SAN DIEGO — Alex Honnold is a world-famous rock climber best known for climbing El Capitan and Half Dome at Yosemite without a rope. 

Through his experience as a climber, he started the Honnold Foundation, which supports solar energy for a more equitable world. The foundation gives grants to community organizations whose projects are innovative, equity-focused, and have the potential to shift the narrative on what is possible for energy access worldwide.

“Basically sprung from the fact that as a climber, I’ve traveled widely and saw that there is a great need for environmental protection of the world and also a need to help the billion or so people on Earth who don’t have access to power,” Honnold said.

The Honnold Foundation partnered with GRID Alternatives North Valley after wildfires devastated Paradise, California, and surrounding communities, destroying residents’ homes and the livelihoods of countless more.

GRID North Valley’s disaster resiliency program offered free solar energy installations to qualifying homeowners.

“Solar can be a way to help mitigate wildfire season,” Honnold said. “Solar is just a great way to de-carbonize the grid and move away from fossil fuels, reduce climate change and therefore, hopefully, minimize the destructive power of forest fires in the long-term.”

The project also involved building solar power storage on houses to help when the power company turns off power when there is a threat of wildfires. 

“A lot of people lose everything in their fridge, they lose access to medications,” Honnold said.

Being a father to a newborn girl has given him a different perspective on the climate crisis.

“If anything, this is why you worry about the environment. It is crazy. I just had a daughter, and she’s chiming in the background,” Honnold said. “When she grows up, there may not be coral reefs left on the Earth.”

He even created a list of things he believes people can do to create a better world.

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