Solar panels installed on low-income homes for free as GRID Alternatives comes to Colorado

Westword

GRID Alternatives, a California-based nonprofit group that works on renewable energy, is launching a national expansion plan to bring solar panels to homes across the country — and its first stop is in the Denver metro area, which has a long and complicated history with alternative energy research.

GRID (the acronym stands for “Generating Renewable Ideas for Development Alternatives”) is installing twelve solar electric systems for low-income houses in Lakewood this week, making it currently the only program of its kind in the state. The group, which will open a full-time Colorado office in 2013, identified twelve homes — built by the Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver — that would benefit from solar panels. The installations began yesterday and will continue through September 29.