How Solar States is Training the Solar Leaders of Tomorrow

The Clean Air Council and Solar States are teaming up to teach a class devoted to solar workforce development at YouthBuild Philadelphia this fall. The opportunity to teach this class has been made possible by the great folks at YouthBuild Philadelphia, grants from The Philadelphia Foundation and The Claneil Foundation, and financial support from The Energy Co-op for solar projects the students will be working on. We are very grateful for the support from these organizations (thanks so much!!).

So why are we teaching this class?

In short supporting solar is a vehicle that addresses two major issues: climate change and job opportunities for local youth. Many believe that climate change is the biggest environmental problem we as a society face. Where we source our electricity is a big contributor to Philadelphia’s carbon footprint. The more solar we generate in Philadelphia, the less we rely on carbon emitting sources for electricity.

Another benefit of solar is increased local jobs. Currently, the power plants we get electricity from tend to be located outside of the region (and thus not employ Philadelphians). The transition to solar thus provides the opportunity for more jobs here. We want to make sure that Philadelphia’s youth are not only trained to lead this industry but representative of the city of Philadelphia. Currently, both the solar industry and traditional sources of energy underrepresent women and minorities. We hope our training program can play a part in fixing this issue.

We plan to write posts every month about the progress of the class as well as issues related to solar in Philadelphia. Be on the look out in our Solar Solutions column!

This post was written by Solar States, a local solar installer partnering with the Clean Air Council to teach a class on the business and vocation of solar at YouthBuild Philadelphia.