397 | Solar for Women with Riley Neugebauer
Bio: Riley Neugebauer is a licensed residential electrician and solar tradeswoman based in Colorado. She works as a technical trainer with Unirac, a solar racking manufacturer, and founded a non-profit, Solar for Women, to help create community, training opportunities, and advocacy for solar tradeswomen across the U.S.
This episode is sponsored by the coaching company of the host, Paul Zelizer. Consider a Strategy Session if you can use support growing your impact business.
Resources mentioned in this episode include:
Transcript of From Solar for Women with Riley Neugebauer
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Key Takeaways in From Solar for Women with Riley Neugebauer
The Power of Community for Women in Solar Trades:
A sense of community is crucial for women working in the solar trades, providing emotional support, solidarity, and technical help in an industry where women are still a significant minority.
"I didn't have people to reach out to and sort of vent to or seek support from in general, who knew what I was experiencing... that spurred me to create a Facebook group online that was just for solar tradeswomen, which still exists and was kind of like the catalyst for what is now the nonprofit." 08:07
Building an Inclusive Pathway Through Training and Representation:
The transition from a small Facebook group to a national nonprofit reflects the importance of creating training opportunities, mentorship, and greater visibility for women in the solar industry so that more can see this as a viable and welcoming career path.
"I think early on I also realized that we just needed more opportunities that could be provided by a training both in person and virtually that were for and by women. So having female instructors and having women focused classes... I feel pretty strongly about that." 16:05
The Trades as a Viable, Impactful, and Accessible Career for Women:
Solar trades offer women a pathway to well-paying, impactful, and AI-resilient work, with opportunities for advancement into fields like project management, technical training, or entrepreneurship—often without the burden of student debt.
"If you get a skill and you're good at it and you're willing to work hard and show up on time and work some crazy hours and all that stuff that it takes at the beginning, you can succeed and you might have to suffer for a couple years, but there's not a lot of options out there like that... a lot of going to college is a pretty big gamble these days as to what it's going to do for you. And the trades is not that much of a gamble." 36:36