Solar Power World May 2022

May 2022

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Technology • Development • Installation T

THE

BUILDING

OIS&S M UE

SOLAR PROJECTS THAT LAST

DEVELOPING A VETERAN SOLAR WORKFORCE THE SOLAR MODULE SUPPLY CHAIN’S ROAD AHEAD PAIRING BIFACIAL PANELS WITH TRACKERS

THE FIRST WORD

The thin line between ambition and delusion Reporting on the U.S. solar module manufacturing market often leads to an internal tug of war — can I be cautiously hopeful that manufacturing capacity will increase, or should I call out new company names making unrealistic promises?

It’s the same story I’ve been covering the last 10 years — very few solar modules are made in the United States even though the U.S. solar market is consistently in the Top 3 in the world. The demand is obviously here, but a decade of back-and-forth tariffs with China has pushed manufacturing overseas, predominantly to Southeast Asia. Now, a 2022 tariff circumvention investigation combined with global supply issues, lingering COVID-19 restrictions and a war in Ukraine has further hindered the United States from establishing a booming domestic manufacturing industry.

But companies continue to claim they’re investing in U.S. manufacturing.

Some announcements are more realistic than others, like Maxeon saying it wants to open a 3-GW cell and module plant in America but waiting on favorable legislation with manufacturing tax credits. Other claims, like Jordanian installation company Philadelphia Solar, which says it’s shopping a 1-GW plant stateside, are met with raised eyebrows and questionable looks.

But even the sure bets are hitting speed bumps.

Heterojunction technology manufacturing giant Meyer Burger bought a building and started hiring in Goodyear, Arizona, for a 400-MW solar panel assembly facility. But then the company announced that it was going to instead increase its manufacturing capacity in Germany because supply chain interruptions and global unrest are making new expansion plans unattainable right Editor in Chief now. So, the Arizona plant and the small increase kpickerel@wtwhmedia.com in domestic manufacturing capacity are now @SolarKellyP stalled. @SolarPowerWorld If a German company that actually knows how to make panels can’t get set up in the United States, where are we supposed to put our faith?

In Congress passing pro-domestic-manufacturing legislation? We’ll see.

It’s going to be a busy summer as we wait on government decisions that will affect the U.S. solar industry for years to come. I’m going to continue to be optimistic that many companies’ ambitious plans to boost domestic solar manufacturing will eventually pan out. Or else we might all be delusional. SPW

Kelly Pickerel

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CONTENTS

14 ON THE COVER Recruiting enough workers to complete multi-megawatt projects in remote areas isn’t easy, but one contractor has found success by incorporating new worker training at the start of each job.

Photo courtesy of McCarthy Building Cos.

2 FIRST WORD

8 NEWS BRIEFS

6

50 CONTRACTOR’S CORNER 52 AD INDEX

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M AY 2 0 2 2 • V O L 1 2 N O 3 w w w. s o l a r p o w e r w o r l d o n l i n e . c o m

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BUSINESS

TECHNOLOGY

10 SOLAR STEWARDSHIP

26 INVERTERS

POLICY

30 PANELS

Solar project owners save money and cut carbon using regenerative agricultural practices

14 INTERCONNECTION POLICY

Robust renewable energy goals will be out of reach until the U.S. electric grid is transformed

INSTALLATION 22 CASE STUDY

One contractor trains local veterans to complete utility-scale solar project in Texas

Above-ground wire management options evolve to fit the latest module and racking advancements Solar module supply uncertainty continues as the Dept. of Commerce advances investigation

34 MOUNTING

Bifacial panels can add energy gains to tracking projects under the right conditions

38 STORAGE

Long-duration energy storage can help utilities integrate more renewables onto the grid

SPECIAL SECTION: O&M

Prioritizing O&M from a project’s design stage to years after deployment will ensure the long lifespan of a solar array. | PAGE 42

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NEWS BRIEFS

SOLAR POLICY SNAPSHOTS A guide to recent legislation and research throughout the country.

Washington state is working to make community solar more accessible to low-income populations with new grant funding.

Gov. Inslee signs bill to fund $100 million of community solar in Washington

DeSantis vetoes Florida bill that jeopardized solar net-metering

Olympia, Washington

Tallahassee, Florida

Gov. Jay Inslee signed into law a bill creating a new low-income community solar program in Washington state starting in 2023. The state will provide grants to cover up to 100% of the costs of community solar projects serving qualifying low-income subscribers to help close the equity gap.

On April 27, Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed House Bill 741, which would have phased down net metering in Florida and allowed utilities to charge potentially unlimited fees on solar customers. Solar advocates pushed back against the bill from the start, organizing protests at the state capitol and other efforts.

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NEWS BRIEFS

Virginia governor signs solar property tax exemption into law

California Public Utilities Commission reopens NEM 3.0 proceedings

Massachusetts bill would increase solar project netmetering cap

Richmond, Virginia

Sacramento, California

Boston, Massachusetts

Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a new law that creates a property tax exemption for residential and mixed-use solar projects up to 25 kW in Virginia. The solar industry said this law will increase home values and encourage more people to go solar.

The CPUC announced on May 9 it is “reopening the record” on its Net Energy Metering (NEM) 3.0 proceeding in order to gather information on specific elements of the decision. The governing body is now accepting public comments and could make a final decision by late summer at the earliest.

Massachusetts senators introduced a climate roadmap bill that includes an increase in the state’s solar project net-metering cap from 10 to 25 kW. The bill also requires the state’s Department of Energy Resources to consider the full scope of value that solar brings to the grid when designing a new compensation structure.

California bill would boost low-income community solar + storage projects

Solar manufacturers urge Congress to pass tax incentives to boost U.S. industry

FERC unveils proposed changes to regional transmission planning

Sacramento, California

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

California’s State Assembly Committee on Utilities and Energy passed a bill that would establish a new state program to expand access to renewables. The bill would require at least 51% of the power generated by each community solar + storage project in the program to benefit low-income customers or service organizations.

Over 100 manufacturers across the solar supply chain sent a letter to President Joe Biden and other leaders asking for longterm clean energy tax incentives in federal budget reconciliation legislation. The group says incentives would help grow existing production and lead to investments in domestic manufacturing.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission released its proposed rulemaking to improve transmission planning and make the country’s energy infrastructure more resilient and reliable. SEIA applauded the initial proposal, saying it’s the next step toward bringing more renewable energy projects online.

DOE to develop platform to connect low-income households with community solar projects

North Carolina’s utility + solar industry net-metering compromise now up for debate

Maryland sets goal of net-zero economy-wide emissions by 2045

Washington, D.C.

Raleigh, North Carolina

Annapolis, Maryland

The Biden Administration recently announced a new multi-agency partnership to pilot a digital platform connecting low-income households with community solar developers. The new initiative aims to reduce the cost of customer acquisition and give more people a chance to save with clean energy.

A 2021 agreement among solar advocacy groups and Duke Energy on a new netmetering program is back on the negotiating table after a group of solar installers wrote an objection to state regulators, according to WFAE. North Carolina’s attorney general called for postponing the plan until regulators can conduct further analysis.

Maryland’s legislature passed the Climate Solutions Now Act, which sets an early goal of reducing greenhouse gases by 60% by 2031 and includes provisions to make it easier for schools to go solar. The bill officially became law when the governor declined to take action on it.

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MAY 2022

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B I L LY L U D T | A S S O C I AT E E D I T O R

Transforming solar sites from liabilities to assets Regenerative land management makes environmental and economic sense

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a proverb that says the best time to plant a tree was a decade ago, and the secondbest time to plant a tree is now.

One solar developer is applying that sentiment to the land where its solar projects are installed and demonstrating the power of propagating and maintaining productive green ground cover.

Silicon Ranch founded a branch of its company dedicated to regenerative land management practices nearly four years ago and has found that a forward-looking, natural approach to solar project planning is proving fruitful in the long-term.

The purpose of “Regenerative Energy,” Silicon Ranch’s landmanagement subsidiary, was to develop a holistic approach for preparing and maintaining land through practices like sowing native seed crop, biomimicry and maintaining topsoil often lost in site grading.

“For seven years, we were landowners and the land we were responsible for was not top of mind,” said Nick de Vries, senior VP of technology and asset management at Silicon Ranch. “It’s not the first thing you think about.

You think of module degradation, you think of inverter [preventative maintenance], you think of these other things. Then bit by bit, you realize there’s land here too and we weren’t operationally excellent at managing it.”

At the utility-scale level, solar projects can cover hundreds of acres at a time. In regions with natural ground cover instead of gravel, that means there’s an obligation to maintain the land, especially for solar developers that lease or own the properties for the long-term.

“I had seen the solar industry managing their land as a liability, but I look at land and vegetation as an asset,” said Michael Baute, director of Regenerative Energy and land management for Silicon Ranch.

“We have a technical asset housed

within the biological asset and the industry was simply looking at that land — at that biological asset — as a liability that came with operational expenses.”

Still, reframing land management as an asset isn’t without its challenges. When developers enter new markets with unfamiliar environments, they must learn the new considerations for native plant life, soil quality and precipitation levels.

