Owner Rosalba Medina stands in front of her Habitat for Humanity home, which will be completed in September. The house is equipped with a 5.8 kW solar panel donated by Pivot Energy and installed by Equitable Solar Solutions and Nunatak Alternative Energy. (Contributed by Rich Stromberg)
Colorado nonprofit makes a difference with used signs
It started as a classroom exercise.
Rich Stromberg managed the Alaska Energy Authority's wind and solar program for several years and was now a graduate student at the University of Western Colorado in Gunnison. When the school's director of environment and sustainability invited him to teach in 2019, Stromberg brought dozens of used solar panels and apps.
“They are almost 20 years old. They are still producing 82.83% of their original capacity,” Strömberg, now 59, reminded the students. So why throw them away?
Over the course of a semester, app students developed an idea for Equitable Solar Solutions, a nonprofit that refurbishes used solar panels and installs them on low-income rooftops. Strömberg said the organization's goal is to make solar energy accessible to those who might not otherwise have access to it, providing environmental benefits and reducing the cost of renewable energy.
According to the Solar Manufacturers Association, the cost of installing solar panels in Colorado has halved over the past decade. But research shows his supporters continue to grow whiter and wealthier. Households that installed solar panels earned an average of $110,000 last year, according to a federally funded study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
According to the lab, only 11% of new solar installations in Colorado have been installed on homes with annual incomes below $50,000. Tax incentives that encourage solar installations are also widely used by middle- and upper-class households, Stromberg said.
"It's great to grow the industry," he said. "But at the same time, we don't take into account a certain part of the population."
Equitable Solar Solutions has installed recycled solar panels on five homes since joining the Coldharbour Institute, a Gunnison-based nonprofit research organization, Stromberg said. He works with social service organizations and government agencies, including the Colorado Department of Energy's Insulation Assistance Program, which helps low-income families retrofit their homes with electricity.
“Ultimately, it will have the same benefit as lower energy costs, which is what everyone needs right now,” said program director Stephanie Incinna-Sahondo. "The more we can control this, the more people we can help."
Incinna-Sahondo said the program has awarded more than $16,000 to Equitable Solar Solutions since 2020 and will donate $25,000 to the nonprofit next year. That funding, combined with Habitat for Humanity's volunteer work, has made each installation half or less of the cost of buying a new solar system, Stromberg said.
As the number of solar panels approaching the end of their warranty period increases, Stromberg expects to see a "wave of arrivals" of adaptable equipment. He ensures that the small non-profit organization can manage the increase in donated equipment for future projects.
"We need to demonstrate our ability to move from individual roofs to commercial systems and then from commercial systems to large utility or community projects," he said.
Two of the organization's projects underway could test the potential of public solar power, including panels that offset energy costs for mobile homes in Gunnison and a retirement home on the Front Range, he said. .
To read more Colorado Public Radio stories, visit www.cpr.org .
