Grant helps fill solar, job demand

$700,000 will create job openings in demanding solar power market.

By Jeff St. John / The Fresno Bee

(Updated Wednesday, October 4, 2006, 3:59 AM)

Tommie Nellon, chief executive of Fresno-based Unlimited Energy, can't hire enough people to meet the booming demand for solar power in the central San Joaquin Valley.

Keith Kelley, president of the Fresno West Coalition for Economic Development, can't find enough high-paying jobs for the low-income residents his group serves.

But a $700,000 federal grant announced Tuesday by U.S. Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, will help solve both problems, the two men said.

With the money, Nellon and Kelley hope to create up to 73 solar-power-related jobs over the next three years, with Fresno West providing the job placement services and Unlimited Energy doing the on-the-job training.

"The idea is to get our residents on the economic development ladder," Kelley said. "The sky's the limit in this whole alternative energy world we're starting to flow into."

Kelley sees the program as an opportunity for trained employees to go on to careers in the solar power industry — or even start solar-related businesses of their own.

The grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Community Development "will have a widespread economic benefit and be an essential component of the revitalization efforts of west Fresno," Costa said.

Nellon, who founded Unlimited Energy in 1984, said the grant comes at a perfect time to meet the Central Valley's growing demand for solar power. His company has grown from two employees in 2000 to 30 today, with business increasing about 300% over the past two years, he said.

"We can't keep up with our workload, and I'm sure our competitors are seeing the same thing," he said. "Even if I had 500 people, I couldn't do it all."

Solar power generated in California has grown from about 3 megawatts in 2000 to 177 megawatts this year, according to statistics compiled by the nonprofit advocacy group Environment California.

The California Solar Initiative, which will provide $2.9 billion in rebates for solar installations over the next decade, could boost the state's solar generation capacity to 3,000 megawatts by 2016, the group has projected.

The grant announced Tuesday is aimed at low-income Fresno residents seeking work through a variety of government and nonprofit groups, Kelley said.

Fresno West will provide the money to Unlimited Energy as a low-interest loan and hopes to use other money sources to boost the amount loaned to the company to as much as $3 million, he said.

Unlimited Energy will use the money to hire and train low-income residents to do solar design and installation work across the state, Nellon said. His solar installers earn an average of $18 an hour, he said.

"If my company grows because of it, that's great," he said. "If they quit and go to work for another competitor, that's fine, too. What I want is, first of all, to build this solar business so everybody can take part in it."

For example, Nellon said he'd like to see his company get more involved with building homes that include solar power as part of their fundamental design.

Fresno West and Unlimited Energy cooperated on applying for and securing the grant, which also was made possible by Fresno West's designation as a community development corporation, Kelley said.

"This grant will help us leverage other grant funding, too, which will really allow us to start working in this field of alternative energy," he said.

Ashley Swearengin, chief operating officer for the Fresno-based Regional Jobs Initiative, said the grant marks a relatively new method for Fresno nonprofits to boost job growth.

"The fact that we're starting to draw some of these dollars points to the increased capacity of our nonprofit sector," she said.