STEPPING INTO THE SUN
ALUMNI
A MISSION TO BRING SOLAR ENERGY TO COMMUNITIES OF COLOR
JASON CARNEY (’16), owner of Energy Electives and current president of the Tennessee Solar Energy Association, was featured in a July 2019 story on National Public Radio detailing his mission to bring solar and clean energy to black communities in Nashville and Tennessee. The NPR story, reprinted here, highlighted the project he began during his master’s studies at Lipscomb to install a solar array at Whites Creek High School, a majority-AfricanAmerican, public school in north Nashville. He remains engaged with students and is developing a curriculum to enhance Whites Creek’s Academy of Alternative Energy, Sustainability and Logistics.
By Andrea Hsu Heard on All Things Considered A FEW YEARS AGO, JASON CARNEY CAME ACROSS A STATISTIC THAT TOOK HIM BY SURPRISE. In its 2015 survey of jobs in the solar industry, the nonprofit Solar Foundation reported that 0.0% of solar workers in the state of Tennessee were black or African American. That number caught Carney’s eye because the Nashville native is African American—and was working there as a solar installer in 2015. In fact, he was starting to design a solar array for his own home in north Nashville. Clearly, there had been an undercount. But, he thought, maybe not by much. Throughout his career, Carney, 39, has frequently been the only person of color in the room. It was true when he worked in the heating and cooling industry, and it remained true as his professional path led him into green building work and solar design. “Going into [a] boardroom, I’m the only person of color. We go to these conferences, and I’m the only person of color. We go to the U.S. Green Building Council—the local chapter—and of 200 people, it might be me and maybe one other person of color,” he says. “It was very intimidating.” Add to that, Carney says, there was just no talk about solar or clean energy within Nashville’s black
Andrea Hsu/NPR
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