Solar Installer:
Erika Weliczko
folio standard are expanding the market for
renewable energy and efficient technologies.
under the standards, Ohio utility companies
are expected to achieve a cumulative annual
energy savings in excess of 22 percent by 2025.
Renewable energy sources, including solar
and wind, will supply power for at least 12. 5
percent of electricity needs by 2025. Ohio’s
renewable energy standard is the third-most
aggressive in the united states and translates
into at least 6,000 megawatts (MW) of new
the growth of the solar industry in Ohio, wind and solar capacity — enough to power
1.8 million homes. A 0.5 percent solar requirement creates a market for up to 800 MW of
photovoltaic energy.
— Erika Weliczko, REpower Solutions After years as a solar installer, Weliczko
offers candid insights on
the level of knowledge and
sophistication her customers
have regarding solar.
DON BRIGHEN TI
“the advent of more
online sources confuses
more and more people,”
she says. “It takes careful
deciphering of information
to determine validity. In
general, the understanding
of energy is not really changing. People can find information on gizmos, but they still
won’t know why their energy
bills are so high or that coal is
burned for their electricity.”
Weliczko says her customers’ decisions for solar are
informed by concern for the
environment and a long-term
outlook that considers future
generations. she perceives
that consumer familiarity
erika Weliczko, founder and president of repower Solutions in Cleveland, teaches high
with renewable energy runs
school students to install a photovoltaic system.
ahead of the gradual increase
in actual implementation.
“Familiarity is up,” she
says. “We hear the terms ‘solar’ and ‘wind’
more; the vocabulary has grown. It’s a common
conversation. Popularity in terms of implemen-
tation is slowly and steadily growing.”
Even on a rainy Thursday, the future looks
bright in Ohio.
By PreSton Boone and
ChriStina PanoSKa
the field. In the office, Weliczko manages
projects, orders materials, schedules crews
and subcontractors, and sends proposals.
On field days, she travels long distances to
installation sites to direct on-site activities,
work with assistants and project collaborators, and meet with inspectors or planners.
ON A raINy afternoon in April, Erika
Weliczko showed
several students “There will be plenty of opportunities with
how to install a
375-watt Mitsubi-shi solar array on a
small trailer. youthBuild usA-Project Rebuild and those opportunities will require skills.”
serves at-risk Canton, Ohio, high school students, helping them to learn marketable skills
in construction trades.
“There will be plenty
of opportunities with the
growth of the solar industry
in Ohio, and those opportunities will require skills,”
Weliczko says. One of
60,000 workers employed
in Ohio’s advanced energy industries, Weliczko
earned her North American
Board of Certified Energy
Practitioners (NABCEP)
certification in 2004 and
is an alumna of the solar
Energy International training program. she’s also a
Residential Energy services
Network-certified Home
Energy Rater. A native
of Chicago, she earned a
degree in chemical engineering from Cleveland’s
Case Western Reserve university before entering the
renewable energy field.
“I considered solar for
my own home and found
that there were not enough professionals in Business growth has been boosted by state
my area, so I decided to fill that regional hole,” incentives adopted by Ohio. The state offers
Weliczko says. incentives for residential- and commercial-
And so, in 2004, her solar system installa- scale renewable energy systems and energy-
tion business, REpower solutions, was born. efficient projects through the Advanced Energy
since then, Weliczko’s business has Fund. to date, the Advanced Energy Program
grown to include residential, commercial has funded more than 200 renewable energy
and institutional solar installation, wind projects, most of them solar systems.
integration and home energy audits. she In addition, Ohio’s new Advanced Energy
now divides her time between the office and Portfolio standard and Energy Efficiency Port-
Preston Boone is energy outreach analyst and Christina Panoska is advanced energy development manager in the Ohio Energy Office. ST
