American Solar Energy Society Conference 2022
June 27, 2022
I recently returned from attending the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) Conference in Albuquerque, NM (ABQ), which was held throughout the week of June 20th, 2022. The reason it was held in New Mexico is because it corresponded with the 50th Anniversary of the New Mexico Solar Energy Association (NMSEA), which is one of the oldest chapters of ASES, founded in 1972.
I also recently posted about the Women’s PV Install Workshop that took place the week before the conference. The whole experience offered a great opportunity to spend a couple of weeks in ABQ and get to know the city a little bit better (and afforded a chance to go check out other regional favorites like Meow Wolf in Santa Fe).
The first week was around 100 degrees F, while the second week brought rain and temperatures in the mid-80s. It was a great taste of the southwest and I found the city to be welcoming and unique, diverse, creative, with a neighborhood feel no matter where you went, and a lot of options for entertainment in the evenings. There is a great Nature Preserve and lengthy bike path that skirts the city and offers a beautiful view of the Rio Grande and Bosque.
I found the conference to be informative and dynamic, with the right balance of grassroots advocacy, business representation, policymaker voices, and a focus on justice and equity in our transition to a clean energy future. Rather than go to a giant trade show that is only focused on industry and technology and sales, this was about conversations at both a high level, and the community level, and how those two relate to one another to inform all of us in our respective work that we carry out from day to day. It felt like a values-driven event, with passionate and smart people who want to contribute to a better world for the environment and for people. It was inspiring and I think many people walked away with new connections and new ideas, and some hope in spite of what can feel like daunting political and environmental realities.
One incredible aspect of the conference was the NMSEA Solar Fiesta that is held annually as a large public event that serves to educate the community about solar in all its various forms. This includes passive solar buildings, active solar in the form of PV, solar thermal, and solar cookers. They also featured a lineup of several kinds of electric vehicles for people to check out, sit in, and talk to the owners about. This included representation of cars from Tesla, Rivian, Mini Cooper, Toyota, Zero Motorcycles, and more. This year they held the event on the final day of the conference, and hundreds of people came to the University of New Mexico campus to wonder around the booths and exhibits. This kind of event captures the heart of those behind NMSEA - they advocate and educate for and about solar, and it felt community-oriented and grassroots in many ways, but with a layer of science and engineering knowledge mixed in with everything. There were engineering students from the local universities there to represent solar cars and boats that they had designed and built as part of campus projects or courses.
Riley Neugebauer of Solar for Women, Ellen Ross of Solar Energy International, and Ruth Schalch of Positive Energy.
I learned at the conference that Sandia National Laboratories has 12,000 employees in Albuquerque and a few thousand more in other locations. The conference had many panelists and attendees who were current or former engineers from Sandia or other government labs like the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and have interest in solar. It is a great resource to have such intelligent folks and resources helping conduct research, collect and analyze data, and build models and projects towards the goal of reducing our climate impact.
Ruth Schalch, Technician with Positive Energy in New Mexico, adorns her water bottle with a new Solar for Women sticker!
In addition to the engineers, there were also policymakers and government staff in attendance, both in-person and virtually. Some highlights there were Shalanda Baker, who is the Director of the Office of Economic Impact and Diversity. She spoke about her job in doing more to manage equity and impact in the efforts being carried out by the Biden Administration. The Governor of New Mexico, Michelle Lujan Grisham, spoke to her commitments to renewable energy, including the passage of the Energy Transition Act in New Mexico, which set statewide renewable energy standards and set out to transition the state away from coal. Jonathan Nez, President of the Navajo Nation, spoke about the efforts there to increase renewables and provide more economic opportunity for the Navajo.
There were several panels and presentations that focused on this topic of equity and justice in the renewable energy sector and in solar. Many people spoke about their efforts as community nonprofits or businesses to promote and create more community solar for all citizens, including low-income people. Glass City Community Solar in Toledo, Ohio is a volunteer-led organization that is working to implement more community solar around their city and region. Jeff Gilbert of Azimuth Solar in Baltimore, MD talked about an inner city solar training program that was linked to jobs for the trainees. We Share Solar provided a keynote that highlighted many years of work connecting K-12 students in the U.S. to solar STEM education in the classroom that also connected them to students in Africa and other developing world countries to help students understand climate and energy poverty around the world, and how they could provide some assistance through the use of solar suitcases!
Photo courtesy of We Share Solar wesharesolar.org
I was able to present on behalf of Solar for Women as part of a panel on Workforce Education. The panel also included Gilbert Michaud of Loyola University in Chicago, Kerry Rippy of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Jeff Gilbert of Azimuth Solar, and Patrick Thompson of CloudBank.
I was also asked to present as part of the Women’s Forum, facilitated by Marlene Brown. I shared my personal story of how I got to where I am today in my solar career. I did this alongside a series of other amazing female presenters, including Karen Paramanandam of UniRac, Jill Cliburn of Cliburn and Associates, Olga Lavrova, Engineering Professor at New Mexico State University, and JoAnn Armenta of Purpose Focused, a nonprofit that advocates for and is led by Native people.
Robert Foster, Chair of the ASES Board, Riley Neugebauer, and Marlene Brown.
I feel grateful to have had these opportunities to be part of a great event, where I was surrounded by inspiring and incredible women and men. I look forward to next year’s event in Boulder!