Chip Dicks, 2024 | For Career Achievement

Chip Dicks is a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates, served on the Courts and served on the Virginia Housing Commission as a House member. Since leaving the Legislature in 1990, he has represented associations and businesses on administrative, legislative and regulatory matters before state government agencies and the Virginia General Assembly. He has substantial experience representing developers on solar and a variety of land use applications across Virginia. Chip has extensive experience in the laws and regulations affecting outdoor advertising signs, and in the field of landlord tenant and fair housing laws.

Chip co-chairs the Gentry Locke Solar and Energy Storage Team and in that capacity, represents private companies and industry organizations legislative and regulatory policy initiatives in the Commonwealth of Virginia.  The Gentry Locke Solar and Energy Storage Team represents solar and energy storage developers in land use cases throughout Virginia.

Chip joined Gentry Locke in 2018 to practice with their Government & Regulatory Affairs group in Richmond.

Jeff Heie, 2024 | For Innovation

Nomination from Benjamin Redekop: Jeff Heie is the founding Director of GiveSolar. Jeff has a masters degree in conflict

transformation and restorative justice from Eastern Mennonite University. He lives with his family

in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

GiveSolar is a non-profit social impact organization that assists low income homeowners and

non-profit organizations in gaining access to solar energy through organizing community-based

mutual aid. Since its 2018 inception, national nonprofits, foundations, state government offices,

and advocacy groups have sought partnerships with GiveSolar, attracted to its visionary mission

of making solar accessible to underserved and low-income families in Virginia. Since completing a

number of community solar projects (please see the GiveSolar website for a list of completed

projects), GiveSolar partnered with Habitat for Humanity Virginia to establish a statewide solar

program available to Habitat families across the Commonwealth. Funding partners for this

program include the American Institute of Architects, Just Pax Fund, Clean Virginia, local Rotary

clubs, and several family foundations.

Starting in the Fall of 2023, GiveSolar expanded their impact to ten other States to assist the

statewide offices of Habitat in starting up solar programs. A fundraising goal of $1M was

established in January 2024 and was successfully achieved in August of 2024. This funding was

divided equally among the ten participating states.

GiveSolar has thus far raised over $2.5M to support the scale-up of solar deployment in Virginia

and now in nine other states. In Virginia, a solar lease model was developed to allow Habitat for

Humanity Virginia to recover a portion of the cost of the solar system from the homeowner as well

as the 30% elective pay cost recovery available from the IRS. The lease model allows funding

that has been raised to revolve and be re-used on future Habitat solar projects.

To date, over 50 solar systems have been installed on Habitat for Humanity homes in Virginia as

a result of this project. An additional 300+ homes have been pre-approved for solar installs in the

coming years. The project aims to scale operations to achieve 50 to 60 solar installs per year, the

approximate number of new Habitat for Humanity homes that GiveSolar estimates are appropriate

for solar in the state.

Finally, On Nov. 1, 2024, GiveSolar launched a national fundraising campaign in partnership with

25 state offices of Habitat that aims to raise $25M that, if successful, will be used to develop and

deploy 5-year solar programs that correlate with the 5-year duration of the federal Solar for All

program (a component of the Inflation Reduction Act). The ultimate goal of this project is to

normalize the routine installation of solar on Habitat for Humanity homes nationwide.

Eric Hurlocker, 2023 | For Career Achievement

The rise of renewable energy technology and investment has a champion in Eric Hurlocker, a founder of GreeneHurlocker. For the past twenty-three years, he has focused on advising clients in the areas of energy law as well as commercial transactions and general corporate work for energy and technology companies, manufacturers and services providers. Eric’s renewable energy development company clients, as well as companies looking to use renewable energy in their operations, have come to depend on his thorough knowledge of this growing energy sector.

Eric serves on the Board of Directors for the Maryland, DC and Virginia Solar Energy Industries Association, and also serves as General Counsel to the Association. He has been very active in regional solar policy initiatives, particularly in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Eric’s practice has taken him to negotiating tables, boardrooms and to appearances on behalf of clients before the Virginia State Corporation Commission and Regional Transmission Operators. Additionally, he has also worked with both mid-size and large manufacturing and technology companies in developing procurement and sales agreements, and negotiating sophisticated commercial transactions. Recently, Eric has been advising start-up and small consulting and service companies in financing, general corporate and commercial matters.

Ruth Amundsen, 2023 | For Innovation

Ruth Amundsen has been an indispensable asset in the renewable energy and environmental realm. She is responsible for more than $2 million of equitable solar installations in Virginia and has advised others across the nation on how to repeat her successes.

In 2018, Ruth led a group of parents to finance a $1 million solar array system for Norfolk Academy, the oldest school in America.

In 2019, Ruth founded the Norfolk Solar Qualified Opportunity Zone Fund, focusing on installing solar in low-income areas, while simultaneously offering job training to low-income residents. The fund was a first of its kind both nationally and locally. The fund installed the first and to date, only, residential solar projects in Virginia to qualify for low-income PPA’s.

The success of the fund led to her founding Norfolk Solar, LLC and Sunspots- to continue the work of utilizing private wealth to install solar in frontline communities in Virginia.

For many years, she has led the organizing of several Solar Home Tours in Hampton Roads, and for more than a decade led efforts to educate numerous communities on solar finance models.

Ruth is an active member of many environmental organizations including Sierra Club, CCAN, Elizabeth River Project, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Mothers Out Front, and has served on the boards of Solar United Neighbors, Solar Village Project, and on the advisory board for GiveSolar.

