Twende Solar in the News
The Camas Washougal Rotary recently contributed to our project in Bompaso, Ghana--getting us one step closer to electrifying the Bompaso Community Center. The Columbian newspaper picked up the story and shared how one Rotary member saw an opportunity to have an impact and found a way to make it happen.
"Just like the solar (infrastructure at my house), I did this because I had a problem I needed to resolve, and I wanted to solve it creatively,” said Friedman, a Rotary member. “I wanted it to be meaningful. I kind of feel like I leveraged the loss of power at my house to enable a village.”
Rotary Club of Camas-Washougal supports solar project in Ghana
Post-Record - October 2025
“The Rotary Club of Camas-Washougal recently donated $1,000 to Twende Solar to complete a community solar project in Ghana.”
Twende Solar selects site for 2022 Solar Games equipment donation
solar power world - July 2022
For the past couple of years, Intersolar North America (ISNA) and Energy Storage North America (ESNA) have teamed up with Twende Solar, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering under-resourced communities with renewable energy systems. The goal of the partnership is to provide energy-impoverished communities with greater access to lighting, cooking, communications and education through donations from the Equipment Sponsors of ISNA/ESNA’s annual Solar Games installer competition.
Queets Community Center gets Solar Panels; First on the Quinault Indian Nation
Nugguamn - April 2021
QIN has its first solar panels! Thanks to Twende Solar, the Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF), volunteer installers and electricians and Quinault volunteers looking to learn solar installation skills, there is a 22.5 kW solar array on the Queets Community Center. The installation took place from February 25th to the 28th.
When the good outweighs profit: Solar companies go philanthropic
Solar power world - november 2020
When Oregon solar installer Elemental Energy’s founder John Grieser traveled to rural Tanzania for college credit ten years ago, he found that residents didn’t have consistent access to electricity. Recognizing that solar could provide energy where the African country’s electrical grid didn’t reach, Grieser and other Elemental Energy employees founded Twende Solar, a standalone nonprofit focused on both international and domestic philanthropic solar development.
The Village That Discovered Light
Your Perfect Peru - October 2019
The lack of electricity in the remote village of Mushuk Llamas caught the attention of a Twende Solar volunteer while vacationing in Peru. Members of the off-grid community agreed that solar was the ideal power source for their homes, school, and medical center. Twende Solar stepped in to deliver a 7.2kW array with battery backup.
Companies take Twende Solar’s Photovoltaic Oath to provide renewable energy to communities in need
Solar Power world - September 2019
Manufacturer Unirac joins solar contractors Elemental Energy and SunPower by Milholland Electric in taking Twende Solar’s Photovoltaic Oath, committing to use their expertise and resources to help further Twende’s mission to empower energy-deficient communities by implementing renewable energy systems worldwide.
Portland Rescue Mission Partners with Twende Solar
KAtu - june 2018
It's a landmark project between two local non-profit organizations. Erin Holcomb from Portland Rescue Mission and Marissa Johnson from Twende Solar joined us to share the installation of a solar energy system at Shepherd's Door and how that will benefit far more than the resident's of the one facility.
Nonprofit Twende Solar Brings Solar Benefits to Portland Rescue Mission
energy trust | November 2018
In October, Energy Trust staff presented a big check to Portland nonprofit Twende Solar for installing solar panels on the Portland Rescue Mission’s Shepherd’s Door facility, a residential addiction recovery program for women and their children.
Massive Nonprofit Installation Helps Portland’s Homeless in a Powerful Way
Solar power world | November 2018 (pages 24-29)
This project size required massive people-power, but Twende Solar had no trouble recruiting area solar companies and other industry workers to help. In fact, it had the opposite problem—so many people were willing to pitch in that some had to be turned down.
Guatemala: Maya Jaguar School Recap
august 2016
What does it take to install 6.6kW of Washington-made iTek Energy solar modules atop a mountain in Guatemala?
New Solar System Brings Hope and Opportunity to Cambodia School
SunPower | January 2017
The team at Twende Solar spent 10 months planning and raising funds for the solar installation project. In October, a group of 14 volunteers, including myself, traveled to the school for the week-long endeavor.
Cambodia: Stephen Mazujian Middle School Recap
January 2017
Cambodia has one of the lowest electrification rates in SE Asia with an estimated 6.9 million people living without access to electricity. Where the grid is inaccessible or unreliable, households are forced to rely on expensive car batteries or pollutant diesel generators as power sources—costing as much as $1/kWh (compared to an average of 12 cents in the U.S.).