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Powering Rural Futures: Clean energy is creating new jobs in rural America, generating opportunities for people who install solar panels, build wind turbines, weatherize homes, and more. This five-part series from the Rural News Network explores how industry, state governments, and education systems are training this growing workforce.
When Mason Taylor was getting ready to graduate from high school in 2022, he thought he would have to take an entry-level technician job with a company in Tennessee.
Taylor grew up in the town of Dryden in rural Lee County, in the westernmost sliver of Virginia between Kentucky and Tennessee. He had come to love the electrical courses he took in high school because there was always something new to learn, always a new way to challenge himself.
Driving to Tennessee for work would likely mean two hours commuting each day.
Taylor, now 21, just wanted to work close to home.
A summer apprenticeship learning how to install solar arrays helped him get on-the-job training and opened up connections to local work.
A regional partnership working to add solar panels to commercial buildings in the region aims to train young people as they go, developing workforce skills in anticipation of increasing demand for renewable energy-focused jobs in the heart of coal country, where skill sets and energy options are both changing.
Virginia ranks eighth in the nation for installed solar capacity, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, but so far, major renewable energy projects have been clustered in the eastern and southern regions of the state. Increasing the popularity of solar power in the far southwestern corner of the state depends in part on the availability of trained workers like Taylor.
Andy Hershberger, director of Virginia operations for Got Electric, said the electrical contractor firm has had an apprenticeship program nearly since the company’s founding.
The company, which has about 100 employees total, with 40 in Virginia and an office in Maryland, has worked with Staunton-based Secure Solar Futures, a commercial and public-sector solar developer, as far back as 2012.
More recently, the two companies began working to set up a training program that was more focused on solar. The catalyst was the former superintendent of Wise County schools, a school division that had signed up to put solar panels on its facilities. The superintendent saw the installation as an opportunity to get his students hands-on work on a renewable energy project.
Approximately three dozen apprentices have signed up for the program since 2022, including about 13 who are currently involved, Hershberger said. They work on a variety of solar projects, including on rooftops, carports, and ground-mounted installations.
“We have been utilizing this program to train students coming out of high school and basically growing the workforce side of this thing, so we have the necessary personnel to build these solar projects long term,” Hershberger said.
On top of hourly pay, apprentices get free equipment and a transportation subsidy, along with nine community college credits at Mountain Empire Community College, which provides classroom training before students step onto the job site.
“I mean, pretty much everything you need to know to go out and do any electrical job, you pretty much learned in that apprenticeship program,” Taylor said.
He was in the first cohort of 10 students who installed solar panels on public schools in Lee and Wise counties in 2022. A grant from a regional economic development authority paid the students’ wages while they earned credit at Mountain Empire Community College, which serves residents of Dickenson, Lee, Scott, and Wise counties, plus the city of Norton.
He got a job offer from Got Electric at the end of that summer.
This summer, Secure Solar Futures and Got Electric will join forces again to install more than 1,600 solar panels on the community college’s classroom buildings. The project was originally slated for 2024 but was delayed due in part to a separate project upgrading fire safety equipment in one of the buildings.
The 777-kilowatt solar power system will be connected to the electric grid, and Mountain Empire will receive credit for the power it generates.
Hershberger said he sees interest in solar growing.
“I think there’s always been folks that have adopted renewable projects, different types of energy sources. There’s always the standard interest in trying to save money for facilities and campuses and things like that,” he said.
Mountain Empire Community College offers solar training as a standalone career studies certificate or as part of its larger energy technology associate degree program.
In Southwest Virginia, a solar installation project is more likely to consist of adding panels to homes and businesses rather than building the large, utility-scale ground-based facilities more commonly seen in Southside Virginia, said Matt Rose, the college’s dean of industrial technology.
On a larger project, a single worker might have a specialized role, performing the same task across a large number of panels. On a smaller project, a worker is more likely to be involved in more aspects of the job.
“Our students need to have that comprehensive understanding and ability to be able to do it all,” he said.
Last year, 10 students graduated Mountain Empire with the solar installer certification. Many students who earn the certification perform solar installation work as one part of a more comprehensive job, such as being an electrician.
Rose said the college’s students typically start out making $17 or $18 an hour but can earn more as they become journeymen and master electricians.
Nationwide, the median salary for electricians is about $61,000.
In Lee County, population 22,000, the median household income is about $42,000.
The number of solar installers in Southwest Virginia is unclear. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t collect data on employment by technology, so residential solar installation companies are labeled as electrical contractors, along with all other electrical businesses, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Tony Smith, founder and CEO of Secure Solar Futures, measures the success of the company’s apprenticeship program person by person. At an April event to celebrate the completion of the first phase of solar panel installation for Roanoke schools, Smith asked about several of the students from the 2022 cohort from Lee and Wise counties by name.
Smith said it’s tough to replicate the apprenticeship program at various school divisions. Doing so requires the work of individual school systems and the regional community colleges, instead of being able to pick up the curriculum from one area and apply it at the next project site.
And all the partners — Smith’s company, participating schools and installation firms — face some uncertainty for each project. It’s challenging to pinpoint the timing of projects so that students have the time to participate during the summer months, he said.
“The things I learned in the apprenticeship program I’m still doing day to day,” Anthony Hamilton, 21, said. He completed the eight-week apprenticeship in Lee and Wise counties in 2022 alongside Taylor. He didn’t think it would turn into a full-time job. He doubted anyone really wanted to hire a kid just starting college.
He’s been with Got Electric ever since, working as an electrician primarily on commercial jobs. Hamilton’s solar experience has come in handy on recent installation projects at a poultry farm and at a YMCA facility.
Hamilton continued going to school at Mountain Empire and graduates this month with two associate degrees in energy technology and electrical. He’s also earned a handful of certificates in solar installation, air conditioning and refrigeration, and electrical fabrication, among others. With the nine credits he earned in the summer apprenticeship, he “already had a head start on everybody in the program.”
It wasn’t an easy journey, though.
He said he usually started his day around 6 a.m. and went to night classes after work that stretched until 9:30 p.m. Hamilton lives in Coeburn in Wise County, a 45-minute drive to the college campus. He’d get home late, then get up early and do it all over again. But his college was free through a local scholarship program that pays for up to three years of classes at Mountain Empire.
He’d like to stay with Got Electric and start preparing to take his journeyman’s license, which requires at least four years of practical experience on top of vocational training, plus an exam. From there, he’s got designs on moving up in the company and eventually becoming a master electrician.
On April 14, he was in the town of Abingdon, a few weeks into a three-month project installing a solar array at a large poultry farm that says it produces more than 650,000 eggs a day. The work so far entailed digging trenches and laying PVC pipe for the ground-mount solar system that will span one section of the farm’s expansive fields.
Taylor uses similar skills at work each day. But his work site looks a lot different from Hamilton’s.
It has taken Taylor some time to figure out how to stick close to home while working in his trade. He spent a year working with Got Electric immediately after finishing his summer apprenticeship, then left the company to work as an electrician in a local school system. He eventually returned to Got Electric for a few months, working at Virginia Tech putting solar on three buildings on campus in Blacksburg, three hours from home.
He discovered he didn’t like traveling for installation jobs that meant night after night in a motel room.
“That was the only complaint I had with it, about being away from home,” he said.
Now he’s an electrician at a state prison in Big Stone Gap. He has the same shift every day, in the same place, and drives 10 minutes home from work at the end of the day.
Taylor has also taken additional classes at Mountain Empire and wants to go back this fall to finish his associate degrees in HVAC and electrical. He eventually wants to open his own business as an electrician working locally. He’d like to be able to do small solar installation jobs. Solar hasn’t really caught on in far Southwest Virginia, he said — at least, not yet.
