Today marks the beginning of a new "renewable" era for the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles. Thanks to a generous grant from the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD), and Southern California Edison, the Southeast-Rio Vista at 6208 Seville Avenue, Huntington Park CA 90255 is installing 20 kW of Solar Power to help off-set its energy costs.
"The money we don't have to spend on electricity, we can put into programs," said Rene Brizuela, Seville Avenue's Executive Director. "We are thrilled that we were chosen to be the first YMCA to go green," Brizuela continued. "Solar power will help our YMCA be an example to our neighborhood that we can all do something to help stop global warming."
Southeast-Rio is just the first of three YMCA's that have been chosen by the AQMD to go solar. Southeast-Rio, the Wilmington Branch, and East Los Angeles YMCA on Whittier Blvd. are all buildings within five miles of Municipal Power plants, and thus qualified for a special grant that was awarded by the AQMD this past January.
Wilmington and East Los Angeles are both to receive rebates from the City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's solar program.
Construction of these 2 systems, totaling 90 kilowatts, will begin in early May. "Just in time to capture the Summer sun," said PermaCity Solar's Herb Mendelsohn. PermaCity Solar is a Los Angeles based solar power installer responsible for coordinating between the various government agencies and the manufacturer, Schuco Solar, to stretch the grant and rebate money as far as possible.
