Ethan Blumenthal, CEO and co-founder of Charlotte-based nonprofit Good Solar, won the Individual Sustainable Energy Leader of the Year Award from the N.C. Sustainable Energy Association.
Blumenthal and Chief Operating Officer Miles Wobbleton founded the 501(c)(3) in 2018 to help nonprofits and low-income communities develop renewable energy resources.
“Good Solar provides matching funding for project development costs, breaking down barriers for those that need these installations the most,” NCSEA says in announcing the award yesterday. “Ethan has been instrumental in advocating for new programs in the state, including community solar to enable more North Carolinians access to the benefits of clean energy.”
Blumenthal held a year-long, postdoctoral scholar position working with UNC’s Center for Climate, Energy, Environment and Economics as he founded Good Solar with Wobbleton.
Good Solar also offers consulting, education and social-justice advocacy services. As a startup, it was a member of the 2020 cohort of the Joules Accelerator in Charlotte.
Blumenthal was one of five award winners announced yesterday by NSCEA. Another was the association’s former chief counsel, Peter Ledford, who was recently named Clean Energy Director for Gov. Roy Cooper. Ledford won the Lifetime Achievement Award.
“An overarching theme seen throughout the award winners this year was a focus and commitment to expanding the benefits of clean energy within the communities that need it most in North Carolina,” says Arlene Brown, manager of membership and engagement at the association. “As we usher in this next wave of clean energy investments, the organizations and individuals receiving awards this year will be at the forefront of ensuring the clean energy economy works for all North Carolinians.”
The other winners were:
- Laura Combs, Diversity & Inclusion in Sustainable Energy Award. Combs is business development director at Eagle Solar and Light and has worked to expand solar access to low- and moderate-income communities, along with communities of color. Her efforts led to a solar installation with the Lumbee Regional Development Association, the first state-recognized tribe in North Carolina to install solar.
- Jen Weiss, Women in Clean Energy Award. This is the first year that the association named a winner in this category. Weiss is senior adviser for climate change policy with the N.C. Department of Transportation. She is heading the agency’s efforts to help the state reach Cooper’s goal of 1.25 million electric vehicles on the road by 2030.
- Sunwealth, Sustainable Energy Business of the Year Award. Massachusetts-based Sunwealth has committed to making solar more affordable and accessible throughout North Carolina by offering solar leasing as an option. The company currently has 17 leases registered with the N.C. Utilities Commission to date, totaling 1.67 megawatts of solar. NCSEA cited specifically two projects — a leasing project with William Barber II’s nonprofit, Rebuilding Broken Places, and Sunwealth’s role in the lease for the Lumbee Regional Development Association solar project.
