Generations of Solar
Through Solar for All Elliott Lyles was able to reconnect with a community tied to his grandparents.
"It was really rewarding this year to do the work, and I hope that next we continue to build as long as we have this program."
Elliot Lyles, Director of Business Development for Solar Solution, is a multigeneration Washingtonian. Although he was raised in Maryland, both of his parents were born in the District and his grandparents were from a community called River Terrace.
This year through Solar for All, Elliott had a chance to install solar energy at River Terrace, a neighborhood comprising about 500 homes in Southeast DC. He found it rewarding to meet people who knew his grandparents. "I heard stories such as people seeing me mow the law when I was a kid around the neighborhood, so that was really cool," said Lyles.
Established in 2008, Solar Solution is a CBE and, according to its website, is the largest District-based solar PV developer and installer. In 2012, the company began working with the DCSEU on its first Small-Scale Solar initiative for low-income single-family DC residents, a precursor to the District's Solar for All program. Their work installing solar PV on low-income single-family homes with the DCSEU continued through FY 2016, providing solar hunders of DC residents. As a contractor for Solar for All in FY 2020, Solar Solution installed 57 PV systems on District LMI residents' homes in FY 2020. "It was really rewarding this year to do the work, and I hope that next we continue to build as long as we have this program," said Lyles.