Rose, the dean at Mountain Empire, noted that once major solar projects are done, maintenance doesn’t require ongoing jobs, and most students who receive training in solar installation typically make it part of another job, such as being an electrician.
“We’re starting to see a lot more homeowners interested in [solar] locally as a way to offset increasing energy costs, but overall most of it is just a component of the job because there’s not enough demand,” Rose said.
Rose predicts interest in solar will grow as more homeowners and business owners look for ways to offset rising electric bills.
“As we all look at increasing energy costs, it’s going to make a lot more economic sense,” he said.
Energy independence, he added, fits with the character of Southwest Virginia.
“We’ve always been resilient people,” Rose said. “We’ve always been adapt-and-overcome people, and what better way than to basically control a little bit of your own power?”
This reporting is part of a collaboration between the Institute for Nonprofit News’ Rural News Network and Canary Media, South Dakota News Watch, Cardinal News, The Mendocino Voice, and The Maine Monitor. Support from Ascendium Education Group made the project possible.
Powering Rural Futures: Clean energy is creating new jobs in rural America, generating opportunities for people who install solar panels, build wind turbines, weatherize homes, and more. This five-part series from the Rural News Network explores how industry, state governments, and education systems are training this growing workforce.
A plan to nearly double the amount of electricity drawn from naturally occurring heat deep below Mendocino and Sonoma counties could create thousands of new jobs in the region.
The Sonoma-Mendocino GeoZone project still faces a long list of legal, regulatory, and financial hurdles before construction, but the developer is already thinking ahead to hiring.
Sonoma Clean Power CEO Geof Syphers said the not-for-profit power producer is committed to hiring local workers for at least 30% of the jobs it creates. Meeting that goal, he said, will depend on building partnerships with local education and workforce development programs, along with a long-term commitment from California to streamline geothermal energy.
“We’ve been building partnerships with schools and trades and landowners and public officials, permitting agencies,” Syphers said. “But what really needs to happen before the permitting phase begins is we have to change state laws.”
Clean energy makes up a small but growing slice of Mendocino County’s employment, accounting for just under 600 jobs in 2023, according to an analysis of federal data by the nonprofit Environmental Entrepreneurs, which advocates for state and local policies benefiting the environment and economic interests.
Mendocino County workforce and education officials are taking note, gradually ramping up programs to train students to weatherize buildings, install and maintain solar projects, and take on other related construction roles.
Noel Woodhouse, an instructor who runs Mendocino College’s sustainable construction and energy technology program, said the program has already evolved since launching in 2011 and will continue to do so. He’s confident that his students’ skills in cleantech, solar, and sustainable building would easily transfer to geothermal construction — especially since the non-credit certificate program could rapidly train a large number of students in a short time.
“Our students come out of our program with experience in heavy equipment machinery and ready workers for that type of project,” Woodhouse said.
Clean energy jobs pull in a wide range of professional skills, from plumbing and electrical work to pouring concrete and operating equipment.
“What I love is the people who work in oil and gas know exactly how to operate 100% of the equipment on a geothermal job site, and it’s the same wages,” Syphers said.
Geothermal energy is harnessed by drilling deep below the earth’s surface to access naturally occurring heat. The steam flows to a turbine to drive a generator that in turn produces electricity — a process that can occur 24 hours a day.
Mendocino County, along with neighboring Sonoma and Lake counties, sits on one of the country’s prime geothermal zones. The world’s largest complex of commercial geothermal power plants, known as The Geysers, is located in the Mayacamas Mountains near where the three counties connect. Owning the majority of the units there, Calpine Corporation generates about 725 megawatts of electricity using geothermal energy. Sonoma Clean Power’s GeoZone proposal aims to build another 600 megawatt geothermal power plant.
The labor needed to develop 600 megawatts of new geothermal energy capacity will require hundreds of white-collar workers and thousands of construction workers during the building phase, and the project will create about 1,000 permanent jobs, Syphers said.
“Today, about 400 people from Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino work at The Geysers,” Syphers said. “If we can roughly double that for permanent jobs, that’s very exciting to me.”
As director of employer partnerships for Mendocino College, Pamela Heston-Bechtol’s job is making connections between students and employers. She combs through job postings at least once or twice a week and distributes opportunities to respective departments.
“It’s giving our students as much exposure as possible to be able to see themselves in those jobs by inviting industry to our advisory committees and inviting our students to job shadowing,” Heston-Bechtol said.
The Mendocino County Office of Education also offers career technical education programs with various pathways for youth. Eric Crawford, the office’s director of career and college programs, and Natalie Spackman, a workforce development coordinator with North Bay Construction Corps, together work with high school seniors interested in construction trades to complete a 14-week program.
“At the end of the instruction, they get a tool belt, and then they go out for boot camp for two weeks, and they work with contractors for 80 hours on a live build site and find out what it’s really like to do the work,” Crawford said, noting that this helps students determine which type of work interests them most.
At the completion of camp, the contractors are invited to interview students and potentially offer them jobs.
The newest career technical education program set for Ukiah High School, called Roots of Success, will train high school students specifically for green energy fields. However, Spackman said that basic training in construction gives students skills that transfer to a variety of work, especially given the state’s regulations for the trades to go green.
“No matter where they go, contractors ultimately work for their customers — what’s in demand?” she said. “The skills that they’re learning, that’s going to translate.”
Leaders from both the high school and college workforce development programs agree that while there’s plenty of work for their students and a growing demand for clean energy workers, trades training is hindered by a severe shortage of teachers.
Crawford said anyone with three years of experience in a specific field can get a designated subject teaching credential and become qualified by the state of California. Woodhouse said that Mendocino College’s minimum qualifications include an associate degree and experience in the field.
Other challenges, Woodhouse said, are those stacked against the students in a county with high rates of substance abuse and poverty. To address those, he highlighted support systems at the college that include a food pantry, mental health services, and transportation, among others.
Kevin Vasquez says participating in the Mendocino College program changed the course of his life.
When he was 11 years old, Vasquez received a message at school that his father wouldn’t be able to pick him up. He had been deported.
“I felt violated that they took my dad from me,” he said. “I started drinking alcohol, trying to escape.”
The quiet habit morphed into an addiction that left him aimless and jobless in his 20s. Yet he remembered his father, an immigrant from Mexico who had worked tirelessly in stone masonry to give him a better life. He knew he needed to make something of that life, but he needed help first.
He went through rehabilitation, where a counselor suggested he check out Mendocino College’s construction program. For Vasquez, that program sparked light in the darkness.
“It got me back out there, doing what I love, which is building with my hands,” said Vasquez, who now offers help to other students as a lab tech.
For Vasquez, the prospect of GeoZone tapping into more renewable energy within the county brings an exciting opportunity to put his skills to use at a potential union job.
Mendocino County’s hiring contractors are small, and while they offer great one-on-one experiences, Woodhouse said, they’re not unionized.
Syphers shared that Mendocino County workers won’t need to be union members to work on the GeoZone project.
“You don’t have to be a union signatory to get hired through a union and then work on these projects,” he said. “That gives you an option to decide later if you want to become a signatory and be part of the union.”
The construction phase for GeoZone is projected to be six or seven years out, but Syphers said those years will be spent cultivating relationships with local schools, unions, and smaller contractors.
Ultimately, he hopes the state will streamline permitting and make long-term commitments to invest in geothermal work.
“That’s how we actually get unions to open apprenticeship centers in Mendocino County,” Syphers said.
While the Biden administration helped streamline the geothermal process nationally, most of California’s geothermal opportunities are not on federal land, he pointed out. Sonoma Clean Power has worked with California Assemblymembers Diane Papan, D-San Mateo, and Chris Rogers, D-Santa Rosa, to introduce assembly bills 526, 527, and 531, which all aim to advance geothermal energy development.
