Nine homes in West Oakland turned into producers of solar electricity Sunday morning after about 200 volunteers with GRID Alternatives spent Saturday installing solar photovoltaic systems on their rooftops.

As the Bayporte Village neighborhood was awash in hard-hat clad volunteers climbing roofs, hauling solar panels, securing metal brackets and connecting wires, homeowners in the low-income development proudly talked about contributing to a greener Oakland.

“I’m always telling my family to turn off lights, turn off the TV. Now this will make a real difference,’’ said homeowner Stephanie Tillman as she and her husband Howard greeted volunteers working in their yard and on their rooftop. The nine rooftop systems in the neighborhood should produce one million kilowatt hours of solar electricity over the systems’ lifetimes, according to GRID estimates.

GRID Alternatives is an Oakland-based solar installer whose mission is to bring the benefits of solar electricity to low-income neighborhoods and low income job seekers throughout California. It trains volunteers and participants in green jobs training programs how to install solar electric systems and offers homeowners who qualify free solar photovoltaic system installations.

Since its founding in Oakland six years ago, GRID has installed systems on 518 homes in California, producing – as of last week – one megawatt of solar electricity.  That is one million watts or 1,000 kilowatts - enough to provide a full year of electricity to 778 households, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Volunteers from all over the Bay Area descended on the sunny neighborhood on Saturday to participate in one of GRID’s Solarthons – a sort of marathon installation session, which is also a fundraiser. Groups of volunteers sponsored by their employers or by associations raised money to participate, as did individuals, donating $5,000 per corporate sponsored group or $250 as individuals. In return, the volunteers got to do good work and become trained in the basics of solar photovoltaic installation. Some volunteers with GRID are job training students with the Oakland Green Jobs Corps, Solar Richmond or similar groups.

The more than $100,000 raised by the Solarthon this past weekend will be used to fund other low-income installations. 

Volunteers do not always have to fundraise to participate in a GRID installation. Rather, they just have to sign up at www.gridalternatives.org, go through training and wait for an opportunity.   

Erica Mackie is one of the founders of GRID.

“When I look around here and see solar going up in West Oakland and I know that GRID Alternatives is doing this throughout the state of California, I am so proud,” Mackie told the volunteers.

“We are part of what is becoming a movement,” she continued. “We know communities everywhere can benefit from solar power.” Mackie, herself, is an Oakland resident.

With the installations of the week, “We’ve crossed a milestone, we’ve installed one megawatt of power,’’ Mackie said. “What one megawatt means to us is 40,000 tons of CO 2 reduction,” she said. “What is means to us is $10 million we’ve put back into the hands of low income families,” through savings on their electricity bills. Moreover, that one megawatt “installed at one or two kilowatt hours at a time.”

Henry Robinson was one of the volunteers from the CleanTechies.com group.

“We put in the inverter box and now we have to connect it to the system” on the roof, he said, scurrying back to the site.  

Marco Schmoecker is the web developer and co-founder for CleanTechies.com.

“My goal was to get some real life experience in this and not just write about it and blog about it,” he said. “It does feel good to be helping families get solar.”

Karl Reichstetter was another CleanTechie volunteer. 

“When you actually get up there on the roof, you understand why installation is 50 percent of the cost (of going solar),” he said. “There is so much to it, so many parts.”

Bryon Simmons led a team of installers. A GRID employee now and an installation crew instructor and leader, Simmons said GRID helped him move into the solar industry after working as an elevator mechanic.

“I definitely feel like I’m giving back every day, and my kids have something to look forward to,” Simmons said, adding that a future of solar energy is a much brighter future to describe to them than a fossil-fuel based future.

A team from Google’s “RE<C” division - or its Renewable Energy is Less than Carbon research team - came out in a force of 15.  

“I’ve worked in solar cell technology in my previous job and currently,” said Dave Fork was one of the Google volunteers. However, he said he rarely got to have hands-on experience with the actual tools of the trade. “Today I get to put up a solar panel, I’ve never done that before. I get to see how racking and mounting and wiring is all done.”

A solar system costs about $10,000 in equipment plus the cost of labor. According to GRID’s model, much of the equipment costs are supplied by the corporate sponsors and other donors. Labor is free from volunteers. The rest of the equipment costs will come back to the homeowner in the form of rebates on their electricity bills and GRID foots the bill in the meantime.

To qualify to participate, homeowners must earn no more than 80 percent of the Area Median Income as defined by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development and used in the California Solar Initiative.  GRID is the administrator of the state’s Single-family Affordable Solar Homes Program under the California Solar Initiative.

Pacific Gas & Electric is a co-sponsor of many of GRID’s Solarthons and of GRID’s work generally.