I’m a huge fan of walking through grass barefoot and the look of a perfect lawn but the reality is that my lawn is more weeds than grass and is rather stubbly to walk through barefoot. Mind you, I could improve my lawn karma with more frequent mowing, regular watering, weed killer, ant killer, grub killer and a litany of other pesticides and chemicals that would really make me not want to walk barefoot and defeat the purpose of my lush green lawn. Okay, okay, and I work for a solar company and am kind of a greenie when it comes to chemicals and excess watering and mowing. So what’s a barefoot girl to do?


Alas, all hope is not lost. It turns out one of my co-workers recently re-seeded their lawn with grass seed from Pearl’s Premium. And not to sound like a shameless plug here, but they claim that you can save time and money with less watering and mowing, and that it’s environmentally friendly because it requires fewer chemicals and it’s not genetically-modified seed. Make my life easier and good for the planet? Win and Win! Check out their website here.

Walt Ratterman 1952 - 2010

Walt Ratterman, of SunEPI.org had been missing in Port au Prince, Haiti since the earthquake on January 12th. Sadly late Sunday night, February 7th,  Walt’s family was notified that their worst fears were confirmed, Walt was one of the thousands that perished in the devastating earthquakes that paralyzed Haiti.

Walt was a great advocate and champion of the solar industry as well as humanitarianism. Walt was selflessly devoted to helping the less fortunate and worked with many organizations for many wonderful causes including Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) and Partners In Health (PIH) in Haiti to improve the delivery of energy to health care facilities, work in Rwanda, Jordan, and Palestine with Engineers Without Borders – International, and Solar Energy International to provide photovoltaics training for engineers in Jordan and the West Bank, Palestine.


” In between installs, Walt would be somewhere on the other side of the planet, either delivering pallets of blankets to Afghanistan, or setting up a microhydro unit in the mountains of the Philippines, or teaching small villages in India about community solar.   We would receive emails from Walt, from some remote locale, using his solar powered satellite connected laptop that he carried everywhere.    True to form, Walt died doing what he loved to do, helping the people of Haiti.”

-Richard Deutschmann

groSolar VP Policy & Market Development

The loss of Walt Ratterman will be felt throughout the world but his legacy and work will live on through his family, friends, and the lives of those he touched. Our deepest condolences go out to Walt’s friends and family, the world is better off for having had him in it.

On Saturday, August 29th groSolar’s relay team “Speed of Solar” participated in the 4th annual CHaD Half Marathon. This was a fund raising event for the  Children’sHospital at Dartmouth that groSolar proudly sponsored. The CHaD Half Marathon was a fun filled event regardless of the less than desirable conditions, the event included a walking course, the half marathon itself, as well as an attempt to break the world record for most people dressed up as superheroes in one place – this record attempt was to signify the many heros that help to save children’s lives each day at the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth. The Guinness Book of World Records people were on hand to count up each and every super hero – the record was previously held at 106 people and was successfully broken with a stifling number of 1,016 people dressed up as superheroes on the Dartmouth Green in Hanover, NH.

Team “Speed of Solar” consisted of team Captain Dawn “The Princess of Power“ Martin – Marketing Coordinator here at groSolar, Gaelan “Able to Leap Tall Buildings in A Single Bound“  Brown – VP of Marketing, and Noah “Faster Than A Speeding Bullet” Tuthill – Solar Design Engineer. Team “Speed of Solar” completed the 13.1 mile race in 1 hour 58 minutes and 33 seconds, finishing 59th out of 98 relay teams averaging a 9 minute 3 second mile.

groSolar is proud to have such an active and positive roll in the community and employees willing to go out and punish themselves in the remnant effects of a tropical storm for such a good cause!

Thank you team “Speed of Solar”! We are proud of you!

The Start

Dawn "The Princess Of Power" Martin Completing the First Leg

The Hand Off to Noah "Faster Than A Speeding Bullet" Tuthill

Gaelan "Able to Leap Buildings in A Single Bound" Brown Completing the Race

On March 25, 2009, Sonoma County became the first county in  California to pursue public financing of distributed solar energy and energy efficiency improvements under AB 811.

Sonoma County established the Sonoma County Energy Independence Program (SCEIP) to provide homeowners with access to long-term loans at below market interest rates to install solar panels or make energy efficiency improvements to their homes. With no up-front costs, the loans are paid back via an additional assessment on the homeowner’s property taxes. The term of the loan depends on the amount borrowed (5 – 10 years for loans less than $5,000, 10 – 20 years for loans greater than $5,000).

grosolar has put together an enthusiastic campaign to get the word out to the Sonoma residents, particularly in Santa Rosa and Petaluma- if at least 50 residents of Santa Rosa and Petaluma  sign up to go solar before December 31, groSolar will cover 33% of the solar-loan payment of the first year of the taxes for each homeowner who signed up. For an average-size solar power system , that means about $700 off of their property-tax bill in the first year!

groSolar wants to give the community an incentive to work together toward a greener world!

Look for our street team in Sonoma County! We will have our groSolar Sonoma County Scion and Street Team out and about in Sonoma County spreading the word on how to plug into solar power!

Click here to see incentives in your area!