The staff of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) owes a lasting debt to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who passed away on December 29, 2024.
“President Carter was a visionary and a man of science who realized the potential of solar power and renewable energy,” NREL Director Martin Keller said. “The Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI) began under his leadership, and his visit to SERI on a rainy Sun Day validated the importance of our research. His legacy lives on in our mission.”
NREL, originally known as SERI, was founded in 1977 during Carter’s administration, following the Solar Energy Research Development and Demonstration Act of 1974—an earlier effort to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
A pivotal moment in SERI’s history came on May 3, 1978, when Carter visited the lab on “Sun Day,” a day he had proclaimed to emphasize the importance of solar energy. Braving rain and gusting winds, Carter addressed the crowd at South Table Mountain, joking about the lab’s cloudy weather and highlighting solar energy’s potential.
“We must begin the long, slow job of winning back our economic independence. Nobody can embargo sunlight,” Carter remarked. “No cartel controls the sun. Its energy will not run out. It will not pollute the air or poison our waters. It’s free from stench and smog. The sun’s power needs only to be collected, stored, and used.”
Sylvia Motazedi, SERI laboratory director Paul Rappaport’s executive assistant, was in the front row for the event. Hired in June 1977, just before SERI’s official opening, she fondly remembered the day. “I’d never been face to face with a president,” she said, recalling how her husband shook Carter’s hand as he passed. “The president was very friendly and genuinely interested in what we were doing, including inspecting solar panels. I was in awe.”
Sylvia, who recently retired after 45 years at the laboratory, reflected on Carter’s critical role in securing SERI’s funding as a line item in the Congressional budget. “That action enabled me and so many others to have careers at SERI and later at NREL,” she noted.
Carter’s visionary commitment to renewable energy lives on. Fittingly, a copy of Clean Energy Innovators, chronicling these milestones, is housed in the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. It stands as a testament to his enduring impact on clean energy and innovation.
