SunPower Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on empowering, inspiring and motivating a new generation of solar leaders in communities around the world has been launched. This is the first organization of its kind to be solely funded by a major solar company.
“In the past few years, SunPower Corporation has grown to include operations on four continents,” said SunPower CEO Tom Werner. “We work with more than 600 SunPower dealer partners installing SunPower systems on homes and businesses in North America, Europe and Australia, and directly developed more than 550 large-scale solar power systems worldwide. We established the SunPower Foundation to ‘give back’ through education and building stronger communities. It is our hope that the Foundation will encourage more people to consider how the electricity they use is generated, and the global potential of reliable, emission-free solar power to reduce the effects of climate change.”
The SunPower Foundation partnered with the 100 People Foundation to create 100 People Under the Sun, providing classroom lesson plans to guide students in identifying the ways they use energy every day and investigate the use of solar energy in their local communities. At present, 140 schools in 39 countries are participating.
“Today’s young people are concerned about the real threat of global warming, and are looking to solutions such as solar power to reduce the damage brought on by over-dependence on fossil fuels,” said Greg Holman, a 6th-grade teacher in Paradise, Calif. “I’m using The 100 People Under the Sun curriculum to help my students become energy leaders through education, awareness and community participation.”