“Everyone universally agrees California is the best place in the United States to do this if the permitting changes,” he said, noting that the state requires a full environmental review that can take anywhere from two to eight years. “This region has enough geothermal potential to support areas beyond Sonoma and Mendocino. That’s really, really valuable for the state.”
This reporting is part of a collaboration between the Institute for Nonprofit News’ Rural News Network and Canary Media, South Dakota News Watch, Cardinal News, The Mendocino Voice, and The Maine Monitor. Support from Ascendium Education Group made the project possible.
Powering Rural Futures: Clean energy is creating new jobs in rural America, generating opportunities for people who install solar panels, build wind turbines, weatherize homes, and more. This five-part series from the Rural News Network explores how industry, state governments, and education systems are training this growing workforce.
DECATUR, ILLINOIS — A fistfight at a high school football game nearly defined Shawn Honorable’s life.
It was 1999 when he and a group of teen boys were expelled and faced criminal charges over the incident. The story of the “Decatur Seven” drew national headlines and protests led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who framed their harsh treatment as blatant racism. The governor eventually intervened, and the students were allowed to attend alternative schools.
Honorable, now 41, was encouraged by support “from around the world,” but he said the incident was traumatizing and he continued to struggle academically and socially. Over the years, he dabbled in illegal activity and was incarcerated, most recently after a 2017 conviction for accepting a large amount of marijuana sent through the mail.
Today, Honorable is ready to start a new chapter, having graduated with honors last week from a clean energy workforce training program at Richland Community College, located in the Central Illinois city of Decatur. He would eventually like to own or manage a solar company, but he has more immediate plans to start a solar-powered mobile hot dog stand. He’s already chosen the name: Buns on the Run.
“By me going back to school and doing this, it shows my nephews and my little cousins and nieces that it is good to have education,” Honorable said. “I know this is going to be the new way of life with solar panels. So I’ll have a step up on everyone. When it comes, I will already be aware of what’s going on with this clean energy thing.”
After decades of layoffs and factory closings, the community of Decatur is also looking to clean energy as a potential springboard.
Located amid soybean fields a three-hour drive from Chicago, the city was long known for its Caterpillar, Firestone Tire, and massive corn-syrup factories. Industrial jobs have been in decline for decades, though, and high rates of gun violence, child poverty, unemployment, and incarceration were among the reasons the city was named a clean energy workforce hub funded under Illinois’ 2021 Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA).
Decatur’s hub, based at Richland Community College, is arguably the most developed and successful of the dozen or so established statewide. That’s thanks in part to TCCI Manufacturing, a local, family-owned factory that makes electric vehicle compressors. TCCI is expanding its operations with a state-of-the-art testing facility and an on-site campus where Richland students will take classes adjacent to the manufacturing floor. The electric truck company Rivian also has a factory 50 miles away.
“The pieces are all coming together,” Kara Demirjian, senior vice president of TCCI Manufacturing, said by email. “What makes this region unique is that it’s not just about one company or one product line. It’s about building an entire clean energy ecosystem. The future of EV manufacturing leadership won’t just be on the coasts — it’s being built right here in the Midwest.”
The Decatur CEJA program has also flourished because it was grafted onto a preexisting initiative, EnRich, that helps formerly incarcerated or otherwise disenfranchised people gain new skills and employment. The program is overseen by the Rev. Courtney Carson, a childhood friend of Honorable and another member of the Decatur Seven.
“So many of us suffer significantly from our unmet needs, our unhealed traumas,” said Carson, who was jailed as a young man for gun possession and later drag racing. With the help of mentors including Rev. Jackson and a college basketball coach, he parlayed his past into leadership, becoming associate pastor at a renowned church, leading a highway construction class at Richland, and in 2017 being elected to the same school board that had expelled him.
Carson, now vice president of external relations at the community college, tapped his own experience to shape EnRich as a trauma-informed approach, with wraparound services to help students overcome barriers — from lack of childcare to PTSD to a criminal record. Carson has faith that students can overcome such challenges to build more promising futures, like Decatur itself has done.
“We have all these new opportunities coming in, and there’s a lot of excitement in the city,” Carson said. “That’s magnificent. So what has to happen is these individuals who suffered from closures, they have to be reminded that there is hope.”
Richland Community College’s clean energy jobs training starts with an eight-week life skills course that has long been central to the larger EnRich program. The course uses a Circle of Courage practice inspired by Indigenous communities and helps students prepare to handle stressful workplace situations like being disrespected or even called a racial slur.
“Being called the N-word, couldn’t that make you want to fight somebody? But now you lose your job,” said Carson. “We really dive deep into what’s motivating their attitude and those traumas that have significantly impacted their body to make them respond to situations either the right way or the wrong way.”
The training addresses other dynamics that might be unfamiliar to some students — for example, some male students might not be prepared to be supervised by a woman, Carson noted, or others might not be comfortable with LGBTQ+ coworkers.
Life skills are followed by a construction math course crucial to many clean energy and other trades jobs. During a recent class, 24-year-old Brylan Hodges joked with the teacher while converting fractions to decimals and percentages on the whiteboard. He explained that he moved from St. Louis to Decatur in search of opportunity, and he hopes to become a property manager overseeing solar panel installation and energy-efficiency upgrades on buildings.
Students take an eight-hour primer in clean energy fields including electric vehicles, solar, HVAC, and home energy auditing. Then they choose a clean energy track to pursue, leading to professional certifications as well as a chance to continue at Richland for an associate degree. Under the state-funded program, students are paid for their time attending classes.
Marcus James was part of the first cohort to start the program last October, just days after his release from prison.
He was an 18-year-old living in Memphis, Tennessee, when someone shot at him, as he describes it, and he fired back, with fatal consequences. He was convicted of murder and spent 12 years behind bars. After his release he made his way to Decatur, looking for a safer place to raise his kids. Adjusting to life on the outside wasn’t easy, and he ended up back in prison for a year and a half on DUI and drug possession charges.
Following his release, he was determined to turn his life around.
“After I brought my kids up here, I end up going back to prison. But at that moment, I realized, man, I had to change,” James told a crowd at an event celebrating the clean jobs program in March.
James said that at first, he showed up late to every class. But soon the lessons sank in, and he was never late again. He always paid attention when people talked, and he gained new confidence.
“As long as I put my mind to it, I can do it,” said James, who would like to work as a home energy auditor. Richland partners with the energy utility Ameren to place trainees in such positions.
“I like being out in the field, learning new stuff, dealing with homes, helping people,” James said, noting he made energy-efficiency improvements to his own home after the course.
Illinois’ 2017 Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA) launched the state’s clean energy transition, baking in equity goals that prioritize opportunities for people who benefited least and were harmed most by the fossil fuel economy. It created programs to deploy solar arrays and provide job training in marginalized and environmental justice communities.
FEJA’s rollout was rocky. Funding for equity-focused solar installations went unspent while workforce programs struggled to recruit trainees and connect them with jobs. The pandemic didn’t help. The follow-up legislation, CEJA, expanded workforce training programs and remedied snafus in the original law.
Melissa Gombar is principal director of workforce development programs for Elevate, a Chicago-based national nonprofit organization that oversaw FEJA job training and subcontracts for a Chicago-area CEJA hub. Gombar said many community organizations tasked with running FEJA training programs were relatively small and grassroots, so they had to scramble to build new financial and human resources infrastructure.
“They have to have certain policies in place for hiring and procurement. The influx of grant money might have doubled their budget,” Gombar said. Meanwhile, the state employees tasked with helping the groups “are really talented and skilled, trying their best, but they’re overburdened because of the large lift.”
