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The Honnold Foundation (Solar non-profit)

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Zaxxon

Active Member
Supporting Member
Dec 11, 2012
4,735
22,470
Colorado
Two of my interests recently collided in an unexpected way, and I'm detailing it here in case more of you Tesla/solar/climate change nerds may appreciate it.

As my profile shows, I'm a pretty hardcore Tesla nerd. As many Tesla fans are, I'm also into solar PV, transitioning power generation and use to more sustainable methods, etc. I'm also a (very, very novice) climber. That interest had me in a theater watching Free Solo earlier this week.

Free Solo is a Nat Geo documentary detailing the preparation for and execution of Alex Honnold's recent free solo climb of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park (spoiler: it's worth seeing, on a big screen if possible).

After seeing the film, I happened to stumble upon the news that he just went on Joe Rogan's podcast--the same podcast that Elon Musk visited a couple of months ago. So, I watched it. The whole thing's interesting, but about 2/3rds of the way through, Honnold gets into his charitable foundation. And that discussion was just as interesting to me as the climbing.

The Honnold Foundation supports deploying solar PV to low-income families here in the US, as well as to African communities with no access to power. As I looked into the foundation, I saw that their program director is also a Tesla Energy employee. And the circle was complete.

As the Rogan discussion continued, Honnold's views started to sound eerily similar to Musk's. He makes the point that a century from now, it's inevitable that power generation will have a much larger solar component, that this is something that needs to happen for many reasons, and that we therefore should do what we can to speed that process along. He even mentions Tesla more than once (though his perspective is that so long as someone is rolling out EVs in large #s, he doesn't care who is doing it). Even drills into semi trucks and how awesome it'll be when they're all electric.

I don't think this foundation is doing anything ground-breaking--they seem to largely work to use Honnold's public platform to attract financial support, which they then funnel to a core group of other nonprofits who carry out the work. But I plan to send some bucks their way, and figured some of you might find it interesting, as well.
 
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