How I Made It: She leads the solar industry’s expansion push in California
The gig: Bernadette Del Chiaro, 43, is executive director of the California Solar Energy Industries Assn., the industry group pushing expansion of solar power in California on rooftops and with power plants in the desert. The native of Sonoma Valley has held the post since July 2013.
Yosemite’s beauty: In eighth grade, Del Chiaro visited Yosemite National Park in California’s Sierra Nevada and marveled at its beauty. “I literally had a crush on that place,” she said. “I fell in love with the Sierra Nevada.” She pondered the musings of Scottish American naturalist John Muir and the idea that “our air and our water and our earth is a common good that we all share. If we’re not careful we will hurt ourselves and all of the other little creatures.”
Beyond tree-hugging: Del Chiaro bristles at the notion that she’s just a tree hugger. She has seen herself as a political activist, working to organize people to push for sensible environmental policy. In the 1980s and 1990s, “I didn’t find much camaraderie in a lot of the other environmental activists at the time. A lot of them were angry white men. I didn’t see role models in that.”
Desert wandering: Del Chiaro’s adventure of working on environmental issues began in the Mojave Desert. Just out of UC Berkeley, she lived in a tiny house provided by the Mojave tribe as she took on a yearlong unpaid assignment fighting a proposed nuclear waste dump in the community. “They were literally going to build dirt trenches a couple of miles from the Colorado River. The major problem was they picked the very poor community of Needles.” The dump plan was abandoned after years of litigation and opposition from the community, environmentalists and politicians.
Cleaning up coal: Del Chiaro next traveled to New England to work for Green Corps, which trained environmental organizers, and Toxics Action Center, which targeted coal-fired power plants. “They had to be retrofitted to burn natural gas and not burn coal anymore,” she said. “It’s just one step in the process of moving toward clean energy.”
“Smart” solution: Del Chiaro spent most of her career running the energy program for Environment California as it wrestled with the question of how to address the problems associated with energy. She began working at the Los Angeles-based environmental advocacy group in 2002 and continued for a decade. “The smart and untapped energy solution to our problems was solar,” she said. “I really focused my work at Environment California on rooftop solar.” She led the 1 million solar rooftops initiative, legislation to create incentives for solar power development and a program that pushed for wider use of solar hot water heaters.
Multiplying: Since the California Solar Energy Industries Assn. began in 1977, the organization has tripled in size. That includes its membership, which went from 100 to 300 after Del Chiaro arrived in July 2013, and its budget, which rose from about $300,000 to recently topping $1 million. She believes that growth is important in meeting the goals of generating more electricity from clean energy. “We really do need all solutions and all hands on deck. The solar industry’s greatest resource is not the sun. It’s people.”
What’s next: One of the critical issues for Del Chiaro’s organization is the pending decision by the California Public Utilities Commission on what fees rooftop solar owners might have to pay in the future to remain connected to the grid. In addition, action by Congress on the 30% federal tax credit, which expires at the end of 2016, could affect rooftop solar installations in California and nationwide. “It all relies on policymakers, the Brown administration and Congress,” Del Chiaro said.
Personal: Del Chiaro lives in Sacramento with her husband of nine years, Steve Blackledge, public health program director for consumer advocacy group U.S. PIRG. They have two children, Oliver, 7, and Willa, 4. They drive an electric car, which the children embrace. “They think tailpipes are abhorrent and dirty and stinky,” Del Chiaro said of her children. “They’re growing up in a world where this is the norm.”
Twitter: @ivanlpenn
