By Renata Sago
$464 billion has flowed into the industry since 2022, but at only 8% of workers, Black folks aren’t getting a piece of the pie.
The Environmental Protection Agency recently announced $7 billion in grants for solar energy programs in residential communities. It is the latest round of public funding for the clean energy sector, which has seen $464 billion in investments since 2022. The money is intended to help local governments and non-profit organizations develop initiatives that lower energy costs in low-income and historically disadvantaged areas across the country. But questions linger about how well the industry reflects the nation’s diversity.
Several advocacy groups — E2, Alliance to Save Energy, American Association of Blacks in Energy, Energy Efficiency for All, and Black Owners of Solar Services — released a report in 2021 noting disparities within the presence of Black workers in the clean energy market. Black workers represented “about 8% of the clean energy labor force,” it found. Compared to white, Hispanic, and Asian Americans, Black workers were underrepresented across several sectors, including fossil fuels and clean vehicles.
The top states for Black or African American clean energy workers were South Carolina, Maryland, and New York. For women workers, South Dakota, Nevada, and North Carolina had the most opportunities in clean energy.
Exclusive, White, and Male
Gabrielle Jadotte insists that industry disparities are obvious. She worked at a solar company she describes as “very stereotypically white male-dominated,” with minimal connection to communities in need.
“It was a lot of referrals and a lot of, ‘Oh, I know this guy. I know this friend. I think you’d be great.’ Very word of mouth,” she remembers. “It is just so small and exclusive because it’s such a new industry, and it’s a barrier to get in, as the communities that we’re working in — low-income communities — maybe don’t have those connections at companies to get a job quickly.”
The Growth of Black Firms
Jadotte is now director of operations for WeSolar, a small Black-owned solar energy firm in Baltimore. The internal team “groups together different companies” — mostly subcontractors — to install solar energy in the city. It is looking to expand this year.
“There is so much pressure on profitability and scale, but what we are trying to push back against is that you don’t need to be operating on such a large scale to reach those margins. There is a benefit to just implementing these projects for these communities,” she adds.