The first rule of construction to create a regenerative solar site is to disturb as little topsoil as possible.

De Vries said the conventional practice for site preparation includes grading the land with heavy machinery to make the topography flat to accommodate the solar structure. However, the first few feet of soil underfoot are necessary for preventing wind and water erosion and maintaining healthy native plant growth on the land.

“We can see the sites that we have the heaviest hand on moving, they’re the most unruly

BUSINESS

There’s

Adobe Stock

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BUSINESS

and operationally the most challenging,” de Vries said. “So, this isn’t just a ‘hippie feel-good’ thing.”

Topsoil is a nutrient-rich layer of earth capable of sustaining plant growth.

Rooted vegetation stabilizes topsoil, which, when exposed to wind and precipitation, is at risk of eroding. At a solar project level, disturbing topsoil can lead to muddy worksites and stability

issues with the structural supports of the array. At an ecological level, the erosion can lead to runoff that can enter nearby waterways and impact the biological makeup of those bodies of water.

“On a cable, you have copper, aluminum and a dielectric jacket around it to make sure that those hazardous energies aren’t able to get out and electrocute someone,” de Vries said.

On a cable, you have copper, aluminum and a dielectric jacket around it to make sure that those hazardous energies aren’t able to get out and electrocute someone.

Soil needs that same protective layer.

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“Soil needs that same protective layer.”

Maintaining healthy plant life underneath an array also helps with carbon sequestration. During photosynthesis, plants absorb carbon, and when they decompose, that carbon that would have been released into the atmosphere is stored in the soil. Combining native plants with PV modules means the array and the ground below can both cut carbon.

Studies suggest that new topsoil regenerates naturally over hundreds of years. It’s common in solar development to inherit project sites that served former purposes, like farming. That means, in terms of soil quality, developers are often “starting with a negative bank account,” Baute said.

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BUSINESS

To address degraded soils and topsoil regeneration, Regenerative Energy gathers a seed mix of grasses native to that respective region and re-seeds the site. Given the length of the solar development process, seeds are ideally sown at least one year ahead of construction, according to Baute. Newly rooted plants will reintroduce stability to that soil.

Regenerative site practices consider operations and maintenance as well, using livestock instead of lawnmowers for landscaping.

“A lot of holistic management is biomimicry, where we’re mimicking the way natural ecosystems coevolved over millions of years,” Baute said. “When we’re bringing sheep out on our land, frankly it sounds a little esoteric, but we are

mimicking the way bison, wolves and grasslands co-evolved for millions of years.”

Sowing the appropriate plants on-site yields numerous benefits for foraging sheep. The sheep will then fertilize the land and encourage further plant growth, which will create a more stable soil base and habitats for native species of animals and insects. If the sheep are eating a healthy diet, they’re more likely to breed, expanding the herd on that land. And all of the above means less reliance on landscaping equipment and reduced spending on fuel, labor and equipment maintenance.

“We’re building pastures, we’re using animal impact to improve the ecological health of our farms and ranches. We are not looking for just

short-term gains. We’re looking at the long-term,” Baute said.

Regenerative site practices aren’t just for site preparation.

Regenerative Energy is revisiting Silicon Ranch solar projects that were installed conventionally to make them regenerative as well. These strategies can be applied at every step of the development, installation and operations process, giving project owners both environmental and cost benefits along the way.

“For the owner, it’s the only longterm strategy to take care of your land that works,” de Vries said. “The conventional method will leave it exposed, put you at risk and its costs will only go up over time. So, in each stage, this is the better way.” SPW

REVOLUTIONIZING

VEGETATION MANAGEMENT www.solarpowerworldonline.com

MARCH 2022

WW W . R E N U B O T. C O SOLAR POWER WORLD 1 3M

KELSEY MISBRENER | MANAGING EDITOR

SOLAR DEVELOPERS ARE READY TO MEET U.S. CLEAN ENERGY GOALS. THE GRID ISN’T. 14

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POLICY Ado

THE

Biden Administration has big plans for decarbonizing the U.S. electric grid.

Developers stand ready to deploy the massive amounts of solar needed to help reach the goal of 100% carbonfree electricity by 2035, but one major issue is blocking their way — the archaic electrical grid isn't equipped for a huge influx of distributed resources.

"Quarter after quarter, our industry continues to break records with respect to diversifying our fuel supply and allowing our country to be energyindependent through renewables, but, unfortunately, the regulatory process and framework has not caught up," said Gizelle Wray, senior director of regulatory affairs and counsel at SEIA. The electrical grid has historically been planned to accommodate large, centrally located fossil fuel plants.

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That energy is then delivered across transmission lines and stepped down in voltage at substations, then fed through distribution lines that deliver power into homes. Unlike traditional power plants, solar projects are smaller and more numerous and, when paired with storage, capable of both exporting and intaking power as needed. The bidirectional, distributed nature of solar power requires a fundamental shift in the grid's design.

"A lot of people don't realize how complicated it is, the electrical engineering that goes into the grid and the considerations that they have to take into account in order to tie these things all in," said Ken Bean, project development consultant at Inovateus Solar. "Frankly, people that think we're going to be 100% solar in 20 years are dreaming."

be

Sto

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A 'saturated' grid Renewables including solar, wind and other sources provided 81.07% of new domestic electrical generating capacity in 2021, according to the Sun Day Campaign.

That came out to about 2,400 MW of new generating capacity each month of the year.

But behind the scenes are exorbitant costs solar developers must incur to connect their projects to the grid.

Rhode Island-based Green Development doesn't install arrays larger than 40 MW, which is where, in its past experience, projects crossed over into transmission territory and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) jurisdiction. Even though the company’s projects are all technically small enough to interconnect to the distribution grid, they are now often required to complete studies to see how they might also impact the transmission grid.

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POLICY

"We are being forced through these transmission studies for our little projects, for our little local projects that benefit local nonprofits and cities and towns and universities," said Hannah Morini, director of business development for Green Development.

The utilities say the regional transmission studies are needed since the local grid is experiencing a "congestion saturation of renewables," so they must be prepared to export the power out of the area if needed, according to Morini.

"Even though our states are requiring us to have very aggressive renewable energy portfolios to get away from our dependence on fossil fuels, it's too much renewable energy for our local infrastructure to handle," she said.

Transmission studies add cost and time to the interconnection application process. While the normal timeline for a distribution grid impact study is about 90 days, a transmission study can take 18 months or more.

These transmission studies aren't just for projects close to that 40-MW mark anymore, either. If Green Development is working on a 1-MW project, but there are other 1-MW projects seeking interconnection at the same point on the grid, the utility will treat the group as one project and trigger a transmission study.

"What's happening now is there's so much distributed generation on the distribution system that it's backfeeding onto the transmission system and requiring the need for larger capacity transmission lines [and] new substations," said Mike Judge, VP of strategic initiatives at the Coalition for Community Solar Access (CCSA).

FERC has recognized this comprehensive issue and announced an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, inviting the public to comment on potential changes to improve transmission planning and cost allocation as the nation transitions to a cleaner energy future.

Even though our states are requiring us to have very aggressive renewable energy portfolios to get away from our dependence on fossil fuels, it's too much renewable energy for our local infrastructure to handle.

Green Development's 38-MW Iron Mine Solar project in North Smithfield, Rhode Island, that requires expensive annual substation maintenance fees.

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POLICY

Megger presents …

Solutions for the solar technician!

Megger rolled out a solar testing toolkit to improve standards for PV system quality control checks at the point of commissioning and during routine operations and maintenance.

The toolkit is comprised of the following four instruments: n

n

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Our insulation resistance tester, the MIT2500, is the perfect tool to ensure and validate system safety, preventing damaged wires from causing ground faults, electrical shock, and fire hazards. The MIT2500 includes a unique guard terminal that helps avoid inaccurate diagnostic results from surface leakage currents.

Our digital clamp meter, the DCM1500S, gives solar technicians the flexibility to measure and record voltages up to 2000 V DC true RMS up to 1500 V AC and amperages up to 1500 A on the AC and DC sides of the system.

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For more information on these and other products for solar applications, go to us.megger.com/renewables. While you’re there, download the Product Overview for the solar test kit.

“As the generation fleet shifts at an unprecedented rate from resources located closer to population centers toward resources located far from load centers, we must evaluate whether our transmission planning and cost allocation and generator interconnection processes require a more innovative and anticipatory approach,” said FERC Chairman Rich Glick in a press release. “A piecemeal approach to expanding the transmission system is not going to get the job done. We must take steps today to build the transmission that tomorrow’s new generation resources will require.”

These issues...are complex and they're interconnected and they cannot be unwound from each other.

In FERC discussions, SEIA is pushing for transparency and efficiency measures in the transmission planning process with a cost-sharing solution for upgrades. To complement these efforts, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) has introduced the “Connecting Hard-to-reach Areas with Renewably Generated Energy” Act, which aims to implement reforms through FERC with the goal of proactively planning and building a reliable and resilient energy grid that can send renewable, clean power across broad regions of the country.

