Powering Solar Careers in Rural North Carolina

Mozine Lowe, Executive Director of Center for Energy Education, right, gives Hive Fund Co-Director Melanie Allen a tour of the center grounds. Photo by Cornell Watson.

Mozine Lowe thought she had moved home to rural northeastern North Carolina to retire after a long career in telecommunications. Instead, she’s leading a fight to make sure communities like hers aren’t left behind in the state’s transition to renewable energy. Roanoke Rapids sits on the banks of the Roanoke River, once an escape corridor for slaves seeking refuge in the area’s free Black community. Median household income here is just $35,000, compared with $56,000 for the state overall, and the poverty rate is double the national average. When solar farms started moving in, leasing vast tracts of farmland to supply power to the state’s utilities, many people saw an opportunity. But as with so much industrial development, that opportunity—jobs, community investment, economic growth—wasn’t materializing. When Mozine got tapped to build a new center to help the surrounding community learn about and benefit from this new technology, she jumped.

“There are limited workforce opportunities and there are limited opportunities for people of color to grow and to prosper and to be part of the economic growth in our counties,” she said. “It is very important as new projects come into our communities, that we find ways to engage the community with the many possibilities that are available to them,” whether that’s getting trained for solar jobs, or securing solar leases, which can bring in 10 times as much income as agricultural leases.

The Center for Energy Education now trains about 75 people in solar installation each year, including women and justice involved individuals; provides camps, teacher training and K-12 curriculum; advocates for more equitable development and clean energy policy at the local and state level; and develops innovative technology solutions to make renewable energy business opportunities more accessible to small landowners.

“I would like to see the day when everyone receives the same education, the job opportunities, the voice, and to be able to move forward in [renewable energy],” she said.