Bringing solar's massive savings & workforce potential to light w/ Sharon Pillar, founder & exec dir Pennsylvania Solar Center (SE05EP07)

We Can Be podcast - The Heinz Endowments

Sharon Pillar, Pennsylvania Solar Center founder and executive director, is continuing the solar energy advocacy started nearly a half-century ago by former President Jimmy Carter, who recently marked his 100th birthday.

“It’s a lot different now than it was when President Carter put those solar panels on the West Wing roof,” Sharon tells host and Endowments President Chris DeCardy. "We are really seeing this proliferation and adoption of solar energy just taking off. And now with the Inflation Reduction Act, it's become an even bigger and undeniable game changer.”

From that first White House solar array in 1979 to the $90 billion in clean energy investment that came in the first six months of the 2022 IRA, a new generation of advocates is working tirelessly to bring the health, financial and workforce development benefits of solar energy to light.

Sharon has led solar and climate change programs at both PennFuture, a nonprofit that advocates for the clean energy economy, and the Solar Unified Network of Western Pennsylvania. She trained with Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Vice President Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project. She also is a nationally respected and trusted solar consultant who has helped organizations and municipalities seeking to finance and install solar projects.

She talks with Chris about the massive workforce potential the solar sector could see in the next decade and the challenges some communities face in advancing solar. In addition, she describes the eye-opening savings of $19 million over 25 years that a 2024 Pennsylvania Solar Center study found residents of two southwestern Pennsylvania cities could save if they embrace solar energy.

Sharon has clearly found her calling to, as Pennsylvania Solar Center says on its website, “help put solar everywhere under the sun.”

“We Can Be” is hosted by Heinz Endowments President Chris DeCardy, and produced by the Endowments, Josh Franzos and Tim Murray. Theme music by Josh Slifkin. Guest photo: Tim Murray; host photo: Josh Franzos. Guest inquiries may be made to Scott Roller at [email protected].