By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
As most of you know, I’ve long been a crusader for diversity. I helped host the first diversity conference in the hotel industry back in 1998. I took the golf course maintenance industry to task for its lack of diversity in an article headlined, “Why Is This Industry So White?” And I sat on the Minorities in Pest Management committee when I wasn’t writing about cockroaches and bed bugs in the pest management industry.
So diversity is kinda my thing, which is why I am thrilled with the Solar Energy Industries Association’s work on bringing diversity into the solar industry. Abigail Ross Hopper, Andrea Luecke and the teams at SEIA and The Solar Foundation (respectively) have already done more in this industry than any other industry I’ve been in had accomplished – and the beauty is, they’re just getting started.
Dusty Baker, erstwhile baseball player and successful manager, is also interested in diversifying solar, which is why he started Baker Energy Team to focus on the solar industry. Specifically, he joined it after attending several cleantech conferences and noticing there weren’t a lot of people that looked like him, according to a Bloomberg news article about the startup.
As Bloomberg chronicles,
He founded Baker Energy Team four years ago, between managerial stints with the Reds and Nationals. He wasn’t considering a second act in solar; he already had an upstart wine business. But he took up a longstanding offer to go pheasant hunting with an investment banker he had met in a Chicago hotel bar, which led him to clean-tech conferences in Newport Beach and Las Vegas. “There were no minorities, very few women,” Baker says. “This is an opening for me.”
So far, the business has done a couple of megawatts worth of projects, but Bloomberg reports has has more than 200 MW planned with one of his partners. He’s also looking to start mentorships with historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) for engineering students to try and get them into the solar industry, too.
This is, of course, a no-brainer. I don’t know if anyone at SEIA will read this, but Dusty Baker has to be your keynote speaker at next year’s SPI, doesn’t he? I mean, with your commitment to diversity and talk of expanding the reach of solar beyond its traditional boundaries, it makes perfect sense.
I don’t have his phone number, but it’s got to be in the public somewhere (heck, try him at Baker Energy Team). Get him on board to make the keynote speech, and show yet again that you are committed to making the solar industry the diverse industry we know it must become.
More:
Baseball Legend Dusty Baker Wants to Harness the Power of the Sun