Richard Walker, 2022

Richard Walker is a mental health professional and Founder and CEO of Bridging the Gap in Virginia, a 501(c)3 non-profit whose mission is to empower ex-offenders, veterans, persons in substance abuse recovery, and those experiencing chronic homelessness. A strong advocate for environmental justice and renewable energy, Richard developed a green workforce development program that has already facilitated free clean energy career trainings to 52 vulnerable individuals and returning citizens, providing them a crucial path to overcoming barriers to change; as well as a Virginia Energy Workforce Consortium committee member for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Richard’s work across Virginia as an advocate for rights restoration and “Ban the Box” (Fair Chance hiring) ordinances has assisted over 10,000 individuals in getting their civil rights restored. Richard has served on the Stakeholders Group for Restoration of Rights for three governors and is a Federal Bureau of Prisons Certified Offender Workforce Development Specialist. He also serves as a Committee Member for multiple Regional Reentry Councils, facilitated “Overcoming Barriers” employment workshops for the City of Richmond’s Office of Community Wealth Building, and is a certified VADOC Statewide Volunteer for Cognitive and Reentry Community Units. He has advocated for Expungement, ending Solitary Confinement, fair access for public housing, and other legislation that has adversely affected all Virginians. For many years, Richard has been a strong community advocate and through his work, Richard continues to uplift vulnerable individuals and advance justice.

Debra Jacobson, 2021

Remarks from Jon Miles, VA-REA Board Member: Debra began her career on Capitol Hill as an intern to Rep. Bob Eckhardt, later advanced to become his legislative assistant, and ultimately served as one of his investigative counsels on the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Debra continued in this role after Rep. John Dingell assumed the Chairmanship of the Subcommittee in 1981, and in 1991 the U.S. News and World Report ran an article on Rep. Dingell that detailed the skills of his investigative team, citing Debra personally as "a lawyer who knows more about the EPA than most of its bosses." She was by then a force to be reckoned with. By the time that Debra and I met in the late 1990s, when I was just a young pup seeking to define an academic career in the energy space, she was already retiring from public service and embarking on her second act, one that would involve working with the U.S. Department of Energy on clean energy and other issues, driving local advocacy for clean air standards on behalf of her Northern Virginia community, and teaching energy law courses at George Washington University, among other activities. At around this time, Debra and I were introduced and formed a partnership with Alden Hathaway, Mitch King, and George Hagerman, and with assistance from Ken Jurman and DMME (now Virginia Energy), and support from DOE’s brand new Wind Powering America program, we initiated Virginia’s first formal wind deployment effort. Now, it did take more than a few years for wind power to launch in Virginia, but nonetheless Debra was very pleased and gratified in recent years to see progress made by Dominion, Apex, and others. If I may invoke a football analogy, like Tom Brady, Debra was always on top of her game, and one of the select few individuals who could squeeze two hall-of-fame careers into a single lifetime. Debra fought her illness in exactly the same manner that she fought for the Earth and the communities that she loved, with passion and vigor, with optimism, and with her irrepressible insistence on openness, advocacy, clarity, and dialogue. While her most important and valued roles were as wife, mother, sister, and grandmother, thankfully her reach extended far beyond her own family, to the many of us who admired and learned from her, and who were infected by her passion. Debra’s legal prowess was demonstrated even as far back as 1970, when she lobbied her principal successfully for her high school to recognize the very first Earth Day. Her path was defined then and there, and it never wavered. As her sister Sheri shared with me a few days ago, Debra was always one step ahead, and was steadfastly committed to the Earth that she loved. She understood the legal, political, and technical complexities of the Energy Transition as well as anyone, long before the term “Energy Transition” became part of our vernacular, and she applied her enormous talents and skills to help steer Virginia and our nation toward a cleaner energy future.

Ken Jurman, 2020

Ken Jurman is the Renewable Energy Program Manager for the Virginia Department of Energy.

Remarks from VA-REA Chair, Cliona Robb: I’ve worked with Ken for several years as Chair of the Virginia Solar Energy Development and Energy Storage Authority and I’ve never observed a harder working, more knowledgeable, or more humble advocate of renewable energy than Ken. He truly is an unsung hero among renewable energy advocates in Virginia and more than deserving of this recognition.

Ivy Main, 2019

Ivy Main is a lawyer and a longtime volunteer with the Sierra Club's Virginia chapter as the Renewable Energy Chairperson. She is a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency employee and is also the mastermind behind the Power for the People blog.

George Hagerman, 2018

George has been a driving force within Virginia who has consistently demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the responsible development of ocean based renewable energy within the Commonwealth. Though there are many people who have participated in the development of Dominion's proposed 12 MW two turbine offshore wind demonstration project (CVOW), George Hagerman is one of the few who have been involved with this project all the way from the idea stage to its current stage of implementation. George was instrumental in leading the process for establishment of the current Virginia Wind Energy Area (offshore wind lease area currently held by Dominion), the formation and successful awards of the current CVOW Project, the establishment of the Section 238 Virginia Department of Mines Minerals and Energy Research Lease Blocks adjacent to the Virginia Wind Energy Area, and the general prominence of Virginia in development of offshore wind. All of these accomplishments are largely attributable to George Hagerman’s vision, passion and loyalty to the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia. George has been and continues to be a common thread in all of the stitching that has led to the establishment of the milestones listed above. Key members of the Ocean Energy Task Force, Federal Agencies including the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, U.S. Coast Guard, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Navy, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and state agencies including the Virginia Department of Mines Minerals and Energy and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality will all attest to George’s commitment and dedication to offshore wind development, stewardship ethic, and collaborative approach toward attempts to responsibly move Virginia forward as we face energy production and environmental challenges in the future.

Jim Pierbon, 2017

Jim Pierbon would go on to co-found and serve as principal reporter at Southeast Energy News, a platform he used to educate policymakers, fellow industry experts, and the public about the challenges and opportunities of creating a clean energy system. He also maintained his personal blog Energy Fix, and published work for national outlets like The New York Times and The Huffington Post.