Washington Tennis & Education Foundation
749.7 kW
System Size
> 600 MT
of Carbon Emissions
(Equivalent)
>10,500
Tree Seedlings
Grown for 10 Years
(Equivalent)
214 Families
Served through
the SFA Program
The Washington Tennis & Education Foundation (WTEF) stands to serve the youth of Washington, DC, carrying out its mission of building life champions through academics, tennis, and life skills. Since 1955, WTEF has supported the Ward 7 community by folding youth into its safe and trusting 50,000 sq. ft. facility; now, the WTEF will extend its reach by sharing clean energy benefits out to the DC community. On its standing seam roof, New Columbia Solar is installing a 749 kW system, which will benefit both the WTEF and at-large DC community through the Solar for All program.
Over the 15-year lifetime of the solar array, WTEF will receive lease payments to host the solar system, which will directly benefit its afterschool academic, tennis, and wellness programs for the Ward 7 community. The foundation equips more than 1,100 students per year with critical life skills to empower them to achieve their full potential.
The system will also allow more than 214 income-qualified families to cut their electricity bills in half over the next fifteen years through the Solar for All (SFA) program, which was launched by D.C. Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) in 2017 and is currently operated by the DC Sustainable Energy Utility (DCSEU). Families interested in applying for Solar for All Community Solar can apply online at doee.dc.gov/SolarforAll or call (202) 299-5271 to request an application be mailed to them.
New Columbia Solar received authorization to install the roof in March of 2021 and expects the project to “switch on” in September of 2021, after which point, NCS will continue to own and operate the system. The solar company is enabling the vision of DC policymakers and nonprofits with solar arrays, like the installation at WTEF, to realize its mission of serving the District’s most in-need residents with the benefits of clean energy.
“New Columbia Solar…[is] trustworthy and good at what they do… I think they’re good people. It’s the kind of organization that I like doing business with. That’s rare that you get that combination of things in a group of people in an organization because it’s difficult to cultivate virtues like that on a large scale. But it has been one of the things that we rely on in working with New Columbia, and it’s just been great working with them.”