Still, FERC is only one piece of the reform puzzle. Once projects are approved to interconnect by FERC, they still must then go through the appropriate state regulators.

"States and FERC and the federal government are going to need to continue to come to the table and discuss these issues, because they are complex and they're interconnected and they cannot be unwound from each other," Wray said.

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POLICY

CCSA believes the best path forward is for regulators and utilities to incorporate solar, storage, electric vehicles and other new technologies into the utility planning process, in the same way FERC is reassessing its grid planning.

"It is a daunting task. Fifty states need to change the way that they go about planning the system, and you need to get all the utilities that are operating in those states to get on board with that too," CCSA's Judge said.

Although the solar industry has a vested interest in this reform in order to develop more projects, he said it's much bigger than that. These changes are required to accomplish federal and state decarbonization goals.

"The regulatory compact that governs utilities has historically been focused on safety, reliability and affordability. I really think that it also needs to now include a fourth pillar, which is decarbonization," he said.

Who pays for upgrades?

The studies and engineering alone for a typical distribution project can cost between $75,000 and $100,000, according to Green Development. After the study is complete, the utility will

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Green Development

return with an estimated price — plus or minus 25% — to interconnect the project.

Those costs often include building a new substation or feeder if the existing infrastructure isn't capable of handling that power. Solar companies are generally agreeable to these requests.

"I think that's fine if we are truly the ones responsible for necessitating the upgrades," Morini said.

Sometimes there are astronomical additions to the developer's costs, added

long after the developer would've had a chance to include them in the offtaker's PPA — or decide to cancel the project.

Green Development recently built a 38-MW project that required a new substation, but after solar construction had commenced, the utility notified the contractor that it would be responsible for $500,000 in annual facilities and maintenance fees for the substation — in perpetuity.

"We built a substation for this project, paid for it, turned it over to the utility and now they're requiring us to pay for the maintenance of it as well. It's really tough," Morini said. "It makes thin margins even thinner."

Again, Green Development doesn't have a problem paying for appropriate upgrades when they're necessary to bring more solar onto the grid. But Morini said the company does take issue for addons like lifetime O&M fees that ruin the economics of projects.

"I'm not saying the project shouldn't pay for anything. The problem is that other things get tacked on to those upgrades. We're constantly asked to

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POLICY

pay for more infrastructure than our project needs," she said. "Most grid improvements that you see happening now are because of these investments and local renewable energy projects. We're truly strengthening and improving the reliability of our electric grid because of the massive investments made by these projects."

Some states and utilities have recognized the public good of grid updates that enable more renewables and found innovative ways to finance and incentivize them.

In 2005, the Texas legislature passed a bill that designates new transmission lines for Competitive Renewable Energy Zones (CREZ).

The plan’s goal was to transport 18.5 GW of energy from new wind farms and other distributed resources sited in remote areas in West Texas into population centers like Dallas and Austin. The Public Utility Commission of Texas established

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a docket and received proposals from transmission service providers. Then, the utilities involved were able to integrate the costs of the project into the rate base.

Before the new lines, Texas' grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, had about 1.9 GW of wind installed. By 2017, the CREZ lines enabled a total of 11.6 GW of installed wind capacity with another 8.9 GW in the pipeline. Inovateus’s Bean sees this overhaul as a model for the rest of the country.

"Texas was easy because it was ERCOT, it was one state, the state PUC could authorize everybody to do this," he said. "There's a big gap between, 'Let's incrementally improve our transmission system to accommodate more renewable power,' like the CREZ lines, vs., 'Let's totally change the way the electric power system works in the entire country.'"

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Still, national grid reform isn't unprecedented. Germany reached 50% clean energy generation in 2020, which was possible thanks to top-down grid expansion policies. The country is investing in new high-voltage transmission lines between northern and southern Germany, expected to be completed by 2024, to help meet the same goal the United States is reaching for — 100% renewable energy by 2035.

Clean energy generation in the United States reached 20% in 2021, but similar, large grid investments will be necessary to even come close to that 100% goal. The solar industry is standing by.

"There's both the projects already there, ready to come online if we can unlock them, and then long-term, we could have a very sustaining and transparent and efficient process that will continually see gigawatts of renewables come online," SEIA's Wray said. SPW

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B I L LY L U D T | A S S O C I AT E E D I T O R

TEXAS SOLAR PROJECT SPURS LOCAL WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT Turning

a utility-scale solar developer’s vision into a reality requires many hands. On some projects, that could mean hiring hundreds of laborers to be on-site all at once.

When a region doesn’t have a qualified labor pool to build a project, there’s always the option of job training.

That was the case for Elm Branch, a 163MW solar project located in Ennis, Texas, a community 40 miles south of Dallas, that was developed by Lightsource bp and built by McCarthy Building Cos.

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McCarthy has led job training programs at previous solar projects, but Elm Branch was unique because 20% of its workforce was represented by military veterans.

Building a regional solar workforce For Elm Branch, McCarthy recruited 250 construction workers, mostly from the local job pool. Of the 250 hires, 50 were military veterans who received job training before starting work.

McCarthy partnered with Adaptive Construction Solutions (ACS), a Texas-

based, veteran-owned construction apprenticeship program, to recruit veterans. The two-week classroom course that followed covered topics like the basics of solar and renewables construction and certifications for safety, first aid and fork-lift operations.

“But they really teach them about all the aspects and what they’re going to be doing out on the site, so that when they come to the job, they have that experience and that expectation of what they’re going to be working on,”

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INSTALLATION www.solarpowerworldonline.com

MAY 2022

SOLAR POWER WORLD

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INSTALLATION

We see those guys elevate themselves to the crew lead and to foreman positions at a much quicker rate than we do on somebody we’ve just hired off the street. they’ve already started traveling for other jobs. The company tries to keep at least 20 of its best trainees from each job to be teachers and trainers for the next project.

“For us, one of the big challenges in solar — and it’s a good challenge — but you’re hiring up very large workforces,” Canada said. “So, we’ll have about 1,800 craft workers on McCarthy’s solar jobs this year. You’re typically fairly remote. In this case, we’re close to Dallas, but you’re definitely on the outskirts, and so to have the maximum economic impact for the area and get the job done, we tend to hire local and tend to take on folks who have not had a long history in the construction business.” said Dave Wallace, project director for McCarthy.

Then when on-site, the trainees work with construction superintendents and crew to build the array.

At the height of construction, there were about 150 people on the Elm Branch site at one time. Managing that many different craft workers at once meant training crew leaders in the hiring process.

“They’re used to working in a team, they’re used to taking orders, they’re used to figuring out how to complete a mission,” he said. “Then they all have extreme leadership capabilities as well.

So, we see those guys elevate themselves to the crew lead and to foreman positions at a much quicker rate than we do on somebody we’ve just hired off the street.”

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McCarthy administers this type of job training on each project, with the intent to create more qualified workers for the solar industry.

“We’re starting to build this more formal program, and when you have people go through a formal program, they end up with credentials at the end — they end up with clarity that they’ve learned skills and they’re able to carry that onto their next job,” said Scott Canada, executive VP of renewable energy and business unit leader at McCarthy. “Hopefully it’s a McCarthy job, but if they decide even to go to one of our competition, they’ve got something specific there that helps them show they’ve got a career path.”

McCarthy retained several veteran hires from the Elm Branch project and

Growing Elm Branch The Elm Branch project originated from a request for proposals from L3Harris Technologies, a defense contractor based in Melbourne, Florida. Lightsource pitched the Elm Branch project, and L3Harris agreed to a 100-MW power purchase agreement, which provided the funding to kickstart array construction.

Lightsource hired McCarthy to handle engineering, procurement and construction services on Elm Branch and its sibling project Briar Creek. After about 18 months of development, construction began on Elm Branch in January 2021, and it was completed by November of that year.

Like its workforce, Elm Branch’s solar components are American-made.

The project uses single-axis trackers

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INSTALLATION

from Albuquerque, New Mexico-based Array Technologies; TMEIC inverters that are assembled in the Houston area and panels manufactured by First Solar in Ohio.

Elm Branch is installed on cultivated pastureland, which came with a construction challenge: The clay soil made the worksite slick after rains and took at least two days to dry out afterward. It was difficult to receive equipment shipments when the site was wet.

“That was our biggest challenge, being able to receive modules and all of the deliveries on-site when we had those conditions,” Wallace said.

One month after construction began, most of the state’s electrical grid shut down due to Winter Storm Uri. Many Texans were left without power for several days during the strongest winter storm the state had seen in a century, and, accordingly, construction on Elm Branch ceased during that period.

“Aside from a once-in-a-hundred-year winter storm and a pandemic, everything went pretty

smooth,” said Kevin Smith, CEO of Americas for Lightsource bp.

Lightsource bp leases the land under its solar projects for 25 to 30 years. With that in mind, Lightsource and McCarthy enacted regenerative site practices on Elm Branch, sowing native seed crops to promote soil health and encourage pollinator activity. They’ve also introduced sheep from a neighboring farm to graze the site and maintain vegetation.

