![Commercial Project Developer Bakari Touray showing guests a \"gallery wall\" showing commercial solar projects North Valley has installed.](\"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Grid-Alt-Event-6-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAfter almost 13 years headquartered in Chico, GRID Alternatives (GRID) North Valley regional affiliate office shifted all operations to our Sacramento location this year. As a way to commemorate the move and celebrate the tremendous growth in impact we have had serving communities from San Joaquin County to the Oregon border and east to the Nevada border, we hosted an Open House on August 8th, 2024 to bring our Sacramento area community together and toast to the work we have ahead of us. <\/p>\n
The morning of our Open House was a beautifully sunny California day, a perfect visual representation of the solar energy we have been able to bring to over to 2,105 families and 25 affordable housing or nonprofit spaces in our region since we opened in 2011. In attendance were many of our community-based partners, new and old funders alike, and even some past clients. Attendees enjoyed delicious tacos from a local food truck, California Street Taco, between visits to tables set up by our Outreach and Workforce Development teams with activities like \u201cPin the Panel on the Roof\u201d and updates from their respective programs. <\/p>\n
GRID North Valley staff also led guests through a walking tour of the facility, which was decorated with fresh flowers from Outreach Co-Manager Summer LeBard\u2019s home garden and festive GRID signage. Highlights from the tour included: a \u201cgallery wall\u201d of the 25 multifamily and commercial projects that the North Valley team has installed; the Technical Academy lab space where the hands-on Installation Basics Training (IBT) program is held, and it’s newly air-conditioned training classroom; our warehouse where construction staff arrive at 5:30 AM every summer day to prep for the day’s jobs; and the office\u2019s Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity (EID) resource library in the staff lounge. <\/p>\n
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![\"Construction](\"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Grid-Alt-Event-31-1024x683.jpg\")
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As guests gathered and mingled in the \u201cHub\u201d of our Sacramento office, GRID North Valley\u2019s Board President Kacey Lizon and Treasurer Eric Poff opened the speaking program with welcoming remarks sharing their connection to GRID\u2019s work. Erica Mackie, CEO and Co-Founder of GRID Alternatives, then spoke about the national impact of GRID\u2019s work and the exciting road ahead:<\/p>\n
![\"North](\"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Grid-Alt-Event-62-crop_0-1024x683.jpg\")
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\u201cThe model you have created here in Northern California, particularly in Sacramento around equitable renewables policy, has become a model that is being used all over the country. We have just been awarded two multi-million dollar awards from the federal government that will help us install over 30,000 systems in the next 5 years, based on your model. As part of the Inflation Reduction Act, the federal government put $7 billion into what they\u2019re calling the Solar for All program. <\/p>\n
The Solar for All program is what you all do every day – it\u2019s the same words we\u2019ve been saying from every rooftop we\u2019ve been on in the last 20 years, it\u2019s the same program, and it cares about the same kinds of things: workforce development as an integrated component of the work, making sure we\u2019re maximizing savings for families, and that we\u2019re also looking towards resiliency\u2026 You\u2019ve created something that isn\u2019t just for your neighbor and your community, but also for someone living in Tennessee or Michigan and in many reservations across the United States. It\u2019s an honor to be here with you all because you set the tone and built the pathway.\u201d <\/p>\n
North Valley\u2019s new Co-Executive Directors Achini Bandara and Pablo Del\u2019Aguila shared that in 13 years, GRID North Valley has installed over 10 megawatts of solar, generating $70 million in lifetime savings for our clients, preventing over 150,000 tons in carbon emissions, and graduating over 300 trainees from our solar job training programs. They introduced each team that makes North Valley\u2019s work possible – Construction, Design, Outreach, Workforce Development, Development, and Commercial – to rounds of applause, ending the speaking program with thanks to our guests. The event closed with a conduit-bending workshop and competition led by Solar Installation Training Officer Ana Veronica (A.V.) Bourke, where guests tried their hand at bending conduit to a specified angle, followed by GRID solar installers competing to bend a (slightly more complicated) conduit the fastest. It was a fun and lively ending to an event we hope to replicate in the future. To quote our Co-Executive Director Achini Bandara, \u201cWe are thrilled to be able to share our space with you, to share our work with you, and to do this work for our communities.\u201d <\/p>\n
![\"North](\"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Grid-Alt-Event-72-1024x683.jpg\")
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After almost 13 years headquartered in Chico, GRID Alternatives (GRID) North Valley regional affiliate office shifted all operations to our Sacramento location this year. As a way to commemorate the move and celebrate the tremendous growth in impact we have had serving communities from San Joaquin County to the Oregon border and east to the Nevada border, we hosted an Open House on August 8th to bring our Sacramento area community together and toast to the work we have ahead of us. <\/p>","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6182,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"audience":[],"content-type":[12],"focus-area":[18],"region":[15],"series":[],"content-author":[],"class_list":["post-7378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","content-type-news","focus-area-events","region-northern-california"],"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":"\n