Solar Tribune

SolarCity to donate PV system to a school for each MW installed in U.S.

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Major U.S. solar firm SolarCity has started a nonprofit organization to help provide children around the world with clean energy to light their schools.

Through the Give Power Foundation, SolarCity will donate a PV solar power system and battery unit to a school without electricity for every megawatt of residential PV that SolarCity installs this year.

According to SolarCity, over 290 million children around the world attend elementary schools that don’t have electricity.

Not only will students have electricity during the day, but the schools can be community gathering places in the evening. The first installations are expected to be in Haiti, Mali, Malawi and Nepal.

SolarCity CEO, Lyndon Rive, installs a panel on a school in Nicaragua in 2013. Credit: SolarCity

SolarCity CEO, Lyndon Rive, installs a panel on a school in Nicaragua in 2013. Credit: SolarCity

“The United Nations has set the ambitious goal of ensuring that everyone in the world has access to electricity by 2030, while fighting climate change, and we are deeply committed to making this happen through the Give Power Foundation,” said Hayes Barnard, SolarCity’s Chief Revenue Officer and President of Give Power Foundation.

“Now every SolarCity customer will play a part in giving light to a community in need,” Barnard continued.

The Give Power Foundation will work with buildOn, a nonprofit that builds schools in some of the poorest countries in the world, to ensure that the systems are installed and maintained correctly.

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