Augusta Free Press summarized the unveiling of Powhatan Elementary School’s new solar energy facilities, featuring comments from Virginia AEE's Harry Godfrey. Read snippets below and the full article here.

Virginia Advanced Energy Economy hosted lawmakers Tuesday for the unveiling of Powhatan Elementary School’s recently completed solar energy rooftop array.

The project illustrates the impact of Virginia’s Clean Economy Act and growing advanced energy employment across the Commonwealth, expected to increase by 8 percent according to AEE’s latest jobs fact sheet. The solar arrays at Powhatan County Public Schools were developed through a partnership between BrightSuite and Sun Tribe.

More than 93,000 Virginians work in advanced energy across the Commonwealth – more than all of the folks employed in business and management consulting. We expect this figure to grow by 8 percent this year alone as we recover from the pandemic and continue to implement the Virginia Clean Economy Act,” said Harry Godfrey, executive director of Virginia Advanced Energy Economy. “Thanks to the VCEA, we will see more projects like this one that create good-paying careers and annual savings for customers and taxpayers.”

The 511 kilowatt (kW) Powhatan Middle School array and Powhatan Elementary School 450 kilowatt (kW) array both emphasize the larger impact of good-paying solar jobs for the Commonwealth. Completed in the Spring of 2020, the projects helped sustain local solar jobs amidst the COVID-19 crisis.

Read the full article here.