CEJA, by contrast, tapped community colleges like Richland, which already had robust infrastructure and staffing. CEJA also funds community organizations to serve as “navigators,” using the trust and credibility they’ve developed in communities to recruit trainees.
Richland Community College received $2.6 million from April 2024 through June 2025, and the Community Foundation of Macon County, the hub’s navigator, received $440,000 for the same time period. The other hubs similarly received between $1 million and $3.3 million for the past year, and state officials have said the same level of funding will be allocated for each of the next two years, according to the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition.
CEJA hubs also include social service providers that connect trainees with wraparound support; businesses like TCCI that offer jobs; and affiliated entrepreneur incubators that help people start their own clean energy businesses. CEJA also funded apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs with labor unions, which are often a prerequisite for employment in utility-scale solar and wind.
“The sum of the parts is greater than the whole,” said Drew Keiser, TCCI vice president of global human resources. “The navigator is saying, ‘Hey, I’ve connected with this portion of the population that’s been overlooked or underserved.’ OK, once you get them trained, send their resumes to me, and I’ll get them interviewed. We’re seeing a real pipeline into careers.”
The hub partners go to great lengths to aid students — for example, coordinating and often paying for transportation, childcare, or even car repairs.
“If you need some help, they always there for you,” James said.
In 1984, TCCI began making vehicle compressors in a Decatur plant formerly used to build Sherman tanks during World War II. A few decades later, the company began producing compressors for electric vehicles, which are much more elaborate and sensitive than those for internal combustion engines.
In August 2023, Gov. JB Pritzker joined TCCI President Richard Demirjian, the Decatur mayor, and college officials for the groundbreaking of an Electric Vehicle Innovation Hub, which will include a climatic research facility — basically a high-tech wind tunnel where companies and researchers from across the world can send EV chargers, batteries, compressors, and other components for testing in extreme temperatures, rain, and wind.
A $21.3 million capital grant and a $2.2 million electric vehicle incentive from the state are funding the wind tunnel and the new facilities where Richland classes will be held. In 2022, Pritzker announced these investments as furthering the state goal of 1 million EVs on the road by 2030.
Far from the gritty industrial environs that likely characterized Decatur workplaces of the past, the classrooms at TCCI feature colorful decor, comfortable armchairs, and bright, airy spaces adjacent to pristine high-tech manufacturing floors lined with machines.
“This hub is a game changer,” said Keiser, noting the need for trained tradespeople. “As a country, we place a lot of emphasis on kids going to college, and maybe we’ve kind of overlooked getting tangible skills in the hands of folks.”
A marketing firm founded by Kara Demirjian — Richard Demirjian’s sister — and located on-site with TCCI also received clean energy hub funds to promote the training program. This has been crucial to the hub’s success, according to Ariana Bennick, account executive at the firm, DCC Marketing. Its team has developed, tested, and deployed digital billboards, mailers, ads, Facebook events, and other approaches to attract trainees and business partners.
“Being a part of something here in Decatur that’s really leading the nation in this clean energy initiative is exciting,” Bennick said. “It can be done here in the middle of the cornfields. We want to show people a framework that they can take and scale in other places.”
With graduation behind him, Honorable is planning the types of hot dogs and sausages he’ll sell at Buns on the Run. He said Tamika Thomas, director of the CEJA program at Richland, has also encouraged him to consider teaching so he can share the clean energy skills he’s learned with others. The world seems wide open with possibilities.
“A little at a time — I’m going to focus on the tasks in front of me that I’m passionate about, and then see what’s next,” Honorable said. He invoked a favorite scene from the cartoon TV series “The Flintstones,” in which the characters’ leg power, rather than wheels and batteries, propelled vehicles: “Like Fred and Barney, I’ll be up and running.”
This reporting is part of a collaboration between the Institute for Nonprofit News’ Rural News Network and Canary Media, South Dakota News Watch, Cardinal News, The Mendocino Voice, and The Maine Monitor. Support from Ascendium Education Group made the project possible.
London, 8 April – The world reached a new milestone as low-carbon sources – renewables and nuclear – provided 40.9% of the world’s electricity generation in 2024, passing the 40% mark for the first time since the 1940s, according to a report by global energy think tank Ember.
Renewables were the main driver of overall clean growth, adding a record 858 TWh in 2024, 49% more than the previous high in 2022. Solar was the largest contributor for the third year running, adding 474 TWh to reach a share of 6.9%. Solar was the fastest-growing power source (+29%) for the 20th year in a row. Solar electricity has doubled in just three years, providing more than 2,000 TWh of electricity in 2024. Wind generation also grew to 8.1% of global electricity, while hydro’s share remained steady at 14% – the single largest renewable source.
“Solar power has become the engine of the global energy transition,” said Phil MacDonald, Ember’s managing director. “Paired with battery storage, solar is set to be an unstoppable force. As the fastest-growing and largest source of new electricity, it is critical in meeting the world’s ever-increasing demand for electricity.”
Ember’s sixth annual Global Electricity Review provides the first comprehensive overview of the global power system in 2024 based on country-level data. It is published today alongside the world’s first open dataset on electricity generation in 2024, covering 88 countries that account for 93% of global electricity demand, as well as historical data for 215 countries.
The analysis finds that, despite the rise in renewables, fossil generation saw a small 1.4% increase in 2024 due to surging electricity demand, pushing global power sector emissions up 1.6% to an all-time high.
Heatwaves were the main driver of the rise in fossil generation, accounting for almost a fifth (+0.7%) of the increase in global electricity demand in 2024 (+4.0%), mainly through additional use of cooling. Without these temperature effects, fossil generation would have risen by only 0.2%, as clean electricity generation met 96% of the demand growth not caused by hotter temperatures.
“Amid the noise, it’s essential to focus on the real signal,” continued Mr MacDonald. “Hotter weather drove the fossil generation increase in 2024, but we’re very unlikely to see a similar jump in 2025.”
Aside from weather effects, increasing use of electricity for AI, data centres, electric vehicles and heat pumps is already contributing to global demand growth. Combined, growing use of these technologies accounted for a 0.7% increase in global electricity demand in 2024, double what they contributed five years ago.
The report shows that clean generation growth is set to outpace faster-rising demand in the coming years, marking the start of a permanent decline in fossil generation. The current expected growth in clean generation would be sufficient to meet a demand increase of 4.1% per year to 2030, which is above expectations for demand growth.
“The world is watching how technologies like AI and EVs will drive electricity demand,” continued Mr MacDonald. “It’s clear that booming solar and wind are comfortably set to deliver, and those expecting fossil fuel generation to keep rising will be disappointed.”
Beyond emerging technologies, the growth trajectories of the world’s largest emerging economies will play a crucial role in defining the global outlook. China and India are already shifting towards meeting their growing electricity needs with clean energy.
More than half of the increase in solar generation in 2024 was in China, with China’s clean generation growth meeting 81% of its demand increase in 2024. India’s solar capacity additions in 2024 doubled compared to 2023. These two countries are at the forefront of the drive to clean power and will help tip the balance towards a decline in fossil generation at a global level.
“Cleantech, not fossil fuels, is now the driving force of economic development,” concluded Mr MacDonald. “The era of fossil growth is coming to an end, even in a world of fast-rising demand.”
In several states, Republican lawmakers are taking the lead on an unexpected policy priority: encouraging more community solar.
This year, Republicans in Georgia, Iowa, Missouri, and Ohio have sponsored bills to spur the growth of this shared renewable energy resource in their states. Community solar installations, which are typically 1 to 5 megawatts, or up to 30 acres, allow households to reap the benefits of cheaper, clean power without putting panels on their own roofs. And customers who subscribe to these projects can save money on their electricity bills.
