From Blue to Green: Transforming Jobs Around the World
Chapter 4: Mill 19’s Clean Revolution
On that October day, the first day of the installation, the cranes slowly lowered panels onto the structure, while the men guided them into their secure locations.
Despite their nervousness, the day went smoothly, until the workers realized the enormous task still ahead of them. “We got it landed in there,” Sippey said. “The first six panels! We got on the building, and it looked like we put a postage stamp on a Cadillac, like we didn’t put anything on that roof at all."
Scalo Solar Solutions LLC hired Sippey’s crew members to place the largest array of solar panels in the United States across the 1,200-foot roof of Mill 19. Their work would ready the site for move-ins by Carnegie Mellon University’s robotics division and Catalyst Connections, an employment training organization — operations that would be powered entirely by solar.
Returning day after day, the crew became comfortable enough to work faster and achieve a pace of placing and securing 260 panels per day.
Background photo credit: Scalo Solar Solutions
What skills do bridge builders bring to a rooftop solar array installation? Quite a few, says Tim Sippey.
What skills do bridge builders bring to a rooftop solar array installation? Quite a few, says Tim Sippey.
As solar energy becomes more common for businesses, private homes, industries, and agriculture, these dozen men are part of a cadre of Americans working in “green jobs” — 250,000 employed by the solar-energy sector alone.
Pittsburgh is poised to be at the center of U.S. green-job creation in the future. It is home to tech start-up companies, nonprofit organizations, university research centers and political advocacy groups that are all working to create a long-term green economy.
Renewable energy in the United States accounts for 21% of all electricity production. Solar energy, in particular, constitutes 3% of U.S. energy supply, and the U.S. Department of Energy predicts that in the next 15 years, the share could hit 40%.
Sharon Pillar, director of the nongovernmental organization Pennsylvania Solar Center, says that Pittsburgh leaders have been working hard to find a way to create more stable, well-paying jobs that also keep the environment clean.
While Sippey’s father lived long enough to see his son erect several bridges around the Pittsburgh area, he died in 2012, well before the Mill 19 project was completed.
At the steel mill, with its smoke and fumes, there had been “a smell in the air, and it was always there," Sippey says. Workers were “breathing in asbestos in the mill.” Sippey believes it led to the mesothelioma, a cancerous lung condition, that killed his father.
In 2015, Pittsburgh’s then-Mayor William Peduto signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy to bolster the city’s clean-energy production. And the memory of his dad gave Sippey motivation to succeed at Mill 19, to contribute one key part to Pittsburgh’s conversion to a green economy.
Located in the western part of Pennsylvania, the city is well situated to become a regional source of solar energy, according to Pillar.
Today, the state ranks 11th among U.S. states for green jobs, a ranking that is likely to improve. The nonprofit E2 predicts that, by 2030, there will be 55,000 more clean energy jobs, including in the solar industry, throughout Pennsylvania.
(State Department)
(State Department)
“There’s no stopping the growth of solar," Pillar said. “There are tens of thousands of potential jobs."
Coming up next:
Chapter 5: A Family’s Legacy
Mill 19 becomes a shining example of Pittsburgh’s decades-long effort to clean up and a source of hope for a whole new generation of Sippeys. Read Chapter 5: A Family’s Legacy.
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