"Austin, Texas-based SunPower employees give back to their community with four GRID Alternatives solar installations in Austin's Blackland neighborhood.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/the-current\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"es","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/the-current\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"es","@id":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/the-current\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_0125-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_0125-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1530,"caption":"Large group of volunteers in hard hats holding SunPower banner in front of houses under renovation"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/the-current\/sunpower-employees-bring-solar-austins-blackland-community\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"SunPower Employees Bring Solar to Austin’s Blackland Community"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/#website","url":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/","name":"GRID Alternatives","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"es"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/#\/schema\/person\/bd03a3f27e7552f400a4ea78534bad32","name":"GRID Alternatives","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"es","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/74b89874a4d7444b6c4477b5dbf40a8e8c8a893e01904a8588afb1173ed67a38?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/74b89874a4d7444b6c4477b5dbf40a8e8c8a893e01904a8588afb1173ed67a38?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/74b89874a4d7444b6c4477b5dbf40a8e8c8a893e01904a8588afb1173ed67a38?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"GRID Alternatives"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6631"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8356,"href":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6631\/revisions\/8356"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6631"},{"taxonomy":"audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/audience?post=6631"},{"taxonomy":"content-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-type?post=6631"},{"taxonomy":"focus-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/focus-area?post=6631"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=6631"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=6631"},{"taxonomy":"content-author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-author?post=6631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}