While the Georgia Homegrown Solar Act of 2025 will have to wait until next year to move forward now that the Peach State’s legislature is in recess, the proposed laws in Iowa (HF 404) and Ohio (HB 15 and SB 2) remain in play alongside the Missouri measure, which passed unanimously out of the House’s legislative rules committee today.
Twenty-five states have already adopted policies to enable community solar, according to an April report from the NC Clean Energy Technology Center. Nationwide, shared solar had its biggest growth spurt ever in 2024, rising 35% from 2023 to reach a cumulative 8.6 gigawatts of installed capacity, according to Wood Mackenzie. Now, the idea is gaining momentum among conservatives.
Not only are GOP lawmakers introducing and signing on to more community solar bills, but other local Republican stakeholders such as chambers of commerce, landowners, and conservative policy groups are also voicing their support, according to the national trade association Coalition for Community Solar Access. The libertarian group Americans for Prosperity is backing Iowa’s HF 404 — alongside Walmart. Last year, in Alaska, several GOP legislators voted for a community solar bill, and the state’s Republican governor signed it into law.
“We’re starting to see … this groundswell that’s happening,” said Matthew Hargarten, vice president of government and public affairs at the Coalition for Community Solar Access.
That Republicans are advocating for solar at the local level comes as something of a surprise given the federal government’s ongoing opposition to clean energy. On Capitol Hill, GOP lawmakers are weighing the repeal of federal tax credits for renewables, and the Trump administration has attempted to claw back billions of dollars Congress authorized for solar and other clean energy projects. At the same time, the executive branch claims its actions are “ensuring America’s future is marked by energy growth and abundance – not scarcity.”
So why is community solar finding fans among some local Republican lawmakers?
These projects brim with benefits, including ones that tap into the conservative principles of free markets and individual property rights, according to advocates.
Community solar policy can attract private investment from third-party developers of these projects, opening up competition in the energy-generation market, which is often dominated by monopoly utilities. All the recently introduced Republican-backed bills would create this competitive structure by allowing third-party-owned projects where they were previously barred, the Coalition for Community Solar Access pointed out.
Companies that own shared solar installations pay property taxes that help fund local schools and emergency services. And these projects provide energy close to where it’s being consumed, which can reduce the costs of building out grid infrastructure to deliver power to far-flung customers.
Plus, community solar can help farmers keep their agricultural land in production. Farmers and ranchers who need to let a few acres lie fallow to regenerate the soil can lease that plot to earn a passive, stable income for 20 or 30 years.
Some of those reasons explain why the American Legislative Exchange Council, the national conservative group known for packaging model legislation for policymakers, supports building community solar and combining it with agriculture, a practice known as agrivoltaics.
“[American Legislative Exchange Council] members have long abided by the fundamental principles of individual property rights and have worked to remove regulatory barriers that impede private landowners from utilizing the value of their property for energy projects, whether they are for solar, wind, fracking, biofuels, or other sources,” Jake Morabito, senior director of the group’s energy, environment, and agriculture task force, said in a statement to Canary Media.
Shared solar also boosts local economies. On average, 5 megawatts of community solar delivers $14 million in local economic activity and supports nearly 100 jobs, according to a nationwide review of economic impact reports released this month by the Coalition for Community Solar Access. At scale, the organization notes, that equates to $2.8 billion in local economic activity and more than 18,000 jobs (direct, indirect, and induced) per gigawatt of new installed capacity.
Plus, the energy bill savings offered by community solar have obvious appeal on both sides of the aisle. Developers often guarantee subscribers a 5% to 20% discount on the energy cost. For example, with a $100 investment, a subscriber could buy $120 worth of electricity.
Each of the state bills currently being considered is tailored to the state’s regulatory environment, but all allow customers to save on power bills.
“Ultimately, for me, it was giving Iowan consumers a choice,” said Iowa state Rep. Hans Wilz, a Republican, in a March interview on why he introduced a community solar bill. Not everyone can afford to put solar panels on their roof, he explained: “This is a way for all Iowans to be able to participate in a solar program.”
That’s a far cry from a common refrain that Lori Saine said she often heard from fellow Republicans during her tenures as a state representative and local official in Colorado: “‘You like China and Biden if you like solar panels.’”
As a commissioner in Weld County, Colorado, Saine helped update the jurisdiction’s code to allow community solar projects, and as a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council, she introduced the group’s model resolution supporting shared solar.
To be sure, even today community solar can be “a political buzz saw for some Republicans, especially if they’re in deep red districts,” which tend to be rural, Saine said. But once people “save some money on their energy bills, suddenly the tune changes really, really fast.”
As for whether the Republican-backed draft laws will pass, “it’s impossible to say,” said Hargarten, with the Coalition for Community Solar Access. Utilities consistently oppose such legislation, according to the group. Still, here’s one encouraging sign: A Montana shared-solar bill cleared both Republican-controlled chambers this month and now awaits the governor’s signature.
We’ll know soon enough the fate of some of these bills. Iowa lawmakers go home May 2, and Missouri legislators follow soon after on May 16. Ohio keeps legislating until Dec. 31.
The rising support for community solar among Republicans is “a kind of awakening,” Saine of Colorado said.
“It’s not a partisan issue if you’re generating an electron, and you’re doing it safer, more effectively, and cheaper, and then delivering that product to consumers who really, really need it — which is, by the way, everyone,” she noted. “That’s a win-win.”
An update was made on April 29, 2025: This story has been updated to reflect that Missouri’s community solar bill passed out of the House’s legislative rules committee on April 29.
A clarification was made on April 30, 2025: An earlier version of this story said that Georgia’s legislative session had ended and that the Georgia Homegrown Solar Act of 2025 is off the table. The story has been updated to clarify that the legislative session is in recess until next year, meaning the Georgia Homegrown Solar Act of 2025 will have to wait until then to move forward.
Raymond Ward wants to see solar panels draped over every balcony in the United States and doesn’t understand why that isn’t happening.
The technology couldn’t be easier to use — simply hang one or two panels over a railing and plug them into an outlet. The devices provide up to 800 watts, enough to charge a laptop or power a small fridge. They’re popular in Germany, where everyone from renters to climate activists to gadget enthusiasts hail them as a cheap and easy way to generate electricity. Germans had registered more than 780,000 of the devices with the country’s utility regulator as of December. They’ve installed millions more without telling the government.
Here in the U.S., though, there is no market for balcony solar. Ward, a Republican state representative in Utah who learned about the tech last year, wants that to change. The way he sees it, this is an obvious solution to surging power demand. “You look over there and say, ‘Well, that’s working,’” he said. “So what is it that stops us from having it here?”
His colleagues agree. Earlier this year, the Legislature unanimously passed a bill he sponsored to boost the tech, and Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed it. HB 340 exempts portable solar devices from state regulations that require owners of rooftop solar arrays and other power-generating systems to sign an interconnection agreement with their local utility. These deals, and other “soft costs” like permits, can nearly double the price of going solar.
Utah’s law marks the nation’s first significant step to remove barriers to balcony solar — but bigger obstacles remain. Regulations and standards governing electrical devices haven’t kept pace with development of the technology, and it lacks essential approvals required for adoption — including compliance with the National Electrical Code and a product safety standard from Underwriters Laboratories. Nothing about the bill Ward wrote changes that: Utahans still can’t install balcony solar because none of the systems have been nationally certified.
These challenges will take time and effort to overcome, but they’re not insurmountable, advocates of the technology said. Even now, a team of entrepreneurs and research scientists, backed by federal funding, are creating these standards. Their work mirrors what happened in Germany nearly a decade ago, when clean energy advocates and companies began lobbying the country’s electrical certification body to amend safety regulations to legalize balcony solar.
