Dr. Elaine Ulrich, manager of the SunShot Initiative’s soft costs subprogram, received recognition at Intersolar North America from the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) for her contributions to the solar industry. IREC honored Dr. Ulrich as an Energy Hero with a 3iAward, which celebrates the nation’s best innovation, ingenuity, and inspiration in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Dr. Ulrich has championed many efforts to drive down soft costs, or the non-hardware costs relating to solar energy. Her visionary leadership has led to many successes and high-impact programs that are valued throughout the solar industry, including the Grid Engineering for Accelerated Renewable Energy Deployment (GEARED) program, which helps to develop training for future power systems engineers to advance our grid to accommodate more distributed energy, and the Solar in Your Community Challenge, which aims to expand solar electricity access to all Americans, especially underserved segments.

Learn more about Dr. Ulrich and see a list of other 3iAward winners.