Riley Neugebauer
Riley Neugebauer is based in Colorado, where she has spent the last 6 years installing residential and commercial solar and managing projects for small companies. She attended a One-Year Certificate Program in PV Design and Installation Program at San Juan College in 2007 with a vision to create an all women’s solar company. Upon realizing how difficult it was to learn a trade when surrounded by men who all knew how to use tools already, as well as a lack of mentorship or good job opportunities at the time, she ultimately set aside the dream and ended up working in sustainability, food systems, and farming in the Northeast for about a decade before returning to solar in Colorado in 2019. The rapid growth in the solar industry meant that there were more job opportunities and a much greater need for workers.
She worked for a solar installation non-profit, and later as an electrical apprentice with a small contractor in rural Colorado for a year. She obtained her NABCEP PVIP certification in 2022, and then moved to Boulder to work for Namaste Solar as an installer and electrical apprentice, and then later as a residential electrician and co-crew lead. She spent a brief time at the Colorado Energy Office in the Solar for All Program, and then a few months as an apprentice with a commercial solar company. She is now an Installer Sales Specialist with Unirac.
Riley continues to work in solar with a vision and passion for training and connecting other women who also want to learn the solar trade, create women-led companies, and build a better culture for women in the trades and in the broader industry. That is why she first conceived of Solar for Women in 2022, which officially became a non-profit in 2025.
In her off-time, Riley likes to hike, read, salsa dance, and eat vegetables.