In 2017, Verband der Elektrotechnik, or VDE, a German certification body that issues product and safety standards for electrical products, released the first guideline that allowed for balcony solar systems. While such systems existed before VDE took this step, the benchmark it established allowed manufacturers to sell them widely, creating a booming industry.
“Relentless individuals” were key to making that happen, said Christian Ofenheusle, the founder of EmpowerSource, a Berlin-based company that promotes balcony solar. Members of a German solar industry association spent years advocating for the technology and worked with VDE to carve a path toward standardizing balcony solar systems. The initial standard was followed by revised versions in 2018 and 2019 that further outlined technical requirements.
The regulatory structure has continued to evolve. Ofenheusle has worked with other advocates to amend grid safety standards, create simple online registration for plug-in devices, and enshrine renters’ right to balcony solar. Politicians supported such efforts because they see the tech easing the nation’s reliance on Russian natural gas. Cities like Berlin and Munich have provided millions of euros in subsidies to help households buy these systems, and the country is creating a safety standard for batteries that can store the energy for later use.
Meanwhile, the United States has yet to take the first step of creating a safety standard for the technology. U.S. electrical guidelines don’t account for the possibility of plugging a power-generating device into a household outlet. The nation also operates on a different system that precludes simply copying and pasting Germany’s rules. The U.S. grid, for example, operates at 120 volts, while that country’s grid operates at 230 volts.
Without proper standards, a balcony solar system could pose several hazards.
One concern is a phenomenon called breaker masking. Within a home, a single circuit can provide power to several outlets. Each circuit is equipped with a circuit breaker, a safety device within the electrical panel that shuts off power if that circuit is overloaded, which happens when too many appliances try to draw too much electricity at the same time. That prevents overheating or a fire. When a balcony solar device sends power into a circuit while other appliances are drawing power from the circuit, the breaker can’t detect that added power supply. If the circuit becomes overloaded — imagine turning on your TV while a space heater is running and you’re charging your laptop, all in the same room — the circuit breaker might fail to activate.
This was a concern in Germany, so it developed standards that limit balcony solar units to just 800 watts, about half the amount used by a hairdryer. That threshold is considered low enough that even in the country’s oldest homes, the wiring can withstand the heating that occurs in even the worst of worst-case scenarios, said Sebastian Müller, chair of the German Balcony Solar Association, a consumer education and advocacy group. As a result, Ofenheusle said there haven’t been any cases of breaker masking causing harm. In fact, with millions of the devices installed nationwide, Germany has yet to see any safety issues beyond a few cases where someone tampered with the devices to add a car battery or other unsuitable hardware, he said.
Another issue in the U.S. is the lack of a compatible safety device called a ground fault circuit interrupter, or a GFCI. They are typically built into outlets installed near water sources, like a sink, washing machine, or bathtub. They’re designed to minimize the risk of electric shock by cutting off power when, for example, a hairdryer falls into a sink. Yet there are no certified GFCI outlets in the U.S. designed for use with devices that consume power, like a blender, and those that generate it, like a balcony solar setup. Germany’s equivalent of a GFCI, called a residual current device, can detect bidirectional power flows, said Andreas Schmitz, a mechanical engineer and YouTuber in Germany who makes videos about balcony solar.
Some people have raised concerns about the shock risk of touching the metal prongs of a plug after unplugging a balcony solar device. German regulators accounted for that by requiring the microinverter — which converts currents from the panel into electricity fed into the home — shut down immediately in an outage or when it is suddenly unplugged. Most of them already have this feature, but any U.S. standard will likely need to formalize that requirement.
The lack of an Underwriters Laboratories, or UL, standard is perhaps the biggest obstacle to the adoption of balcony solar. The company certifies the safety of thousands of household electrical products; according to Iowa State University, “every light bulb, lamp, or outlet purchased in the U.S. usually has a UL symbol and says UL Listed.” This assures customers that the product follows nationally recognized guidelines and can be used without the risk of a fire or shock.
While some companies have sold plug-in solar devices in the U.S. without a UL listing, the company’s seal of approval typically is a prerequisite for selling products on the wider market. Consumers might be wary of using something that lacks its approval. Utah’s new balcony solar policy, for example, specifies that the law applies only to UL-listed products.
Achim Ginsberg-Klemmt, vice president of engineering at the plug-in solar startup GismoPower, has been working on creating such a standard for more than a year and a half. In 2023, the Department of Energy awarded his company a grant to work with UL to develop a standard.
GismoPower sells a mobile carport with a roof of solar panels and an integrated electric vehicle charger. Unlike rooftop solar, the system doesn’t need to be mounted in place but can be rolled onto a driveway and plugged in, generating electricity for the car, house, and the grid. “We’re basically taking rooftop solar to the next level” by making it portable and accessible for renters, Ginsberg-Klemmt said. The product is in use at pilot sites nationwide, though a lack of standardized rules for plug-in solar has forced the company to negotiate interconnection agreements with local utilities — a time-consuming and sometimes costly process.
GismoPower’s product avoids one of the biggest technical challenges with balcony solar by plugging into a dedicated 240-volt outlet, the kind typically used for dryers. Such an outlet serves a single appliance and uses a dedicated circuit, sidestepping the risk of overloading. But it runs headlong into the same obstacle of lacking a compatible UL standard. Ginsberg-Klemmt is working with researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, other entrepreneurs, and engineers at Underwriters Laboratories to develop such a standard, but it hasn’t been easy. “We have found so many roadblocks,” he said.
One major sticking point is that any standard must comply with the National Electrical Code, a set of guidelines for electrical wiring in buildings that does not allow for the installation of plug-in energy systems like balcony solar. The rules are issued by the National Fire Protection Association, a nonprofit trade association, and adopted on a state-by-state basis.
The code is updated every three years, with the next iteration due later this year for the 2026 edition. Ginsberg-Klemmt and his working group submitted recommendations for amending the code to allow plug-in solar — and every one of them was rejected in October.
Jeff Sargent, the National Fire Protection Association’s staff liaison to the National Electrical Code committee, said that this is the first time the organization had received public comments about plug-in solar systems. For now, it cannot consider amendments to allow their use until a compatible ground fault circuit interrupter exists, he said. Once that’s available, he said, the association can ensure that outdoor outlets can be safely used for balcony solar.
Electrical standards are constantly evolving, and it often takes more than one cycle of code changes to allow for new products, said Sargent. Ginsberg-Klemmt said his group will continue to pursue other avenues to amend the codes.
Until that happens, a UL standard for plug-in solar is unlikely to go anywhere. But interest in plug-in energy solutions isn’t going away, and decision-makers will have to adjust to that reality eventually, Ward said. It happened in Germany, where people across the political spectrum have embraced the technology. Ward believes the same thing will happen here. The way he sees it, “It’s just a good thing if you set up a system so people have a way to take care of as much of their own problems as they can.”
Illinois is going to need a whole lot more workers to realize its clean energy aspirations.
The state has some of the nation’s most ambitious climate laws, with a target of transitioning to 100% clean energy by 2050. In 2030 — just five years from now — it aims to achieve 40% renewable energy.
The shift away from fossil fuels could create more than 150,000 jobs in Illinois by mid-century, according to a 2022 study commissioned by ComEd, the state’s largest utility.
Since 2012, ComEd has offered a suite of what it calls “Academy” training programs that are helping to meet that need, preparing a diverse pool of more than 1,000 residents from in and around Chicago for entry-level positions in the construction, utility, and clean energy fields.
