RE-volv, a national nonprofit organization, works with small solar projects (under 30 kW) for nonprofit organizations. To start, they are enlisting “solar ambassadors” at colleges to raise money (currently through crowdfunding campaigns) to put solar on nonprofits, and creating a revolving seed fund to buy solar for more nonprofits in the future. RE-volv will own the solar installations it helps build for 20 years and leases their electricity to the nonprofits at a price about 15 percent less than the organizations would pay their utilities for power.
The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation will match RE-volv fundraising dollar for dollar for five projects, including Project Home in Madison, WI that does energy efficiency retrofits on lower-income homes. Project home is raising $24,000 in funds for an 8.6 kW solar PV system and has received a grant from RENEW’s Solar for Good Project as well. Revolve has completed projects in Milwaukee at the River Revitalization Foundation and the River West Food Co-op. energynews