Margaret Kral with GRID Alternatives Colorado
Margaret Kral is an outlier in the notoriously male-dominated solar industry, first as a woman executive director. Secondly, she heads GRID Alternatives Colorado (GRID), a nonprofit that makes green energy and job training accessible to underserved communities.
Mighty Arrow knows the power of women executives well, as our founder, Kim Jordan, co-founded and led New Belgium Brewing inside another male-dominated industry. When given the chance to be innovative with leadership, women often find new ways to incorporate business practices that can profoundly impact the company and the people within. A quadruple combo of impact—on social justice, environmental justice, renewable energy, and workforce—drew Kral to GRID in the first place.
When the executive director opportunity came up, a lightbulb flashed for Kral, whose background is banking and operational finance. She said: "I have no solar background. I have no nonprofit background but am passionate about social justice, workforce development, and renewable energies." GRID had plenty of people experienced with solar and needed someone with Kral’s operational finance background—it was a perfect fit. And just like that, a woman was at the helm, leading it in a unique direction.
Creating circular impacts
For Kral, one of the most appealing aspects of GRID’s work is that it’s not business as usual—it touches aspects of the community, from the installation workforce to the people receiving the solar installations. On the workforce side, they provide job training in an important new field. On the consumer side, they’re the largest provider of no-cost solar installation to non-profit organizations and low- to moderate-income families.
It's a very circular kind of return, which I love,” she says. “It’s taking free energy from the sun, turning it into something that can reduce the costs of someone's energy bill. This allows them to put more money into food or other family expenses versus going straight into utility costs, which can be the second highest expense for a family member after housing.”
Photo Credit @GRID Alternatives Colorado
Closing the affordability gap
Solar, and many other energy-efficient technologies, are not necessarily affordable for all. “I think one of the key fundamental reasons GRID was started was being able to provide an underrepresented community group, low- to moderate-income families, access to technology that normally they don't have access to,” Kral says.
As regulations require shifts to greener technology—like heat pumps or electric stoves, for example—the costs of those shifts trickle down to people who are already struggling, like with increased utility costs. “It's great to say we want to do this,” Kral says. “But there's going to be this ripple effect. And if we're not thinking about that ripple effect, we could be negatively impacting community members we're trying to serve.” Rooftop solar and community solar subscriptions can help offset these increased costs.
Building a workforce—benefiting those in need
“One of our key missions around our workforce is supporting justice-involved community members,” Kral says. The organization works with community-based organizations to find community members looking for reskilling or new skilling jobs and offers paid basic installation training. “In 2023, 43% of our trainees were previously incarcerated and with a significant number who were unsheltered,” she says. This is where GRID hits the bullseye for Mighty Arrow’s impact strategy, blending clean energy and climate solutions with our social and criminal justice reform work.
Photo Credit @GRID Alternatives Colorado
Kral shares an exciting story about recently hiring a full-time employee who came to GRID after 20 years of incarceration. He completed the introductory six-week course, receiving required certifications, a 90-day internship, and a yearlong fellowship. They could bring him on staff full-time when he’d leveled up to training others. But even if trainees don’t stick with GRID long-term, it’s still a win, she says, helping prepare workers for careers in the solar industry and beyond.
Workforce development has been identified as an “accelerator” of climate solutions. A partner like GRID provides people with opportunities and prepares our communities with the skills needed to move toward a more resilient future.
Photo Credit @GRID Alternatives Colorado
Impacts beyond single-family home owners
Colorado is now working on community solar subscription models. “If you don't own your home, how do you have access to the benefits of solar?” she says. “When we started 10 years ago, we were the first organization that supported and built the seven communities solar gardens across the state as pilot projects.”
These projects showcased community solar in rural areas where the utilities were able to offer those offsets to the low- to moderate-income community members. “I think that's where you can also have a bigger impact, by having larger ground mount solar and then being able to provide for many families versus single family roof solar,” Kral says. She’s also excited to see progress toward agrivoltaics, combining solar and agriculture on the same land.
With so much happening with storage, batteries, EV charging and electrification in general, there are plenty of things to be mindful of and countless problems to solve. Kral says she remains hopeful about the future. “At the end of the day we only have ourselves,” she says. “As a human species, I know at the end of the day we're going to do the right things. So as much as it can get crazy out there, I truly believe that—and I could be overly optimistic— we will do the right thing for Mother Earth.”
To find out more about how GRID Alternatives Colorado is impacting communities and the environment, visit gridalternatives.org.
Photo Credit @GRID Alternatives Colorado