“We are delivering clean energy 24/7, 365 [days a year] — reliable power to 9 million people across Northern Illinois,” Laticia Holbert, senior workforce development manager for ComEd, told Canary Media. “And so it’s our duty to make sure that we are working with our communities to get a talent pipeline. We are proud of the legacy that we have done throughout our training programs, and we continue to expand.”
The goal of the programs is two-fold — not only to increase the size of the workforce but also to provide employment opportunities for members of environmental justice communities, who for decades have borne the brunt of adverse effects from fossil-fuel extraction. Training programs aimed at these groups, advocates point out, help to ensure that the clean energy transition does not perpetuate the injustices of the fossil-fuel economy.
“We are partnering with the community to make sure that we’re bringing in a diverse talent pipeline, by delivering targeted programs to ensure that more local residents are prepared for, I like to say, good-paying jobs [with] family-sustaining wages,” Holbert said. “We know that is really critical for our communities. We know, with the current climate [and] how clean energy is really revolutionizing, how we need to look at the demand for jobs.”
In mid-April, ComEd and a coalition of companies, labor organizations, and community groups celebrated 73 new graduates from two of the utility’s job training programs, Construct Infrastructure Academy and Craft Academy, at the University of Illinois Chicago Forum. U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis (D) spoke at the event, as did the CEO of ComEd and representatives of the company United Scrap Metal and the nonprofit Chicago Urban League.
Britney Evans, a 2025 graduate of ComEd’s Construct program who spoke at the ceremony, said that the training she received sets her up to succeed in the trades.
“From the build day to the job shadows and coursework, the Construct program gave me the boost I needed to build my professional network, be challenged, and find new opportunities,” Evans said. “It really helped me understand the daily realities and benefits of the construction industry, and now my classmates and I will be able to break through all the glass ceilings and advance further in our lives and careers.”
Another of ComEd’s Academy training programs, which was not represented at the event, is the Power Up Academy, which provides participants the opportunity to earn design and engineering industry-required certifications for careers related to the clean energy sector. Launched in 2023 in partnership with the City Colleges of Chicago, the 14-week Power Up Academy program is designed to remove barriers to entry for local residents pursuing engineering-related careers. The program attained accreditation in 2024, enabling past and future participants to qualify for up to 13 credit hours toward future degree programs.
Each of ComEd’s three programs provides training at no charge to participants, along with a stipend during the program and ongoing career guidance and financial support after completion, Holbert said.
Approximately 70% of graduates across all of ComEd’s Academy programs land in entry-level positions with the utility or its more than 40 partner employers, taking on roles such as project coordinators, construction workers, lineworkers, design technicians, and underground locators, who help identify where infrastructure is buried.
Historically, more than 95% of program participants have been people of color, and 25% have been women. This year’s class of graduates is comprised of more than 90% people of color and nearly 20% women, according to ComEd.
Participants must be at least 18 years old, have earned either a high school diploma or GED certificate, demonstrate 10th-grade-level math and reading skills, and hold a valid driver’s license, Holbert said.
ComEd also requires potential students to complete an admissions interview along with a drug test and background check. However, individuals with past drug use or who were formerly incarcerated are not automatically disqualified. Consideration is made on a case-by-case basis, Holbert said.
“So, for returning citizens, we welcome them in the program,” Holbert said.
Of the 73 participants who graduated in April, 64 had taken part in the Construct Infrastructure Academy. During the 11-week program, participants learned basic construction skills and earned industry certifications such as a commercial driver’s license and Occupational Safety and Health Administration training. They also learned about heat pumps, induction stoves, and solar panels.
Participants also had the opportunity to shadow and learn from industry partners. For instance, in partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Chicago, this year’s Construct students helped build homes across Chicagoland’s South and Southwest Sides as part of their training curriculum. During a recent Habitat for Humanity Chicago Build Day, they tiled bathrooms, hung kitchen cabinets, added trim and molding, and painted walls. The project allowed participants to apply their newfound knowledge on safety techniques, handling basic hand tools, and working as a team.
Meanwhile, the nine Craft Academy graduates completed a physically demanding six-week training program that requires utility-pole climbing, a prerequisite experience for an apprenticeship to become an overhead lineworker. Overhead lineworkers play a critical role in maintaining and modernizing the power grid. That task is essential for meeting rising electricity demands as people purchase more EVs and electrify their homes and businesses. These graduates are now eligible for scholarships to the Dawson Technical Institute Overhead Electrical Line Worker program of the City Colleges of Chicago, which will enable them to pursue careers in the electric utility industry.
“We are honored to have joined forces with ComEd over the last 13 years in connecting members of our communities to training opportunities that can change the trajectory of their lives,” said Chicago Urban League CEO Karen Freeman-Wilson during the graduation ceremony. “The Construct and Craft programs represent a gateway to lucrative jobs that can provide the chance to build lasting careers and generational wealth.”
ComEd uses money from its own budget to run the training programs, Holbert said. No federal funds are involved.
“I don’t think [the present political climate] has any impact at all because we have to hire people to work on our grid, our system,” she said. “So we need talented people. That’s just what our mission is. So nothing’s changed about how we’re doing and what we’re doing.”
A clarification was made on May 1, 2025: This story originally stated that Construct students learn about installing heat pumps, induction stoves, and solar panels. The students learn about this equipment generally but are not trained in installation. The story also originally said that about 70% of graduates from ComEd’s training programs are employed by the utility and its partners. It has been updated to clarify that this figure is for ComEd’s Academy programs specifically, not all of its training programs.
Clean energy is the most popular form of energy in the world. By a long shot.
More than 90% of the new energy capacity built worldwide last year was clean, per data from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). That’s a new high watermark for solar, wind, and other renewable energy resources.
Due to plummeting costs and global decarbonization policies, clean energy has accounted for most of the world’s new energy resources for several years now. Since 2012, renewables have consistently made up more than half of new energy generation added to global grids.
But the trend has accelerated significantly, the result of a simultaneous slowdown in fossil-fuel power plant construction and a rapid buildout of carbon-free installations. Last year, over 585 gigawatts of new clean energy were built, per IRENA, more than three-quarters of which were solar. Meanwhile, just 47 GW of non-renewable power generation were added.
Overall, renewable resources produced around 32% of global electricity in 2024. If you add in nuclear, carbon-free sources accounted for 40% — a record-high figure.
Nevertheless, emissions from the global power sector have not declined. In fact, they rose by 1.7% last year compared with 2023, per International Energy Agency data shared with Canary Media. There are a few reasons for this.
For one, although renewables dominate new construction, the world still has a massive fleet of fossil-fired power plants, and those continue to tear through huge volumes of coal, gas, and oil to keep the lights on. Also, the amount of fossil fuels the world burns, and the amount of fossil-fueled power plants it builds, are both still climbing, albeit at a slower rate.
The problem is particularly acute in China and India, very large countries in which coal generates a disproportionately high percentage of electricity compared to the rest of the world. The U.S., which has cumulatively emitted more CO2 than any country and is currently the second-biggest source of greenhouse gases in the world, has seen power sector emissions fall over the last 15 years thanks to cheap fracked gas and even cheaper renewables.
Rising power demand is also a thorn in the side of decarbonization efforts. As hotter summers drive up the use of air-conditioning and large industrial power customers like data centers expand, new clean electrons are often simply meeting new demand rather than enabling old polluting power plants to shutter.
Still, there’s no arguing with the fact that the global power system is moving toward clean energy and away from fossil fuels. The problem is that this shift is happening too slowly. And when it comes to averting the worst of the climate crisis, pace matters just as much as direction.
The largest solar farm east of the Mississippi River now provides 100% of the electricity powering Loyola University in Chicago, and starting next fall the solar array will also be part of the university’s lesson plans.
