City, nonprofit Prevent Hate, veterans erect ADA-compliant home in one day
Veterans with disabilities resulting from military conflicts such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan demonstrated their abilities in rapidly erecting a temporary home featuring high-performance SolarWorld solar panels this week on Los Angeles City Hall's south lawn.
The project to build a universally accessible house in a matter of hours was one element of a 20th anniversary celebration of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which recognizes and protects the rights of Americans with disabilities to participate in U.S. work, commerce and community life.
The LA Department of Disability, the nonprofit group Prevent Hate and veterans from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' Long Beach Healthcare System staged the home project to demonstrate a joint training program to foster empowerment in at-risk and marginalized populations. The dwelling exemplified an ADA-compliant structure that can be quickly deployed during emergencies, used to reduce homelessness and constructed easily by people with disabilities. SolarWorld Sunmodules were placed, but not installed, on the roof. Prevent Hate promotes community empowerment and intergroup relations.
SolarWorld, the largest and most experienced crystalline solar technology manufacturer in the Americas, was premier sponsor of the temporary home project on July 26. The company recognizes the destabilizing and military effects of the world's overdependence on fossil fuels and the need for veterans returned to their home countries to find sustainable employment. SolarWorld also advocates the unique strengths of its solar technology in generating electricity in remote locations and emergency situations.
In the USA, SolarWorld has joined sponsors of four Oregon job fairs for soldiers returning from the two Mideast conflicts. The company is culminating an expansion to 500 MW of annual capacity and 1,000 people in Hillsboro, Ore., and is seeking employees with a high mechanical aptitude and work ethic. Moreover, the company has made three rounds of donations of solar panels – including a gift announced July 13 for 100 kilowatts – for health clinics or water-pumping stations in earthquake-torn Haiti.
"We need to embrace suitable job candidates among our returning military for redeployment on a new, green mission for America: marshaling our own manufacturing prowess to diversify our energy base to include reliable, clean, undiminishing energy from the sun," said Kevin Kilkelly, SolarWorld's president of U.S. sales. "We also need to spread that technology in countless regions that, due to disaster, war or poverty, lack electricity to care for themselves according to basic health and life standards."
About SolarWorld (www.SolarWorld-USA.com): The SolarWorld group (ISIN: DE0005108401) is a worldwide leader in offering brand-name, high-quality, crystalline solar-power technology. Its strength is its fully integrated solar production. From silicon as the raw material through wafers, cells and modules all the way to turn-key solar systems, including recycling, the group combines all stages of the solar value chain. The central business activity is selling quality modules into the installation and distribution trades and crystalline wafers to the international solar cell industry. Group headquarters are located in Bonn, Germany. Production sites are to be found in Germany, the United States and South Korea. The group's largest production facilities operate in Freiberg, Germany and Hillsboro in the U.S. state of Oregon. Sustainability is the basis of the group strategy. Under the name Solar2World, the group supports care projects using off-grid solar-power solutions in emerging economies and developing countries, exemplifying sustainable economic development. Worldwide, SolarWorld employs more than 2,700 people. SolarWorld AG has been quoted on the stock exchange since 1999 and today is listed on, among others, the TecDAX, ÖkoDAX, Dow Jones STOXX 600 as well as in the sustainability indices DAXglobal Alternative Energy and NAI.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6374110&lang=en
Contacts:
SolarWorld Industries America Inc.
Ben Santarris
Public
affairs manager
Mobile: 503-927-9858
Office: 503-693-5189
ben.santarris@solarworld-usa.com
