Across the Southeast, young people are coming together to learn how they can take part in lessening the harmful effects of the climate crisis on our communities – and many are finding their role in the movement thanks to clean energy education and workforce training becoming ever more present around the region. 

From a new solar installation and workforce center in rural Georgia aiming to expand solar workforce options for the community’s next generation, to minority-serving universities in Tennessee and Texas utilizing $5 million from the US DOE to support clean energy education, it’s clear that colleges and other educational institutions are helping young folks envision the safer, healthier future we know is possible – and giving them the tools and experience to help us get there. 

Catawba College

One small college in Salisbury, North Carolina, is taking this idea and running with it. Founded in 1851, Catawba College recently became the first college in the Southeast (and the 13th in the U.S.) to reach total carbon neutrality, meaning they are offsetting 100% of emissions from fossil fuels burned on campus by producing their own renewable energy on campus, making energy efficiency upgrades to school buildings, and purchasing carbon offsetting credits that help incentivize private entities to reduce greenhouse emissions. 

Catawba’s commitment to sustainability was planted in the 1990s when they began installing a geothermal energy system to help decrease their fossil fuel usage. More recently, the college took advantage of the growing affordability of solar, completing one project in the summer of 2015, with more set to come. Now, eight buildings on campus incorporate some sort of solar element, from photovoltaic panels to solar thermal collectors, and are expected to save Catawba $5 million over the next 20 years.

Catawba reached carbon neutrality seven years ahead of its 2030 goal thanks to what Quinn Lockhart, clean energy intern for Catawba College’s Center for the Environment, calls a “perfect storm” of federal funding from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), gifts from donors, and a tight-knit community of students and faculty that support the college’s environmental focus. 

With a school population hovering around 1,200, most of Catawba’s students live on campus and are known to most faculty by name, an atmosphere that Bahy Abdelmesih, Assistant Professor of Environment and Sustainability, says lends itself to the name “Catawba Family.” Through his clean energy courses, Bahy gets to experience firsthand how Catawba’s efforts are impacting and guiding students considering clean energy as a career pathway. 

“​​I feel that responsibility, to expose more students to applications for clean energy,” says Bahy. “It’s part of the roadmap to becoming carbon neutral, and so I feel the commitment to teach them some of the ways to use sustainable technology and have a sustainable way of living, even.”

“What it Means to Experience Sustainability”

In an article from the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, John Morrison, director of North Carolina Clean Future within the College’s Center for the Environment, said, “We are resolving the question of what it means to be sustainable and to experience sustainability, not just what is learned theoretically about it in a classroom environment.” In Bahy’s Introduction to Green Technology class, students are granted – sometimes by surprise – opportunities to do just that.

In Bahy’s class, he teaches students snapshots of different renewable energies, including solar power, and students created a portable solar hand truck as an end-of-semester project, theoretically able to harness solar power anywhere the hand truck was pulled. Students learned how to cut the wires, size the system, and put it all together. 

The portable solar hand truck powering the Catawba Christmas tree. The hand truck system included a 100 amp hour battery connected to a 2000 watt inverter, a 40 amp charge controller, and a 400 watt panel. (Photo/Bahy Abdelmesih)

By coincidence, the hand truck project was finished at the same time the school was struggling to install its Christmas tree in a different spot than usual thanks to renovations – a spot lacking electrical outlets. When the school reached out to Bahy for ideas, he told them his students had just built the perfect solution. 

“When we created the solar hand truck in the lab, we didn’t know that it would be used within a couple of weeks in a really direct application,” says Bahy. “There was a real-life need for it. Students saw that this project helped to solve a problem on the spot.” 

Many of Bahy’s students had never seen a small-scale, portable solar system that can be pulled and deployed anywhere, but it wasn’t the first time the Catawba campus had experienced it. At a show for the Center for the Environment building’s reopening, Bahy and his students used a solar collector with a battery to power a student’s guitar amp for the event’s live music.

“He just plugged in his guitar and played for a couple hours for the people in front of the building,” says Bahy. “And it was more than enough power, going from a fully charged battery to maybe 90% charged.” 

Bahy says that teaching at a school so committed to carbon neutrality is inspiring and makes him hopeful for the future.

“You feel the commitment, and you also feel that you’re proud that you’re part of such an institution – that as faculty and students and administration, we are in sync, moving in the same direction.”

Inspiring Careers in Clean Energy

For some students, the direction wasn’t always so clear. Quinn Lockhart, a rising senior and a Sustainable Technology major at Appalachian State University, is the Catawba Center for the Environment’s first-ever clean energy intern. He says this internship has opened his eyes to the huge array of job opportunities in the growing clean energy field. 

“I’ve got one year of school left, and I was really starting to wonder, what am I going to do with this? Where am I going to go? Where do I look?” says Quinn. “Falling into this spot at Catawba has been incredibly helpful because they’re doing a really good job of showing me everything I could choose to do and teaching me how to do it. 

As clean energy intern, Quinn works with carbon accounting: measuring the greenhouse gas emissions the school is emitting, and then working with the school to make plans to cut back on emissions. He also gets to observe firsthand the whole process of how each clean energy component, from geothermal wells to different solar arrays, come together to produce the school’s energy and maintain its energy efficiency. 

Quinn says witnessing clean energy projects from the ground up has made the technologies make more sense, like how many solar panels it takes to generate power for a certain building. He says it can be confusing to believe if you’ve never seen it before, which can make it difficult to get people on board, from faculty and staff, to fellow students, to Duke Energy employees. 