Choices like hiring and training locally and using land stewardship best practices will have impacts on the Ennis community for the long term.

“We’re an employee-owned company, so it’s amazing how much pride they take when we’re able to go home and say, ‘I grew up in the Dallas area, my folks travel down to Ennis on a regular basis,’” Canada said. “There’s a certain pride that comes from figuring out how to do it right and solving the problem better.” SPW

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in large-scale KELSEY MISBRENER | MANAGING EDITOR

Customization is king

in large-scale solar wire management MANAGING

the wires that carry solar power from modules to inverters may be a small fraction of the cost of building large-scale projects, but taking the time to choose the right solution can pay dividends. Manufacturers are quickly engineering wire management solutions that fit with the latest racking, tracking and module developments.

“There’s lots of great products and options out there and there’s kind of that right fit for each site and customer,” said Karl von Knobelsdorff, president and CEO of solar EPC Knobelsdorff Enterprises.

The most popular above-ground management strategies for contractors are bundling wires or using cable hangers, but within those categories are many variations.

HellermannTyton’s module mounting hole wiring solution.

www.solarpowerworldonline.com

Bundling wires When a solar installer decides to bundle wires using cable ties, it’s important to choose products that can withstand the elements. HellermannTyton is one such manufacturer that uses UV- and heat-stabilized plastic instead of coated metal to ensure cable ties don’t cut into wires and cause shorts.

“We really believe that full polymerbased wire management products are best for the market, and if you are using a metal product, it needs to be really thought out and application-specific,” said Nick Korth, market development manager for energies at HT. HT takes a custom approach to wire management, designing parts that work well with specific racking and module brands. The company makes ties and clamps that are threaded through unused module mounting holes on the racking, which can then be used to string wires through safely. Korth said it’s crucial to install that extra part rather than stringing wire directly through the module hole, which is sharp and could cut cable.

Installation is an important consideration in HT products. Even though stringing wire isn’t as strenuous a task as driving piles and lifting modules, it’s one that workers must repeat thousands of times on large sites.

“If you’re putting it on 50,000 times over the course of two weeks, your thumb and your fingers are going to be hurting if that’s a really high insertion force,” Korth said. “We design our parts so that they’re super easy to push on.

The ergonomics are literally a part of every part that we design.”

Cable hangers Another popular wire management method is using cable hangers to route wires around the site. Snake Tray, CAB Solar Cable Management and Affordable Wire Management (AWM) all sell such hanger products, each with a differentiator.

AWM’s products are aluminum hangers hung from a messenger wire.

Hangers can be customized to allow for different spacing requirements between the bundles, different cable sizes and other configurations.

“It’s a highly customizable solution.

It’s also very strong, so your cable hangers are spaced typically one every 4 ft instead of the typical one every 2 ft,” said Scott Rand, founder and CEO of AWM. That flexibility means fewer hangers are needed on each site, saving on cost and installation time. The metal product is also durable, with a lifetime of 35 to 40 years, according to Rand.

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INVERTER TECHNOLOGY

Affordable Wire Management’s aluminum wire hangers.

Snake Tray’s “free air” wire management system.

CAB’s grounded messenger wire solution.

CAB also uses metal in its cable hangers, but the steel is coated with thick PVC to protect the cables from sharp edges.

CAB’s solution is unique because it uses a copper-clad messenger wire that acts as the electrical grounding conductor.

“By combining the grounding capability in with the cable management, it just saves [contractors] money in the labor cost and on the product cost,” said Tim Wedding, solar program manager at CAB. The company offers over 50 standard designs to support different combinations of bundles and other cables, and also makes custom configurations when necessary. Those designs include torque tube hangers that secure wires on tracking systems.

Manufacturer Snake Tray carries both metal and plastic cable management devices for utility-scale projects. The company’s products are different from other cable hanger options because they operate in “free air” — meaning each cable is

separated and surrounded by air to avoid potential heat buildup from bundling wires.

“If we can keep an electron from crashing into another electron in a feeder system, we prevent heat,” said Roger Jette, president at Snake Tray. “And if we prevent the heat, the electron gets through the meter and the investors get return on investment.”

The company’s Solar Snake Max line looks like a large “Connect Four” board, with numerous circular spaces to feed cable through. Snake Tray prides itself on ease of installation.

“We want the contractor to get on and off that job with optimized profitability,” Jette said. “We do that by designing products that snap together, that don’t require tools and can be installed incredibly rapidly.”

Each utility-scale project is different, so EPCs use a variety of wire management options to their advantage. Whether the objective is labor simplicity, longest lifespan or lowest cost, manufacturers have this part of the process covered. SPW

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Below is a portion of the company’s Solar Spotlight podcast with Solar Power World, but be sure to listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast app.

How is the company growing and how are things going for you?

We have been growing by leaps and bounds. It’s been a great year for us. We are now out operating in about 15 states and plan to continue to expand on that. Lots of new machines are going out and growth in solar continues to be pretty expansive.

Lots of vegetation problems that everyone’s running into, the same things these days, where they can’t get people out to their sites to take care of their mowing and their vegetation. It’s hard to hire people.

This becomes a quick solution to solve a lot of the things that they’re www.solarpowerworldonline.com

running into. So, we’re taking lots of calls and we’re building machines as quickly as we can and expanding our manufacturing facilities.

With your current growth, what has Renu learned collectively from its experiences in the field and how has that translated into the robot’s performance and capabilities? So, we have had a significant amount of experience early on understanding solar, and utility-scale solar specifically.

There’s a lot of things that go on in the field that influence the way we’ve developed the system and how it works. Certainly, one of the key things is just understanding that there’s a lot of changes and things that happen dynamically out there and we use machine learning and artificial intelligence somewhat in our software to make decisions as it’s moving along, in a sense like a person, but even having more capability beyond what a normal person would do during a long day.

With Renu Robotics’ capabilities expanding, what does that mean for your product offerings like the Recharge Pod and Mission Control?

We’ll continue working on our products and making them better and better. Of course, one of

the things that we’re working on already is to add tracks so that we can handle some of the wet and rougher terrain and even things like steep angles where they have to cut on ditch sides or that type of thing. We’re looking at things like sensors in the field that can be connected to our robot; we’re looking at inspection systems that can look at solar panels to determine whether they’re cracked or failed or delaminating or could fail in the future — systems that would actually be able to look at currents and voltages in certain places; we’re looking at systems that could clean the solar panels in those more dusty areas where you don’t have enough rain to keep them clean doing more autonomous maintenance.

We’ve really made and built a flexible system, an electric tractor that can go out any time and do all different types of maintenance.

With solar industry growth both worldwide and in North America, does that mean your market is expanding as well?

Our market is expanding and as we’re building more units and getting them out there, today we see about 1 million acres or so under solar panels on the utilityscale. There are some predictions out there that almost 6 million MAY 2022

acres by 2030. But it’s not just the U.S. that’s expanding that fast.

We’re getting asked to participate in operations in many other countries as well. We’re not able to do that right now, but we are looking at how we can get there as soon as possible. The need is there, the interest is there. That growth is sizable just like it is here in the U.S. What’s next for Renu Robotics?

What’s on the horizon?

Renu is working right now on growing the company, continuing to expand our manufacturing operations. It’s a lot of work and a lot of effort on that side to make sure we produce good products and quality products every day.

We’re going to be looking at bigger facilities. We’ve outgrown the manufacturing capability here.

Our Mission Control is growing sizably as well. We’re continuing to grow that backbone to make sure we have the capacity to expand for the next several years. Building will be getting three or four times larger in the next year. SPW

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KELLY PICKEREL • EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

U.S. solar industry prepares for solar panel supply issues It is difficult to separate the hyperbole from the truth as the U.S. solar industry feels the effects of multiple trade issues that will determine its future.

Reporting from Wood Mackenzie suggests that just the Dept. of Commerce’s investigation (not a final ruling) into alleged tariff circumvention

by Southeast Asian solar panel manufacturers will eliminate 16 GW of solar panels from the U.S. supply chain — an amount equal to almost the entire volume of utility-scale solar installed across the country in 2021.

Advocacy group SEIA is also estimating that the solar industry will lose 70,000 of its 231,000 jobs because of the DOC investigation. Add in continued supply interruptions from a U.S. Customs withhold release order, COVID shutdowns and now a war in Ukraine, and optimism falls further into the background.

Or does it? Is the sky really falling?

It depends on what market you’re in and

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how well you’ve planned for 2022, said the developers, installers and suppliers Solar Power World spoke to. One thing is certain: the second half of this year is going to look a lot different than what everyone predicted.

Future planning in limbo The latest Chicken Little saga comes amid the DOC investigation, as requested by California-based solar module assembler Auxin Solar. Auxin claims that Chinese crystalline silicon solar panel makers have moved portions of their manufacturing operations to Southeast Asia to circumvent antidumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD) that have been in place since 2012. Commerce is looking into solar panel operations in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam to see if Chinese wafers, aluminum frames, backsheets and more have been used in exported cells and modules. If enough Chinese product

is found in Southeast Asian module exports, DOC could extend the AD/CVD to the mentioned countries.