The power purchase agreements that made the Double Black Diamond solar farm possible include “unique” components that promise Loyola access to the sprawling site and real-time data on its power generation, plus guest lectures from leaders at Swift Current Energy, the firm that operates the project, said Matt Birchby, Swift Current’s president. The Boston-based renewables developer owns several other Illinois solar and wind farms in addition to Double Black Diamond.
“It offers a lot of opportunities for faculty and students on campus,” said Loyola assistant professor of environmental policy Gilbert Michaud, who attended a ribbon-cutting for the solar farm on April 30, though the project has been producing energy since last year. “It’s good for me; it’s good for the students. We’ll write some papers.”
The 593-megawatt array also provides about 70% of the electricity used by the city of Chicago for municipal operations, including the city’s two airports. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson joined Loyola faculty and local elected officials at the ribbon-cutting, which took place amid farmland a three-hour drive south of Chicago.
The solar farm is crucial to Chicago meeting its goal of 100% renewable energy by 2025, Chicago Department of Environment spokesperson Kathleen O’Shea said. “This project demonstrates how climate action and economic investment can go hand in hand and benefit both our planet and people,” O’Shea said.
Swift Current is exploring ways to invest in Chicago-based workforce training programs to prepare residents for careers in the clean energy sector, Birchby said, as part of a community benefits agreement with the city, since Chicago is too far away to reap tax and employment benefits from the solar farm.
The $779 million project was built by union workers, mostly with modules produced domestically by Arizona-based First Solar — a boon during the post-Covid global supply chain crunch, Birchby said.
Electricity supplier Constellation Energy Corp., which also owns Illinois’ fleet of nuclear power plants, purchases the energy from the solar farm and passes the renewable energy credits on to Chicago, Loyola, CVS, and other customers. Chicago has a 300-MW allotment from the project, and Loyola claims 38 MW. That helps Loyola meet its 2025 goal of being carbon neutral, which is part of the Jesuit university’s larger faith-based commitment to sustainability, as officials told Canary Media in 2023 when the solar farm deal was announced.
Michaud, an economist and data analyst by training, looks forward to using data from Double Black Diamond in his courses and bringing students to the solar farm and surrounding area for fieldwork.
Michaud and his graduate students have studied the impact of large solar farms on property values and public attitudes toward utility-scale solar around the Midwest and in Europe. He has found that while people often fear solar farms will decrease their property values, that rarely happens. Instead, solar farms may actually increase property values, perhaps because of amenities facilitated by an influx of funding.
Sangamon and Morgan counties, which host the 4,100-acre array, are expected to receive about $100 million in tax revenue thanks to the project, according to Swift Current, which will also donate hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to local civic causes.
“We looked at how we could become a long-term resident of that community,” said Birchby. “At first, that’s done with proper siting. So with property values and other dynamics at play, you’re making sure you’re not adversely affecting landowners. We’re saying, ‘Hey we’re a corporate sponsor, and we are people who work and live in your community now. How do we give back and become true members of the community?’”
Michaud said he’s eager to study the economic and social ripple effects of Double Black Diamond.
“Can we talk to adjacent landowners? Can we look at the performance of the system? Will there be agrivoltaics?” Michaud said. “There’s obviously energy research we can do, and it might open up other doors — for soil science, water runoff, how does this impact the local bird or rodent population?”
Birchby said Double Black Diamond could be a place to experiment with agrivoltaics, wherein farming coexists with solar production. He said the land under and around the panels is currently planted with native, pollinator-friendly vegetation, and he’s interested in grazing sheep “as an alternative to seasonal mowing … further supporting the broader farming community.”
Birchby said the economies of scale for the large solar farm allow Swift Current to offer lower rates in 12-year contracts with buyers like Loyola and Chicago that are “almost like a marriage.”
“We struck up relationships and partnerships where we’ve been able to navigate hand in hand,” said Birchby. “I’m thrilled with the outcome the collective teams were able to bring together.”
Around the world, farmers are retooling their land to harvest the hottest new commodity: sunlight. As the price of renewable energy technology has plummeted and water has gotten more scarce, growers are fallowing acreage and installing solar panels. Some are even growing crops beneath them, which is great for plants stressed by too many rays. Still others are letting that shaded land go wild, providing habitat for pollinators and fodder for grazing livestock.
According to a new study, this practice of agrisolar has been quite lucrative for farmers in California’s Central Valley over the last 25 years — and for the environment. Researchers looked at producers who had idled land and installed solar, using the electricity to run equipment like water pumps and selling the excess power to utilities.
On average, that energy savings and revenue added up to $124,000 per hectare (about 2.5 acres) each year, 25 times the value of using the land to grow crops. Collectively, the juice generated in the Central Valley could power around 500,000 households while saving enough water to hydrate 27 million people annually. “If a farmer owns 10 acres of land, and they choose to convert 1 or 2 acres to a solar array, that could produce enough income for them to feel security for their whole operation,” said Jake Stid, a renewable energy landscape scientist at Michigan State University and lead author of the paper, published in the journal Nature Sustainability.
The Central Valley is among the most productive agricultural regions in the world: It makes up just 1% of all farmland acreage in the United States yet generates a third of the nation’s fruits and vegetables. But it’s also extremely water-stressed as California whiplashes between years of significant rainfall and drought. To irrigate all those crops, farmers have drawn so much groundwater that aquifers collapse like empty water bottles, making the earth itself sink by many feet.
Farmers can’t make their crops less thirsty, so many have been converting some of their acreage to solar. The Central Valley is ideal for this, being mostly flat and very sunny, hence the agricultural productivity. At the same time, farmers have been getting good rates for the electricity that they offset and that they send back to the grid.
Now, though, California has adopted standards that reduce those rates by 75% on average. For a farmer investing in panels, the investment looks less enticing. “The algebra or calculus — or whatever math discipline you want to reference — it just doesn’t work out the same way,” said Karen Norene Mills, vice president of legal advocacy at the California Farm Bureau, which promotes the state’s agricultural community.
Also, the study found that by fallowing land for solar panels, food production in the Central Valley dropped by enough calories to feed 86,000 people a year. But, Stid said, markets can adjust, as crops are grown elsewhere to make up the deficit. By tapping the sun instead, Stid added, growers can simultaneously help California reach its goals of deploying renewable and reducing groundwater usage.
The tension, though, is meeting those objectives while still producing incredible quantities of food. “That is always our concern about some of these pressures,” Mills said.
But this isn’t an either-or proposition: Many farmers are finding ways to grow some crops, like leafy greens and berries, under the panels. The shade reduces evaporation from the soil, allowing growers to water less often. In turn, a wetted landscape cools the panels, which improves their efficiency. “This is the compromise that’s going to allow for both energy independence and food security,” said horticulturalist Jennifer Bousselot, who studies agrisolar at Colorado State University but wasn’t involved in the new study.
Farmers are also turning livestock loose to graze under their panels. Their droppings fertilize the soil, leading to more plant growth and more flowers that support native pollinators. “The grass, it’s so much more lush under the panels, it’s amazing,” said Ryan Romack, founder of Virginia-based AgriSolar Ranch, which provides grazing services. “Especially when the sheep have been on site long-term, you can really see the added benefits of the manure load.”
Then, if a farmer decides not to replace the solar panels at the end of their lifespan — usually around 25 or 30 years — the soil will be refreshed with nutrients and ready to grow more crops. Even if a grower simply lets them sit for decades without any management, the fallowing can restore the soil’s health. “We really see solar as a collective landscape,” Stid said, “that can be sited, managed, and designed in a way to benefit both people and the planet and ecosystems as well.”
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