In each issue of The TXSES Report, we’ll feature a member of our esteemed TXSES Board of Directors. In the August 10, 2023 issue, we introduce you to Dr. Ariane Beck, Chair of the TXSES Board.
The TXSES board of directors plays a critical role in our success, including setting our strategic direction, ensuring that we have the necessary resources to achieve our goals and that we are operating within legal and ethical guidelines. TXSES board members act as trustees of our assets and must exercise due diligence and oversight to ensure that TXSES is well-managed and that our financial status remains sound.
The TXSES Board consists of eight elected at-large members, one appointed member and a representative from each of our five regional chapters. Board members may remain on the board for one three-year extension if they elect to do so. You must be a current TXSES member to run for the TXSES board. To learn more about becoming a TXSES board member, click here.
Dr. Ariane Beck, research fellow in Energy Systems Transformation at the University of Texas at Austin, is the chair of the TXSES Board of Directors. She joined the board in 2021, then became vice-chair in 2022 before becoming chair in January 2023. Ariane studies how interactions between the underlying social, behavioral, economic and technological components of the energy system impact the diffusion of residential clean energy technologies and how information channels can accelerate the diffusion process. She received her Ph.D., MS, and BS in Electrical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin, with a research focus on optoelectronics and wide-bandgap semiconductors.
Having managed more than $25 million in U.S. Department of Energy EERE projects throughout her career, Ariane has spent nearly two decades studying novel and innovative technologies, first as a semiconductor device engineer, then through smart grid demonstration and research management and currently through a policy and innovation diffusion lens. She has more than 40 peer-reviewed papers and conference proceedings and formerly served as the Assistant Department Chair for the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at The University of Texas at Austin.
“Our goal is to be inclusive and expansive, making sure everyone has access to affordable solar.”
Ariane began working with TXSES in 2015 while she was a research fellow at UT’s LBJ School. “We worked with Larry Howe from the North Texas Renewable Energy Group on a gamification research project for solar education,” she said. “It was a really good collaboration and we were excited to find a group that could help us bridge the gap between research and practice.”
Ariane’s next connection with TXSES focused on understanding the barriers to community solar. “We invited TXSES to participate in our Community Solar Roadmap meeting,” she said. “The outcomes of that meeting were included in our report, Scaling Community Solar in Texas. Pete Parsons, TXSES’s executive director, was in attendance and reached out to discuss community solar and the work TXSES was doing. That was in February of 2020, and I’ve been working with TXSES ever since.”
Ariane found TXSES to be open to moving research into practice and how TXSES was expanding its scope beyond just educating homeowners about rooftop solar. “They were reaching out to builders and solar installers for community solar, developing resources for solar workforce training and expanding their educational mission to understanding how local, utility and state policies impact solar businesses and homeowners,” she said.
Ariane has seen first-hand that TXSES is a coalition of everyone whose lives are benefitting from solar. “We don’t just focus on the big players,” she said. “Our goal is to be inclusive and expansive, making sure everyone has access to affordable solar.”