From High Heels to Steel Toes: Clean Energy will Lift Up the Workforce & Strengthen Our Economy
As a proud Georgian, I love my state and have the highest hopes for its future. When I was a Director at the World Trade Center Atlanta in the 90s, I built a membership base of business and civic leaders to advance the city. Through my independent consulting practice, I helped businesses grow through new product development and corporate training. The entrepreneurial energy was palpable everywhere you looked. Decades later, greater Atlanta is recognized as a highly diverse, better educated, fast growing region that boasts a multitude of major corporate headquarters.
I continue to be proud to play my small part in our region’s success. But after a long run of shuttling through gray boardrooms and sprinting through airports in high heels, I decided that I wanted to get my hands dirty — while helping to build clean energy installations for the future.
As co-founder and CEO of Sunshine Solar, a mechanical solar panel installer in Marietta, I see firsthand the enormous promise of clean energy technology. Through my long career in corporate America, I have seen the competitive economics and changing attitudes that business executives have towards clean energy. Technological advancements in solar efficiency, consumer preferences for lower emissions, and an alliance of select business and government leaders have opened the door for potentially massive, long-term, sustainable growth in the industry.
When Mercedes-Benz Stadium was under construction, I never thought such an immense, iconic project would select our small shop as a contractor. At the time, my business partner and I were just getting our fledgling company off the ground; since we didn’t have an office, we met their construction representative at Starbucks. We were shocked – and delighted – to be selected to install solar panels on the new stadium’s property. Those milestones that you hit, you never forget.
Signing an intimidating 60-page contract and praying to God that I didn’t just make a huge mistake, I laced up my steel toe boots and got to work. To avoid a high-interest loan, I maxed out my credit cards instead. After weeks of hard work by our crew, installing piers with tubing and cement and lifting several daunting tons of panels and array racking by crane, I proudly drive by the stadium’s solar installation to this day and say, “Yup, I built that one.”
But no person is an island; as Congress debates the future of clean energy tax incentives, they must realize that there are colossal implications to the public and businesses like mine, through every decision that they make. First, tax credits must be either refundable or direct pay, instead of requiring clean energy developers to partner with investors or banks to realize those credits. Developers must also be able to choose the investment or production tax credit, to remain competitive against the fossil fuel industry, which benefited from $180 billion in consumption subsidies last year alone. And since the incentives have expired and been extended more than a dozen times since 1999, incentives must be long-term, to eliminate uncertainty and create stability in the sector.
Incentives that take these recommendations into account will more than double clean energy capacity, in contrast to simply extending the current credits. Deploying ten years of fully-funded clean energy tax incentives would help to cut carbon dioxide by 76% below 2005 levels. And in light of today’s tight labor market, decarbonizing the electricity sector is even more urgent since doing so can create as many as 600,000 jobs annually over the next decade.
At the same time, I know that I am already blessed to be where I am today. Not everyone can have the same opportunities I had, so we must empower all people, especially women of color, to plug into the industries of the future. I could not be where I am without the hard work of our crew.
I strive to carry forward their message: With hard work and a bit of a thick skin, anyone can build a career in this industry, whether you were formerly incarcerated, underemployed in the fast food service industry, or never even knew about the solar industry prior. Let’s all climb the clean energy ladder of prosperity, with one hand on the rungs and the other helping up the person behind you.
Emilie Oxel O’Leary is the Co-Founder and CEO of Sunshine Solar. She has worked with Fortune 500 companies across the nation including Amazon, L’Oreal, Target, Perry Ellis, Blue Cross Blue Shield. She continues to develop relationships with clients throughout the United States.
