Sun, sun, sun, here it comes.
In a new program, ten low income East Baltimore homes and a community center willl be getting solar paneling and "cool roofs." But there's more to this program than just the solar panels—via
treehugger:
A partnership between the city of Baltimore, the nonprofit GRID Alternatives, and Civic Works, a local job training organization, is netting low-income homeowners and a community center their own clean energy source, and enabling more green job training in Charm City.
In East Baltimore's C.A.R.E (Caring Active Restoring Efforts) community, ten homes are getting 'cool roofs' and solar arrays, which are expected to help residents "climb the energy ladder" and take advantage of both the financial and environmental benefits of renewable energy. The program is funded through the city's Office of Sustainability and GRID Alternatives, and includes some 1600 hours of solar installation and weatherization job training for local residents, which could potentially garner them a green job in the booming solar industry.
GRID Alternatives is a non-profit that tries to match up affordable solar power with job training in the renewable energy field.
Civic Works is a non-profit community building organization that offers job training, community services, and housing development. The program is small and simple and the first of its kind in Baltimore.
The hope is that it will grow:
The job training through Civic Works covers both weatherization and solar array installation, and is a three month program, beginning with a classroom portion for professional development and certifications, then two weeks of hands-on experience and two months of "operator-in-training" experience.
[...]
In addition to the rooftop solar installations, the homes also received 'cool roofs' that are expected to help reduce energy costs by about 30%, and when combined with weatherization retrofits, could help these low-income residents save quite a bit on their utility bills. The cool roofs are essentially an elastomeric base coat, combined with a reinforcing tensile fabric, and then sealed off with a white reflective coat, which keeps the summer sun from unnecessarily heating up the homes and boosting electrical demand for cooling purposes.
Success in Baltimore could really send a signal the the rest of our country that these kinds of community based programs are one of the positive ways to proceed in both easing the income equality abyss in our communities as well as helping ease our carbon footprints.