Have you been trying to install solar panels on your roof or in your community, but are facing technical or financial barriers? Join SELC at the Impact HUB Oakland on August 3rd where we will be hosting a teach-in on “Starting Your Own Solar Cooperative!” Learn from the Energy Solidarity Cooperative and Community Power Network on how to create energy resilience within your community by implementing neighborhood solar cooperatives. By going solar as a group, each participant saves on the cost of their system and gets support from their peers as they go through the process.

The teach-in will walk you through the process of creating a solar cooperative with technical expertise from successful solar cooperatives and solar cooperative incubators. This workshop will assist specifically with project workflow, how to leverage non-extractive lender financing with other community financing, and will also address the benefits in workforce development and community empowerment of the solar cooperative model. We will host a group discussion on the barriers and solutions to bring solar to your community. Come get your questions answered and meet others who want to get on board with solar cooperatives!

Facilitating the teach-in is Carolyn Yvellez, a 2015 Summer Cooperatives Program Intern at SELC and an undergraduate studying at University of Notre Dame. Currently the sustainability coordinator at Notre Dame, she is promoting Notre Dame's divestment from fossil fuel and carbon producing investments, installing solar panels on campus buildings, and advocating to replace a fast food chain on campus with a cooperative or other social-enterprise that provides healthy, locally-sourced food to the ND community.