Already, module supply from Southeast Asia — a region that supplied 80% of U.S. demand in previous years — has been limited or completely halted.

A survey to SEIA members found that 75% had solar panel deliveries canceled or delayed within a few days of the DOC starting its investigation at the end of March. Almost all those surveyed predicted that this investigation would have a severe or devastating impact on their businesses.

Commerce is expected to present preliminary findings of its investigation on August 30, 2022, along with a preliminary duty rate for all importers of the affected products, should the department find fault. A final decision would then be made on January 26, 2023. That timing of August to January is tricky for those purchasing large quantities of modules,

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PANEL TECHNOLOGY

as Q3 2022 is when most begin buying for 2023 projects. Will there be enough supply, and how much will it cost?

Trying to prepare for 2023 is where community solar developer Nexamp is focused right now, said director of supply chain Bilal Ahmed.

“We’re buying so far ahead of time, we’re good almost halfway through 2023, which allows us a couple months of wiggle room,” he said. “But to be able to stay on track, we need to get orders out in the next quarter. We can push the Q2 orders maybe to Q3, however the AD/ CVD preliminary decision on this case doesn’t come until August. And even then, if it’s anywhere remotely as vague as it is today or how things transpired in the previous AD/CVD case, if people held out until the very last minute because there was really no direction, we would be forced to make some hard decisions.”

I think you’re going to see a lot of projects come offline or have to be renegotiated... and that’s going to be impactful to the industry.

Utility-scale developer Silicon Ranch just signed a 4-GW module supply agreement with U.S. thin-film module manufacturer First Solar, which should ease supply worries through 2025. But CEO Reagan Farr acknowledged that not every major developer has that type of security.

“I’ve seen that 20 to 30% of projects last year didn’t [reach commercial operation date] on time, and I’ve heard that ratio may go up to above 50% this

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PANEL TECHNOLOGY

year,” he said. “I think you’re going to see a lot of projects come offline or have to be renegotiated all the way through to the offtake agreement, and that’s going to be impactful to the industry.”

Investing in domestic manufacturing The main message behind Auxin’s Commerce petition is that Asian solar panel makers are hurting domestic manufacturers. U.S. module companies cannot compete with cheap imports, no matter where they’re from. But most of the industry says continued tariffs are not the solution to these domestic woes.

“These tariffs have been around for 10 years, and we haven’t seen the increase in domestic manufacturing that’s required to meet the demand in

the United States,” said Geoff Fallon, COO for utility-scale developer BayWa r.e. Solar Projects. “This isn’t the right mechanism to grow that base. The Dept. of Commerce taking up this investigation is just completely contradictory to the messages coming from the White House.”

The Biden Administration has stated it wants solar to provide 45% of the country’s electricity by 2050, something that is unattainable if domestic manufacturing and foreign solar panel imports are limited.

“We’ve said that tariffs are not the right way to incentivize manufacturing, and that it is going to take time and policy commitment to move manufacturing into the United States

at the scale that’s needed,” said SEIA president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper in a press release.

Big module buyers like Silicon Ranch can help support domestic manufacturing in the meantime by investing in and showing public support for U.S. companies.

“The relationship we signed with First Solar, our focus was wanting increasing percentages of domestic supply. I wanted to incentivize them to continue to invest in U.S. manufacturing.

I’ve been doing that not just with my module manufacturer but all of our equipment suppliers where it makes sense,” Farr said. “These dialogues didn’t start yesterday. They started a year and a half ago. Why are we buying steel

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from Asia? Surely, we can make steel and do make steel in the U.S. Trying to lock down and create aligned incentives with our equipment suppliers is a meaningful thing the industry needs to do.”

Nexamp is doing the same to secure some supply, albeit a smaller amount for the commercial developer averaging 100 MW of installations each year.

“We’re able to get American supply, but it’s a drop in the bucket for what the need is across the board,” Ahmed said. “We have a couple local manufacturers we’re working with. We’re doing extensive master service agreements where we’re investing, trying to help them out with where we can add value outside of a straight cash deal.”

Dunlap suggests installers split their business tasks into shortterm and long-term thinking. Short-term is everything that needs to be done in the next month, while the backlog is considered longterm. It’s less stressful to track down 1,000 modules needed for the next month than 12,000 modules needed for the full year. Being realistic is just as advantageous, too.

“Maybe your install rate doesn’t need to grow as fast this year as you originally planned. What happens if you continue that aggressive plan and you continue to disappoint customers because you can’t show up and install?” Dunlap said.

Instead of trying to hit aggressive solar sales goals, the rest of the year could be focused on growing adjacent offerings like EV charging and battery backup.

“Now is a great time to get back to your installed base and add storage to those customers,” Dunlap said. “You’ve never had time to make those calls and talk to people about it. Maybe that’s long-term thinking you can’t do when you’re solving the short-term problems.”

This year’s successful solar contractors will turn trade squabbles and supply issues into opportunities to better focus their businesses on the future — and the next hill on the solarcoaster. SPW

Shifting focus No matter the outcome of the Dept. of Commerce’s decision, the rest of 2022 will be unpredictable for all markets, said David Dunlap, VP of operations for distributor BayWa r.e. Solar Systems.

“Residential will fare better than utility, but it will not be unscathed by a long shot,” he said.

“Fear and uncertainty is its own disrupter. Even if people can continue to get product, just acting

Now is a great time to get back to your installed base and add storage to those customers. from a place of reactive, fear-based decisionmaking is never a good thing.”

The residential market hit another bump in the road, with popular solar panel brand LG exiting the industry this June.

“There’s no doubt that there’s a big gap in the residential market. And that gap isn’t easily closed when you have these competing issues like WRO, AD/CVD, rising prices, supply chain constraints,” Dunlap said. “I encourage people to assess their own business resilience and business agility. If they were heavily dependent on this high-risk-profile product, what could you do to change to a different opportunity?”

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BILLY LUDT • ASSOCIATE EDITOR

The dos and don’ts of bifacial panel optimization on solar trackers Solar trackers promise greater energy yield than their fixed-tilt counterparts because they keep modules constantly pointed toward the sun throughout the day. Similarly, bifacial modules can produce more power than their onesided solar panel cousins because they have double the exposure level.

So, is there a benefit to pairing two technologies that each ensure greater solar yield? Some tracker manufacturers believe there is. At the very least, bifacial modules will generate more energy than their frontside power rating. When combined with certain environmental and

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design conditions, backside generation can be boosted even more.

Bifacial cells made up 50% of the world market share of solar cells in 2021, and that percentage is expected to increase to 85% by 2023, according to the International Technology Roadmap for Photovoltaics. Additionally, tracker manufacturers reported that the large majority of recent solar projects using their tracking systems include bifacial panels.

Besides the benefit of extra backside generation, the bifacial exemption from Section 201 trade tariffs has likely contributed to the technology’s

proliferation in the market. But tracker manufacturers aren’t all in agreement on how to prioritize backside optimization.

“Your mileage may vary, and you need to do the math and figure out what’s best for a given project,” said Matt Kesler, director of solar technology at OMCO Solar. “The extra production that you get from bifacial is usually a good investment.”

Rotating solar irradiance on one axis Single-axis trackers have quickly become a standard in utility-scale solar projects.

They can be installed in similar project footprints to fixed-tilt racking, with the added production bonus of row-by-row movement to track the sun throughout the day.

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MOUNTING TECHNOLOGY

The mechanisms that drive solar trackers and the controls that optimize positioning for energy generation and weather conditions vary by product.

Manufacturers often develop in-house control software to accompany their trackers, but directing that software to focus bifacial arrays on backside generation isn’t necessarily the best move.

Array Technologies, a global manufacturer of single-axis trackers, tested optimizing backside irradiance gain with its proprietary control software SmarTrack.

During the test and accompanying simulations, the company found that the energy difference between an array running typically and one focusing on backside generation was just 0.1% over a year.

Array found that the system moved erratically, rotating up and down almost hourly to encourage backside rather than frontside generation gains. The backs of bifacial modules are not as efficient as the front, so Array believes the focus should remain on frontside optimization.

“It’s always beneficial to try to maximize the irradiance from the sky with the front side,” said Kyumin Lee, VP of engineering for research and technology at Array Technologies. “That’s the best approach, because if you try to improve backside irradiance but lose on the frontside irradiance, you will probably not see any gains, or you would likely run into scenarios where you actually lose energy.”

Like system controls, designs for single-axis solar projects with bifacial panels can remain the same as monofacial projects. Ground albedo (or reflectiveness) can be increased with larger row spacing between trackers, meaning there will be less shadowing and more reflected irradiance.

However, increasing row spacing to encourage higher albedo will increase the overall footprint of a solar project.

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“Between tracker and tracker, if you have a larger row spacing, there’s more ground that can reflect light. So, yes, you can have higher bifacial gain, but I think my argument there was always that at the end, it’s not bifacial gain that’s paying the bills,” Lee said. “It’s the total energy produced.”