“My biggest takeaway from Catawba is that you can’t just shove clean energy and solar panels in people’s faces and expect them to jump on board. You have to build a foundation and show them what that means,” he says. 

At Appalachian State University, a much bigger school than Catawba, Quinn’s class discussions often include how slowly clean energy projects usually move. He says experiencing the common direction of students and faculty at Catawba is rewarding and leaves him optimistic for other communities, including where he grew up in Salisbury. 

“It was, to be honest with you, something I was unaware that even existed, these small communities that can pick a noble goal like this and make it happen as quickly as Catawba has,” he says. “Obviously, things take time with bigger places. But for example, the city of Salisbury – I don’t see why in maybe five years, it’s not going to be functioning the same way Catawba is now.” 

Solar canopies over a parking lot at Catawba College, in construction (left) and in use (right). (Photo/Quinn Lockhart)

“Excellent Timing”: the Role of the Inflation Reduction Act at Catawba

Catawba’s commitment to carbon neutrality predates the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), but Morrison says the IRA enables the school to envision projects that go beyond carbon neutrality, like purchasing carbon offsets and makes becoming a zero carbon campus (i.e. no carbon emissions from activities on campus) more achievable. Since its passing in August 2022, the IRA has opened many eyes to the long list of carbon reduction efforts that are made even more accessible by its federal funding – and Catawba is no exception.

The timing of the IRA is excellent, says Morrison, because Catawba is currently developing a master plan that looks 10 to 20 years down the road. Thanks to opportunities made more achievable by the IRA, their master plan is now much longer, including making efficiency upgrades to all residence halls, building a new residence hall to Passive Building standards, continuing to install solar, electrifying their vehicle fleet and growing charging infrastructure, expanding their geothermal heating and cooling system, and even converting a former coal plant to a campus activity center built to Living Building standards. And the list goes on.  

Quinn says that even a couple months into his internship, it’s clear the IRA is playing a huge role. “We have a residential home where our provost will be moving in, and we’re using IRA funding to put solar on this house as a demonstration. We’re also getting a lot of money back from the IRA for energy upgrades to that home, which is really cool to see.”  

Bahy shares a similar sentiment. “Funding like this is what gives us the freedom to go and choose and really invest in the right components for teaching the students,” he says. “It gives the faculty the opportunity and the resources to excel and flourish and have new ideas for the students, who are very enthusiastic.”

Morrison says that the leverage of the IRA seems to have inspired the college’s donors, as well. Originally, Catawba’s short-term carbon reduction plan was to renovate one dorm and convert the former coal plant. Now, thanks to more donations, they’ve tacked on the funding for a new dorm and to upgrade the Chancellor’s house to be a showcase for sustainability. 

“The IRA has encouraged the entire Catawba community to think more boldly about becoming a carbon-free college,” he says. 

Sharing the Wealth

In addition to Catawba’s master carbon reduction plan, the clean energy projects in the works across campus, and the student projects helping to drive innovation, the college wants to share its journey and inspire others in surrounding communities to find ways to make clean energy work for them.

Nonprofit tax assistance clinic 

This fall, a professor at Catawba’s Ketner School of Business (KSOB) plans to include elective pay in the syllabus for the tax accounting course. If there is sufficient interest, KSOB plans to set up a student clinic to help small nonprofits navigate the process for claiming clean energy tax credits. The primary audience for the clinic will be faith communities where bookkeepers have very little experience dealing with the IRS.

Community Engagement 

Earlier this June, the Center for the Environment hosted a “Lunch & Learn” for local nonprofits to learn about IRA funding for clean energy projects. Thanks to the workshop, Catawba is now advising a local child development nonprofit about installing solar energy on their new building. Coupling existing donations with the elective pay tax credit and a loan from the National Clean Investment Fund, the nonprofit now can install a larger system than previously planned. 

What’s Next?

Catawba’s next big project involves installing ground-source heat pumps to provide renewable heating and cooling options for several on-campus buildings, including the library and chapel. The college hopes one day soon to eliminate all remaining carbon emissions by displacing all fossil fuels currently being burned on campus, including replacing all gas appliances and composting food waste. 

When Bahy’s next batch of students starts in the fall, they will build a much larger version of last year’s solar hand truck: an enclosed trailer containing six batteries with 30,000 watt hours of energy storage and rooftop solar panels. Pulled by truck, this trailer will be used as backup for emergencies or to power events on campus. 

As for Quinn, his post-graduate plans are still shrouded in mystery, but he knows he will end up in clean energy, a field he feels is rapidly expanding and a college major that sounded “cool and different.” 

“I’m super happy with my choice because all of these things are correct. It’s becoming a massive field, which I didn’t fully understand,” he says. “And with all the federal incentives, I really think it’s turning a corner.” 

Get Involved in the Clean Energy Generation

As the Clean Energy Generation, each one of us has the power to create change and secure the safer, healthier communities we all deserve. From adopting energy efficient habits in our own homes, to working in the clean energy field, to coming together to share resources with your community, there are endless ways you can play a role in the movement. And when we join together – in sync, moving in the same direction – our successes taste even sweeter.

We invite you to get involved in the Clean Energy Generation if you haven’t already, to find resources to share with your school or community, hear more clean energy success stories from members across the Southeast, and remember that you’re not alone in the fight against climate change.

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A Positive “Perfect Storm”: Catawba College’s Commitment to Clean Energy Career-Building