New NC-based program promotes diversity in emerging field of solar energy
A new North Carolina-based program is boosting diversity in solar energy and its efforts are being felt in Halifax County.
According to the department of energy, over three million solar energy installations have been built across the U.S., with a million of those coming in the last two years.
A farmer in Halifax County is part of the emerging trend. When you see Haywood Harrell on the tractor you may not think of electric cars and solar power, but he says the thing he wants to plant most, solar farms, has sprouted big in other parts of the state like Cabarrus County.
"It's a heritage. I grew up as a sharecropper," said Harrell from a rural road near his farm.
Harrell has thousands of acres of land waiting for seeds. Power suppliers said Harrell could make as much as $700 an acre with solar compared to $35 to 50 an acre with crops. He's banking on a new program backed by Duke Energy called Diversity in Clean Energy Initiative (DICE) to help.
"It's always good to have something you can bank on," Harrell said.
The program is designed to create a database of Black and diverse businesses that can contribute to what's expected to be a booming industry, especially in North Carolina, one of the leading states for clean energy production.
Big-name investors backing the effort include Microsoft, GM, Kroger and T-Mobile.
"We all came together and said this issue is bigger than just eight corporations," said Irvine Sloan with Duke Energy. "It's something that impacts all communities."
Sloan said the corporations have not just created a database with names, they're also networking and marketing for them.
"Where we want to get to is where diverse-owned businesses are part of our working economy," Sloan said.
The program aims to help smaller Black suppliers attract the attention to compete for contracts.
"We want to create a platform to continue to grow and continue our span to grow over years and years to come," Sloan said.
That's big for Ajulo Othow, owner of Enerwealth Solutions, a solar provider in North Carolina.
"Too often we are the last to know or the last at the table," Othow said. Othow is the president of the board of directors of Black Owners of Solar Services (BOSS).
She said DICE is designed to allow businesses that can go overlooked to be seen and included in an industry with few Black faces.
"There are thousands of solar businesses in the nation now and right now our network consists of about 50 businesses across the country," Othow said.
Harrell is working to make space for Othow to install solar panels.
"I want this project to keep going," Harrell said.
The DICE database is set to launch in late summer or early fall.