In many cases, bifacial generation should be treated as bonus gains.

Additional energy generated from the back with larger row spacing likely will not account for the cost of the larger land mass used to accommodate it.

White surfaces like snow and crushed limestone can increase ground albedo — snowfall happens naturally, but the latter requires additional site preparations and capital.

Then there’s the design of the tracker structure itself. Array’s DuraTrack HZ v3 installs modules in one-in-portrait orientation. It uses a “high-rise” bifacial module clamp that clears the panel’s junction boxes and includes additional spacing between the back of the module and the torque tube (the pipe that rotates the panel row) compared to its other clamp models.

Array tested how the torque tube affected backside shading on one-inportrait-oriented bifacial modules and found it had little effect on generation.

“There are much larger contributing factors to how the PV plant produces energy related to a bifacial module, such as view factor and then things that are a little bit out of control, like the albedo,” said Cody Norman, director of applications engineering at Array Technologies.

National solar racking and tracking manufacturer OMCO Solar had a different take on the effects of shading caused by torque tubes. The company produces OMCO Origin Factory-Direct Trackers, which have a two-in-landscape panel orientation with a torque tube that

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Stephen Mildenberger/AllEarth Renewables

runs between the bifacial modules rather than behind them.

The company’s strategy is supported by a 2019 study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories and Cypress Creek Renewables that found torque tube shading reduced backside generation on bifacial modules from 2 to 8%. In individual tests, OMCO found the shading effect was greater than reported.

“Even though the average irradiance is reduced by 8%, the irradiance on some of those cells is reduced by more than 20%,” OMCO’s Kesler said. “Since the

cells are in a series, you can’t put more current through some of the cells and less through the others. You can only put the same amount of current through all the cells. If you pull down a few of the cells by more than 20%, you’re pulling down the whole backside by more than 20%.”

Single-axis solar tracker choice and project design is left to the discretion of the system owner. Bifacial backside generation is a given on these projects, and certain design choices made to encourage additional generation can have the tradeoff of reducing frontside generation.

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MOUNTING TECHNOLOGY

Double-sided cells on dual-axis trackers Dual-axis trackers pivot on two points, making them able to directly track the sun throughout the day, unlike single-axis trackers that pivot on one.

Dual-axis trackers are installed atop single posts and can hold upwards of 20 panels per unit. These systems are typically deployed in commercial and residential settings and stand taller than single-axis trackers. That greater distance from the ground has proven beneficial for bifacial modules.

AllEarth Renewables, a dual-axis tracker manufacturer, partnered with Sandia National Laboratories to study how bifacial modules performed on trackers in the northern United States, specifically in Vermont where the company is based. The two-year study resulted in a report that found bifacial modules outperformed monofacial modules installed on the same dual-axis tracker at an average of 14% annually.

During winter months, that number leapt to 40% because of the high albedo of snow cover.

“So far, our data is matching what the predictions are — that we’re getting pretty darn good production in our environments up here,” said David Blittersdorf, president and CEO of AllEarth Renewables.

Dual-axis trackers are often installed in northern states because they can adapt to the territory’s terrain and annual snowfall. Another benefit the study found during winter months was quicker snowshed because of the motion of dual-axis trackers and the translucency of double-glassed bifacial modules.

Due to their height and greater spacing compared to single-axis trackers, more radiant light surrounds dual-axis trackers, leading to more opportunity for backside generation with bifacial modules.

Mechatron Solar, a dual-axis tracker manufacturer, uses table-level reflectors on its M18KD tracker to direct light to the backs of bifacial modules. The company reported a 13 to 15% boost in gains using the reflector instead of conventional ground cover in Northern California.

“We recognized not only that [bifacial] technology is breakthrough, but also that the dual-axis mechanism would achieve higher bifacial boost than either fixed-tilt or single-axis trackers, since our dual-axis follows the sun across both zenith and azimuth axes, unlike the competition,” said Michael Fakukakis, CEO of Mechatron Solar.

Regardless of the structure, there is extra solar production to be gained from using bifacial modules on solar trackers. Weighing the cost and design considerations can help contractors decide when the combination is a good fit. SPW

So far, our data is matching what the predictions are — that we’re getting pretty darn good production in our environments up here.

Stephen Mildenberger/AllEarth Renewables

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HUGH MCDERMOTT SVP OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND SALES • ESS

Better in the long run: How utilities can leverage long-duration energy storage to accelerate the clean energy transition In November 2021, the U.S. Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was signed into law. It calls for $355 million in funding for utility-scale, longduration energy storage projects. Just two months earlier, the Dept. of Energy launched its “Long Duration Storage Shot,” setting a target to reduce the cost of utility-scale energy storage by 90%

for systems that deliver 10+ hours of duration within this decade.

These initiatives put a high-profile spotlight on the value of long-duration energy storage (LDES) for utilities, amid a flurry of state-level funding announcements, major procurements and bullish industry forecasts. This growing wave of market activity, coupled with

grid-ready LDES systems being delivered and commissioned, is capturing the attention of grid operators and utility planners around the world.

According to the DOE: “Energy storage has the potential to accelerate full decarbonization of the electric grid.

While shorter-duration storage is currently being installed to support today’s

Illustration courtesy of ESS

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STORAGE TECHNOLOGY

level of renewable energy generation, longer-duration storage technologies are needed as more renewables are deployed on the grid. Cheaper and more efficient storage will make it easier to capture and store renewable clean energy for use when energy generation is unavailable or lower than demand — for instance, so renewable sources generated during the daytime like solar-generated power can be used at night.”

While there are various types of LDES technologies — electrochemical, mechanical, thermal — and more will be developed in the coming years, not all are grid-ready today. Leading LDES contenders thus far have been advanced (non-lithium) batteries, including flow batteries, compressed air and variations on decades-old, pumped hydro storage.

State of play: 10 set targets; California leads in long-duration As of Q1 2022, 10 U.S. states have set energy storage targets, each with differing mechanisms and incentive policies. Two-thirds are on the East Coast, including Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, North Carolina, New Jersey and Virginia. As these targets are mapped out, a percentage will likely be designated for LDES resources, given the added economic and performance value they bring to renewables.

One state has already done so, and placed its money where its mandates are.

Last May, the California Public Utilities Commission called for a 1 GW of LDES procurement for 2026, which it defined as “technologies offering between eight and 100 hours of duration.” Earlier this year, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the state’s budget for 2022-23, including $380 million in LDES funding over two years as part of an overall $2 billion Clean Energy Investment Plan.

California is the state frontrunner, with over 3 GW of storage in operation

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out of a total of 7 GW nationwide.

Nearly all of it is short-duration lithiumion batteries — resources that helped the state’s grid operator, CAISO, avoid power shortages last year. But CAISO has acknowledged that four-hour batteries cannot meet all statewide needs. The higher the share of renewable energy reached, the more long-duration storage will be required.

In North Carolina, Duke Energy must supply 45% of new solar generation through power purchase agreements with companies within North and South Carolina, in accordance with North Carolina's carbon reduction law, H.B. 951.

In order to achieve baseload solar, LDES will inevitably be incorporated into this new solar fleet.

What LDES does best Intermittent renewable resources now dominate new power generation coming online. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 46 GW of new generating capacity will start operation in 2022. Intermittent solar and wind power will comprise an eye-opening 29 GW, or 63%, of this total.

Long-duration storage can help utilities smoothly integrate increasing amounts of renewables as they make progress toward decarbonizing the power grid. Some of the strongest utility use cases for LDES are: • Time-shifting solar and wind power: LDES can store excess renewables production and shift energy to when it has greater economic and resilience value. Storage also helps avoid curtailments to maximize the benefits of clean energy assets.

• Smoothing renewable intermittency: The fast-response capability of LDES enables it to instantly react to changes in renewable generation output with fast, unlimited charge-discharge capacity.

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Augmenting or replacing highemission peaker plants: Fossilpowered peaker plants are the last-resort generators that utilities activate when grid energy demand is at its highest. LDES can enable a firm power source from intermittent renewables with the duration, capacity and cyclic flexibility to help utilities avoid (or at least mitigate) use of polluting peaker plants.

Supporting market participation: LDES is also a multi-purpose asset that can provide frequency regulation and other ancillary services. As markets evolve, LDES can offer spinning reserve and even energy capacity. Commercially available long-duration storage can meet grid operator PJM’s “10-hour rule,” which requires duration-limited non-generation resources, such as batteries, to provide stated capacity for as long as 10 continuous hours.

Deferring transmission and distribution system upgrades: LDES alleviates congestion on T&D routes by storing power when lines are at capacity and delivering it later. This service can defer or entirely avoid costly, long-term asset upgrades.

Stabilizing microgrids and supporting virtual power plants: LDES boosts the reliability and flexibility of distributed energy resources, greatly reducing or eliminating reliance on dieselpowered generators for backup.

A solar + storage microgrid California utility San Diego Gas & Electric recognizes the unique ability of LDES to provide extended backup power and resilience to communities that are vulnerable to extreme weather events and wildfires. As part of its efforts to reduce risk and the impact of public safety power shutoffs (PSPS) during

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adverse weather conditions, the utility is installing a solar + storage microgrid in Cameron Corners (Campo, California), a rural community about 50 miles east of San Diego.

