Southern Tier Solar Works

Energy Corps Interns of the Binghamton Regional Sustainability Coalition (BRSC) will promote the use of solar energy in our community, while providing college students from Binghamton University and SUNY Broome with the knowledge and opportunities to enter the growing solar energy industry.

This internship offers students opportunities for applied scholarship and community engagement in the fields of energy efficiency and renewable energy, community outreach, program management, and sustainability. Energy Corps interns will add clean energy leadership to our region’s attractions to draw and retain forward thinking businesses and residents, particularly young people.

This summer the Energy Corps will give presentations to employers, community organizations, government and civic organizations about the benefits of energy efficiency and solar power. In the future they will work with teachers in area schools to make energy literacy from K to grey part of the curriculum, thereby enhancing workforce development and lifelong learning.

Energy Corps support for Southern Tier Solar Works’s community education, outreach and client services will give us greater capacity to  rapidly expand solar deployment for municipalities, businesses, non-profits, schools as well as the construction of utility-scale solar power stations.

STSW is an initiative of the Binghamton Regional Sustainability Coalition in partnership with the Susquehanna Group of the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and CatskillMountainkeeper. Our goals are to create good local jobs, boost the regional economy by putting energy dollars back in the hands of residents and businesses, demonstrate our shared commitment to the natural environment, make our region a NY State solar leader and replace non-renewable energy; thereby bringing the health and environmental benefits these entail.

Intern training will take place during the first week of June. For the remaining nine weeks, our summer interns will give presentations, follow up with interested residents, businesses, and school district representatives, and develop outreach and marketing tools and materials. In addition, they will be planning for our fall semester, when the solar schools program will bring them into area classrooms.

Clean energy development will help create good local jobs and boost the regional economy, which has been depressed since the 1990's. Renewable energy will boost resilience, and through rapid deployment, speed the transition to renewable energy, and complement the growth of the green economy in local food, transit, waste reduction, and green building.