Nonprofit SunWork helps Redwood City Catholic Worker House go solar Redwood City - (July 27, 2011) -This weekend, July 30 and 31, volunteers from nonprofit SunWork will install a solar photovoltaic system for Redwood City’s Catholic Worker House, which provides food, clothing and shelter for those in need. SunWork makes solar PV more economical for home owners who have low energy use and for nonprofit organizations.
SunWork’s costs consistently rank among the lowest for solar installations in PG&E territory. SunWork will install The Catholic Worker House solar system for $3.65 per Watt, which is more than 40% below the average installed cost of $6.48 per Watt for nonprofits in PG&E territory based on the most recent statistics (Q4, 2010) found on the California Solar Initiative web site.
"We're glad to help The Catholic Worker House go 100% solar and improve the environment. This gives our volunteers a great opportunity to expand their solar experience and support a worthy organization," said Reuben Veek, SunWork’s Operations Director.
SunWork focuses on the underserved market of home owners and nonprofit organizations that have worked to reduce their energy bills, but for whom installing solar has a longer payback. Nonprofit organizations cannot claim the 30% federal tax credit for solar installations because they don’t pay taxes.
Thus the solar systems have a longer payback for nonprofits. However, SunWork delivers solar PV systems that cost up to 40% less by working with trained volunteers to help install the systems, which dramatically reduces the labor portion of the cost. The volunteers benefit from on-the-job training and supervised hands-on installation experience while helping to improve the environment. Several volunteers have gone on to full time jobs in the solar industry.
“We wanted to do something good for the environment, said Larry Purcell, Director for The Catholic Worker House in Redwood City. If we want our species to survive, we need to get off non-renewable polluting energy sources.” In line with this philosophy, SunWork designed their system to generate 100% of The Catholic Work House’s annual energy use.
About The Catholic Worker House The Catholic Worker House in Redwood City was started 38 years ago and is located at 545 Cassia Street. It provides free food, clothing, and education to those in need as well as free housing to kids in crisis. It is one of more than 200 houses all over the world in which people come together to live in voluntary poverty, serve the poor, and work for social justice.
About SunWork Renewable Energy Projects SunWork Renewable Energy Projects is a nonprofit based in Mountain View, California and was founded in 2005 with the mission to work with trained volunteers to reduce the cost of installing solar electricity systems. SunWork's innovative model lets it deliver solar power to nonprofits and homeowners with already-modest electricity use (and correspondingly low electricity bills) at a third less than the conventional cost, allowing more people to make the switch to solar and enabling broader adoption of this clean, safe, and renewable alternative energy source.
Contact: Mike Balma, SunWork Board Member
(650)678-2213 mike@sunwork.org
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