The microgrid, which will be in service in 2022, consists of 875 MW of solar PV and 540 kW/2 MWh of iron-flow batteries that are now being commissioned. Once completed, the microgrid will enable important facilities, including a middle school, library, health clinic, telecommunications hub and fire station, to remain powered during PSPS events, avoiding use of diesel generators. When not supporting a PSPS event, the microgrid will deliver stored renewable energy back to the grid as the sun goes down.

A global need for massive amounts of LDES As the energy storage market matures and diversifies, innovations like LDES will proliferate. Their complementary value

and ability to deliver multiple use-cases when combined with renewables is clear.

The use of clean, earth-abundant raw materials (such as iron, salt and water) and off-the-shelf, domestically sourced industrial components reinforce their inherent safety and sustainability. Greater production volumes will further drive cost reductions, all of which will lead to widespread global deployment. On this point, industry analysts seem to agree.

According to a recent forecast from BloombergNEF, global energy storage deployments (all durations) will reach 358 GW/1,028 GWh by the end of the decade — a 20-fold increase over 2020 figures. This surge in installations will undoubtedly include a high percentage of LDES. For an LDES-specific data point, the LDES Council predicts that between 25 GW and 35 GW of LDES will be installed globally by 2025, amounting to about 1 terawatt-hour (TWh) and $50 billion of investment.

The long view Regardless of which forecast we place our bets on, or how quickly states will join California to take up the charge, it’s fair to say that the market upside for LDES is enormous — as will be the associated grid benefits.

Utilities bear a great responsibility in generating and delivering sufficient power to keep the lights on. They are also facing increased scrutiny from regulators and stakeholders to decarbonize. Solar and wind power are long-proven solutions that are essential to our clean energy future, and their low costs make them economically compelling.

Long-duration energy storage in all iterations — with its range of benefits, services and commercial systems now available — is the key for utilities to unlock clean energy’s greatest value. SPW

ESS installation for SDGE

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ADVERTORIAL

SOLAR SPOTLIGHT:

Waterproofing solar projects on tile rooftops IN THIS SPECIAL EDITION OF CONTRACTOR’S CORNER, mounting manufacturer K2 Systems dispels the myth of “flashing-free” solar rooftop mounts and covers the latest in installing on tile roofs. K2 Systems is a global mounting provider, and Johan Alfsen, senior director of training, talks through the company’s latest innovation in flashing technology — butyl.

Below is a portion of the company’s Solar Spotlight podcast with Solar Power World, but be sure to listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast app.

What’s required to waterproof tile roofs?

There’s actually a little bit of confusion on this question and answer, because different jurisdictions have different requirements based on what’s called, I’d say, “best practices” listed by organizations like the Tile Roofing Institute.

The reason why I say it’s kind of confusing is because not all AHJs will mandate this. They’re O.K. with just sealant over bolts, which is the bare minimum. But some installers take it upon themselves to do it the most thorough way, or doing what’s called three coursing with roofing cement, where they tar in around a metal flashing to flash that in at the underlayment level and they add a layer of mesh and another layer of tar. So, it’s extremely time consuming, and I can understand why some installers don’t want to do it or are begging for better ways, but not all jurisdictions mandate this.

How is installation on tile roofs different than others like comp shingle?

Tile roofs are a little more complicated because they have two water proofing systems of the

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roof. Technically, comp shingle roofs have underlayment as well underneath the asphalt shingles, but you’re not coming anywhere near it. You’re penetrating through it, but you’re not reinforcing that waterproofing, it’s just another layer under the singles. Whereas with tiles, there’s a big gap between the felt paper underlayment and the tile. So, the heart of a tile roofing system is at the underlayment level, whereas on comp shingle, as long as you waterproof on the surface level, you’re good to go. But tile has a little bit more complexity to it because it has the underlayment that is a little more fragile but also a very important part of the roof, and then you have the top tile level as well.

What are “flash-less” roof attachments?

The word “flash-less” is actually the wrong word to use that the industry is adopting with these flash-less products. What they’re referring to is these comp shingle roof mounting systems — for example our Splice Foot — it’s a product that doesn’t have a metal flashing, it has a butyl flashing. And the reason why I say flash-less is the wrong term to use is because these products do have a flashing but they’re in a different form. Some of them call it a flexible flashing, some call it a pad flashing. It just depends on the product.

What is the benefit of using butyl vs. metal flashings?

In the case of comp shingle, a metal flashing is designed to be slipped between the shingle coursing, and in some cases where the shingles are so hot or so baked down, like in really hot climates like Las Vegas or Arizona where it gets over 100°F and the roof just gets so cooked

that you can’t pry a metal flashing between the shingles and you end up tearing up the shingles and causing more harm than good.

A flexible flashing or butyl flashing ends up being a better solution because you can stick it right down on top and it self-seals itself as you drive the screws through the butyl. It’s just an easier install, and it’s obviously regionally based, or installer based, with what they prefer.

It has a lot of benefits and we do some videos as a comparison between metal flashings and non-metal flashings.

What products does K2 offer for tile mounting?

We always had tile hooks, we have all kinds of different tile hooks series for the different types of tiles, like flat tile or “S” tile or “W” tile. But we recently incorporated the same butyl that’s a part of our Splice Foot. We call that seal the EverSeal. That means the product has been tested thoroughly for water intrusion, winddriven rain, submersion tests and heat and thaw.

It’s getting put onto our tile hook series, so now we’re having tile hooks with butyl and what is going to provide is a much easier solution for installers who do want to seal the penetrations into the tile roof, into the underlayment, and not want to bring up big buckets of tar and do the three coursing.

They can use the butyl that self-seals into the roof. Our new hooks will be available with butyl as a part of the WWW.K2-SYSTEMS.COM EverSeal series. SPW

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S E C T I O N

Solar projects are some of the most self-sufficient power plants in the world. After installation, these systems get busy converting electrons to usable power without any human interference.

Despite their independence, solar projects still need to be monitored and maintained to keep output high and interruptions low. In this O&M special section, we look at the ways solar project owners can keep sites going strong, including building a solid O&M team, choosing the best solar cleaning devices and knowing when to turn to repowering experts.

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O&M SPECIAL SECTION

How O&M teams can and should influence solar’s design stage

BY CHRIS LARKIN • SENIOR ASSET MANAGER • DSD RENEWABLES

GREAT SOLAR ASSET management starts in the design phase of the system.

Having close communication and feedback loops with the engineering team designing the system positively affects the lifetime production of the solar asset and its reliability.

For firms focused on owning and operating a solar asset, that same close communication with construction and quality control teams is equally crucial in ensuring all aspects of the project are optimized. Cross collaboration and knowledge sharing between teams is key to creating more robust products.

Leveraging the asset management team in the design process and prioritizing data and communication throughout ensures solar projects accommodate O&M.

detailed methods for installation. Sharing observed equipment reliability is valuable for future purchases, and construction managers and quality control groups benefit from understanding about known installation challenges.

For example, a certain brand of module or inverter may have a high failure rate during operation, whereas other brands seem to have very few issues. Engineering and procurement groups lack the operating experience to know which inverters have the least downtime and are most reliable. Asset management groups can prevent future downtime and lost revenue by notifying

purchasers of reliability and warranty problems.

During the construction process, asset management teams should play an active role in ensuring construction and quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) groups have similar knowledge transfer and oversight. An example would be alerting a QA/QC inspector to look out for improperly crimped copper lugs on aluminum wire. Once notified, the construction manager or QA/QC team can look out for this common issue and put it on their standard checklist. This could save the asset management team from losing revenue or having to perform

Integrating asset management teams into the design process Asset management teams are experienced in operating sites after completion and are responsible for providing solutions to issues that commonly plague new solar installations such as dead strings, improper terminations, inverter failures and communication outages. As such, these teams hold valuable insights that can be used to help improve future system designs. For example, outage information from the asset management team can provide engineering teams with the insights needed to create better design standards.

These standards can be added to drawings for contractors to have more

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expensive repairs that can reduce the overall profitability of a project.

A continuous improvement mindset is critical to creating a great product. As with most systems, you get out what you put in. Trying to save money on the front end of construction by purchasing inferior equipment, sensors and instrumentation will result in operation headaches and mistakes in assessing site performance.

Prioritizing monitoring and data collection Monitoring capabilities and access to accurate performance data are crucial to optimizing a plant’s operations and efficiency. The more data captured in the monitoring system, the better.

Monitoring a plant’s operational data will help ensure any performance shortfalls are readily caught and addressed. Poor monitoring or inaccurate data (perhaps caused by a faulty irradiance sensor) could cause an underperforming plant to look normal or vice versa, resulting in lost revenue or added expenses for unnecessary service calls when there are no issues onsite.

It is also important to leverage all data produced by devices on a project.

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Many operators overlook or are unaware of the richness of data one can pull from inverters directly because they use antiquated data acquisition systems instead of modern SCADA systems.

