Diciembre 2014

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If you came away from your time at SEI with new and valuable skills…

If your week or two weeks or month with SEI in Paonia left an impact on your life…

If your training at SEI helped you get a job or grow your business…

If you met others with whom you have maintained contact or perhaps even created a close working relationship…

If any or all of those things happened because of your time with SEI, then we ask that you keep reading this letter.

For those who are still reading, you paid full freight for the course or courses you took at SEI. You and SEI are even. Tuition from students such as yourself supports SEI’s courses to pay for curriculum development and other instructional costs.

Our tuition model has worked for 23 years. SEI is a self-supporting 501(c)(3) educational non-profit. Even our grants are based on our charitable efforts and allow us to send instructors and instructional equipment onto Native American reservations or to Latin America, or for K-12 education.

However, while tuition supports SEI, it does not allow us to take the next step to meet our vision of a world powered by renewable energy.

You know that after decades of up-and-down , solar-generated electricity across the US and the globe can now go head-to-head with coal- or gas-generated electricity. Traditional electric utilities rightly fear a death spiral, in which their customers leave their systems, first in a trickle and then in a flood as solar becomes more and more affordable.

But an immense conversion to solar can only happen if there are skilled, dedicated people to design, finance, build, commission and maintain solar installations. As a leading solar instructional organization in the world (we know this sounds immodest, but it is true) SEI must grow to meet the need. It is our mission and it is our job.

We must expand our seven-acre Paonia, Colorado campus. We must add to our hands-on and to our on-line course offerings. We must publish new textbooks. We must add staff.

You know from your time with us that SEI does its work with enthusiasm and passion, but also carefully and safely. We think ahead; we look ahead; we plan ahead.  

But while we are ingenious, we cannot make bricks without straw. Or if you prefer, we cannot make PV panels without sand. SEI is stuck at its present capacity because we lack the capital to invest in the future.

So in this time of opportunity and need, SEI turns to the people who know us best. We are writing to ask you to contribute to our SAND INTO ELECTRICITY drive. With the money from this campaign, we will launch a $2 million capital campaign to expand our physical and training capability.

Your contribution is tax deductible. More important, your contribution will deepen your ties to SEI.

Continue reading the full letter…

To donate, go to www.solarenergy.org/donate