Clean Energy Alliance (CEA) recently launched several groundbreaking programs aimed at advancing sustainability efforts throughout North San Diego County. These initiatives range from a solar and battery distribution program to an effort to incentivize local renewable energy generation and reflect CEA’s commitment to environmental stewardship and local economic growth. During the launch process, CEA called upon long-term partner Tripepi Smith to help get the word out to the San Diego community.
“CEA’s partnership with Tripepi Smith continues to extend and enhance our reach and impact, ensuring that information for our innovative programs reach community members throughout the county,” said CEA Chief Executive Officer Greg Wade. “Effective communication is essential to encourage and empower individuals and businesses to embrace clean energy solutions.”
The Tripepi Smith team is led by Sara Madsen, who is responsible for account and project management, strategy, coordination and creative direction for writing and design. Senior Business Analyst Karen Villaseñor provides project management leadership, strategy support and Spanish translation. Business Analyst Melanie Moore assists with project management and content editing. Junior Business Analyst Kendall Lowery provides content development and project management support, writes CEA press releases and articles, facilitates website content updates and handles e-newsletter creation and distribution. Other creative Tripepi Smith team members have assisted with projects rooted in social media, video production, photography, graphic design and more.
As each project rolled out, the Tripepi Smith team created press releases, informational web pages, email newsletters and social media posts about the initiatives, which include the Local Solar, Solar Plus, Solar Impact and Green Impact Champions programs.
CEA’s Local Solar initiative aims to incentivize the creation of small-scale renewable energy resources within the CEA’s service territory. Energy produced by participating Local Solar sites will be sold to CEA and sent to the grid for community use. Applications officially opened in Q2 of 2024.
The CCA’s Solar Plus program is a collaboration between CEA, Participate.Energy and Tesla, Inc. intent on democratizing access to solar energy and battery storage solutions. Solar Plus participants will receive rooftop solar panels and a battery that stores the renewable energy generated by the solar panels, fostering a more sustainable and reliable energy grid and providing cost savings to program participants.
Following the 2023 updates to California Net Energy Metering (NEM) solar power compensation, CEA developed a program accounting for NEM changes. Solar Impact is CEA’s option for customers with eligible renewable energy systems (like solar panels) who submitted an interconnection application with San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) on or after April 15, 2023, or for customers whose Net Energy Metering (NEM) 1.0 or NEM 2.0 legacy period ended after April 15, 2023. Solar Impact seeks to mitigate confusion around updated NEM policies and is one of CEA’s many efforts to make the energy generation and distribution industry more accessible to its customers.
The Green Impact Champions program celebrates and rewards CEA customers who opt-up to 100% renewable energy, further encouraging environmental sustainability. Residential and business customers receive a celebratory window cling recognizing their Green Impact Champion status. Business customers are also promoted on the CEA website and may be featured on official CEA social media accounts, garnering further community recognition.
“These programs represent our dedication to driving meaningful environmental change and fostering a culture of sustainability within our community,” said Wade. “Ensuring that our customers know about these resources remains essential — so we’re lucky to have Tripepi Smith as our communications partner.”
About Clean Energy Alliance
Clean Energy Alliance (CEA) follows a community choice energy (CCE) model that allows local governments to purchase power to meet their community’s electricity needs, offering an alternative to investor-owned utilities. CEA offers competitive prices and clean energy options while reinvesting revenues into projects and programs that benefit member communities.
CEA was established through a multi-agency partnership. This model enables local governments to purchase and manage their community’s energy supply. While CEA is locally operated, they work in partnership with the region’s existing investor-owned utility, SDG&E. CEA procures the electricity while SDG&E continues to deliver the energy, maintain the grid, provide billing services and handle all new service requests and emergencies.
About Tripepi Smith
Tripepi Smith is a California-based marketing, technology and public affairs firm that serves for-profit, nonprofit and public agencies. Its unique mix of marketing and technology prowess provides a competitive advantage to agencies seeking to leverage the internet to achieve their communication goals. The firm provides full content creation services, including: ghost writing, collateral development, photography, video production, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, email marketing campaigns and website design and execution. Tripepi Smith clients include: City of American Canyon, City of Culver City, City of Cupertino, City of Daly City, City of Duarte, City of Grover Beach, City of Santa Paula, City of Indian Wells, City of La Cañada Flintridge, City of Lake Forest, City of Livermore, City of Napa, City of Paramount, City of Martinez, City of Tracy, City of Vallejo, CalChoice Energy Authority, California Joint Powers Insurance Authority, Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency, Santa Clara County Fire Department, Costa Mesa Sanitary District, Rowland Water District, California Contract Cities Association, California City Management Foundation, Renne Public Law Group, Bob Hall & Associates, West Coast Arborists and Climatec.