Solar Strategies: Stakeholder perspectives on a Chicago solar training program's intersectional energy justice work

This paper explores energy justice and the "just transition" in the context of environmental policy, utilizing stakeholder perspectives to examine how solar training programs serve as a nexus for intersectional energy justice work in Chicago. Although researchers have explored the use of solar training programs in coal communities and other fossil fuel communities, the literature lacks sufficient understanding of how these programs play important roles in other settings. Administrators and participants of a nonprofit solar training program in Chicago were interviewed to understand their perspective on the role of these programs in their communities. These interviews reveal the way that solar training programs can improve green job access in non-rural communities and emphasize how the sudden growth of the renewables sector has created an opportunity to reimagine the energy industry.