SEI
SOLV Energy and Solar Energy International (SEI) announced their partnership to create the SEI Women in Solar program to empower women from all over the world through solar energy training, networking, mentorship and clean energy employer and job connections.
The goal of this program is to create a global network of women who are considering career pathways in the clean energy sector and to support solar professionals actively working in the industry who want to take their careers to the next level. The program consists of free access to the SEI Women in Solar Online Community for career resources and networking, a mentorship webinar series and scholarships for SEI’s tuition based online courses and annual SEI Women in Solar Hands-on Lab Week.
In SEI’s 30+ years of educational service to the clean energy sector, it has served tens of thousands of women worldwide.
“As an organization, we take pride in having one of the largest teams of women instructors, curriculum developers, staff members and women in leadership of any solar training provider in the industry. With that said, there is still a lot of work to be done,” said Elizabeth Sanderson, SEI executive director.
The SOLV partnership allows SEI the ability to develop more training opportunities with new pathways to the many different types of jobs in the solar industry.
The solar industry offers many job opportunities, ranging from sales and finance, to design and engineering, and other knowledge-based positions in addition to the jobs that are in the field. Women have played vital roles in the physically demanding installation aspect of the solar industry. These solar pioneers include many women in leadership roles doing the knowledge work required for the industry to thrive and grow.
According to the National Solar Job Census, women represent just under 30% of the solar workforce in 2020. Other data highlights the gender disparities that exist: only 28% of women in the solar industry hold manager, director or president-level positions, and the differences are even more stark for women of color.
Women of color in the solar industry report that they often have to prove their competence, and that they face challenges connecting to those in charge of hiring decisions. Data from the industry’s diversity study reflects this trend — three of the top five recruitment methods used by study respondents relied on personal and professional networks to fill open positions. SEI’s Women in Solar strives to build a diverse, equitable, and inclusive clean energy workforce by offering programs and services to help empower these underserved and marginalized communities of women.
“Advancing equity and inclusion on our teams builds innovative, more resilient companies and a stronger solar industry,” said Jennifer Hershman, director of community relations for SOLV Energy. “There are incredible career opportunities for women from all backgrounds and experiences in solar, and SOLV Energy is happy to partner with SEI to help open up the doors to our industry to a more diverse workforce.”
News item from Solar Energy International (SEI)
This is needed World wide. Countries like Zimbabwe the country’s workforce is just over 50% women. If you have solar PV installed in one of these African nations, it is likely your installation crew will be women.
The SEI hands on labs would probably be the most effective way to learn installation and wiring practices for solar PV. When one learns the right way to install a solar PV system and actual hands on use of the proper equipment to terminate the popular MC4 cables on solar PV panels, the code and components to be NEC and RSD compliant. These are all things one needs to (touch) to appreciate how to do a system from start to finish. Go one step further and get into microgrids and smart ESS units. Programming, algorithms, deep dives into local electric utility rate programs and how to effectively get the customer the most bang for the buck. For instance one California has a tiered rate residential plan that has $0.19/kwh off peak and a TOU rate period from 4 PM to 9 PM every day, for those five hours one can be paying up to $0.45/kWh for those five hours. It would be good to engage the smart ESS to save more solar PV during the solar PV harvest portion of the day and time shift this to the 4-9 PM rate spiking each night.