Despite wanting to lead the charge in modernizing energy infrastructure, the solar industry has been slow to adopt Internet of Things (IoT) best practices. Knowing as much as possible about the equipment on site is an effective strategy for ensuring problems are detected early.

For example, truck rolls and the cost of labor to service assets are expensive. IoT enables asset managers to remotely access equipment, perform diagnostics and reset equipment when safe to reduce overall spend on service calls.

Redundancy is another often overlooked aspect of plant performance. A best practice is the use of third-party weather services to check against sensor faults due to soiling or misalignment that can cause incorrect assessments of site performance. No system is foolproof, but added checks and balances assure the operator that problems can be caught quickly.

Creating a continuous feedback loop Establishing communication lines early ensures that if a problem arises there are protocols in place to quickly get the project back up and operational.

By having command of the data for the production on a site, asset managers can easily identify what is happening and communicate that information to financial partners. Communicating closely with solar electrical contractors responding to outages and performing maintenance is also very valuable.

The last part of this chain of information transfer that is often neglected is the way reporting is generated. If your firm is running reports on spreadsheets that are prone to human error, you are setting yourself up for failure. While faulty reporting logic in software could cause an issue too, it is less likely given the rigorous testing that such systems go through before entering production.

By fostering collaboration between design, construction and asset management teams, projects can be better built for success. Sharing information between these groups and creating a constant feedback loop will result in a better end product that delivers more production and revenue. SPW

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O&M SPECIAL SECTION

Repowering experts can quickly get damaged inverters back online

BY ANANDA HARTZELL • VP OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT • DEPCOM POWER

POWER CONVERSION SYSTEMS, including inverters, are the engine at the core of every utility PV power plant. When those inverters fail, everything else comes to a screeching halt. Preparing for inevitable inverter failure is the best way to get power production back on track fast.

Inverters under constant stress Central inverters are complex pieces of equipment with numerous interacting parts. Each inverter component has design margins and manufacturing tolerances that must be considered during operation.

Outdoor solar installations subject inverters and their components to a wide array of stresses, such as: • PV power fluctuations ranging from bright sun to cloudy days • Thermal fluctuations from extreme temperature swings • Humidity/condensation caused by summer heat and winter freeze • Pollutants, including dust, salty air, insects, rodents and even snakes • Grid events and fluctuations (voltage spikes, low-voltage, frequency variations) • Overheating operating conditions leading to thermal degradation Inverter manufacturers conduct stress tests and design failure mode

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and effect analysis, or DFMEA, to anticipate failures and implement strategies to protect inverters before they fail. Most inverters monitor the internal temperature of critical components and reduce power or even shut down if the temperature reaches certain thresholds.

Manufacturers test protective measures and design margins in heat chambers that expose inverters to extreme thermal conditions.

Nonetheless, it’s impossible to anticipate every possible variant of an inverter’s operating conditions. It can be difficult and costly to monitor all components and regions within a large central inverter over the course of its lifetime. Despite robust quality management systems, variations in manufacturing and assembly of the inverter are common. There can be impacts during shipping, installing, operating and maintaining the equipment.

Unseen damage or overstressed components from dirty air filters, operational degradation, connection torquing issues, insufficient cooling, rainwater or any number of other conditions can cause uncontrolled short circuits. Short-circuiting can lead to component melting and burning, creating molten metal that can cause more short circuits elsewhere.

When that catastrophic failure does occur, the resulting damage

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can make it impossible to determine the root cause. In other words, an inverter failure may well be inevitable at some point. An asset owner’s response from the start may mean the difference between recovery and disaster.

Real-world example: Fire takes down entire plant When a catastrophic inverter fire took down all production at a 5-MW solar plant in Durham, North Carolina, in 2021, there was no way to know how or why the fire ignited.

Although it was clear that the fire had started inside the inverter cabinets, the equipment inside both power conversion stations was so badly damaged that it was impossible to determine the root cause.

That wasn’t the only problem. Because the plant had been commissioned in 2014, much of the original equipment was no longer being made. The site had been designed around now-obsolete 1,000-VDC inverters; today’s plants are developed using 1,500-VDC systems.

Facing a lump-sum $1.9 million payout from their insurers, the asset owners needed a plan — and fast.

PAT. PEND.

The Next Generation of Trunk Bus Technology

Under the power purchase agreement with the local utility, there was a limited grace period allowed before production must be restored. If that deadline was missed, the PPA could be voided entirely.

While some contractors might quote a price at the outset and then modify it with change orders as issues stacked up, it made more sense in this unfortunate situation to seek an EPC with extensive experience in every aspect of solar plant disaster recovery that could take on the project for that lump-sum fee.

As the repowering project started, the experts confirmed that the four 1-MW central inverters destroyed were no longer manufactured. Instead, a plan was made to reuse the existing skid base to consolidate the four old units into two new inverters with higher power density — reducing the project’s timeline and avoiding considerable construction costs.

That decision simplified the overall system design, minimizing the balance-of-system materials required and reducing the AC bus work and components needed, creating overall savings in installation costs. These savings offset the higher cost of manufacturing new 1,000-V inverters, which are no longer in production and require components and materials that aren’t readily available.

Because the plant had to be partially redesigned, both local regulators and the contracting utility required that the facility meet all new standards and codes. This meant registering entirely new permits, new testing and a new approval process as if the plant were being commissioned for the first time.

DEPCOM Power brought in its repowering experts to mitigate the damage fast. Leveraging its EPC and O&M capabilities allowed DEPCOM to efficiently complete the permitting process, engineer and design the restoration, source new equipment and remove damaged equipment. Timing was of the essence to complete the installation and fully test the new operation at the Durham site.

Ultimately, the team was able to bring the plant back online before the PPA grace period expired, preserving the contract. Because work was completed within the $1.9 million budget set by the insurance company, the asset owner had no out-of-pocket expense beyond paying the deductible.

Look for a one-source solution Before disaster strikes, look for a company that merges in-house EPC and O&M services with deep recovery expertise in salvage, deconstruction and reconstruction to streamline the restoration timeline, reduce complexity and limit revenue impact.

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equipment. Look for an expert who also can repair and recertify inverters where possible through warranties and conducting repairs on behalf of OEMs. A one-source solution for plant repowering can also address the factors that diminish a plant’s performance and slow its return to full-power production.

Built-in recertification services can help restore confidence with costeffective extended warranty and maintenance programs. Look for experts with established third-party alliances to refurbish, procure and maintain components at a significantly lower cost than OEMs.

The most bankable option will be a one-source solution with a comprehensive spectrum of solar power services, including EPC, O&M, repowering and energy storage. SPW

Solar panel cleaning devices cut grime and save cash

BY KELSEY MISBRENER • MANAGING EDITOR, SOLAR POWER WORLD

SOLAR PANELS CAN produce power for well over 25 years, but they need a good wash once in a while to keep energy output high. Site owners can now take advantage of several devices that make this job simpler, ranging from autonomous robots to set-itand-forget-it sprinkler systems.

SolarCleano

SolarCleano SolarCleano is a German company that makes autonomous and semi-autonomous solar panel cleaning robots. The company’s main offering is the SolarCleano F1, a robot that’s attached to a hose and then controlled with a remote. It's battery-powered and comes with the option to add a wireless, LED camera for night navigation. To transport it to and from jobsites, the F1 can be disassembled into four parts and carried by one person.

For ease of movement through a large ground-mount site, the F1 can be combined with SolarCleano's T1 transporter, which moves the cleaning robot from one panel row to the next. The transporter is also operated using a remote and is capable of tilting to accommodate different racking orientations.

SolarCleano recently announced two autonomous, dry-cleaning machines that www.solarpowerworldonline.com

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hyCLEANER

work well in arid regions. These robots are equipped with GPS and can be programmed to work day or night. hyCLEANER solarROBOT The hyCLEANER solarROBOT is an autonomous cleaning device that includes a lane-keeping system and speed control.

After the solarROBOT is placed on a row of panels and attached to a hose, it drives along without falling thanks to a standard edge-detection system. That system is especially crucial for rooftop and carport installations. hyCLEANER also makes a similar but more economical cleaning robot that's operated using a remote. solarROBOT uses only water and brushes to clean panels, with no additional cleaning agents required.

The company suggests a cleaning plan tailored to the specific site, with a general recommendation of three to four cleanings per year.

Airtouch The Airtouch is a water-free cleaning device that uses an air blower and microfiber wipers to clean solar arrays. These robots are charged by a separate solar panel and connected to a proprietary cloud-based system that allows for remote monitoring and management of the fleet.

Airtouch devices are autonomous and come in two different configurations to serve either fixed-tilt or single-axis tracker projects. For fixed-tilt projects, one Airtouch device serves each

NightWash

row, with a docking station at the end. For tracking projects, Airtouch makes a transport vehicle that runs autonomously on a track to operate up to six robots with a cleaning capacity of 100 to 150 tracking rows per day.

Airtouch systems are designed to clean panels once a day or once every two days. The frequency is meant to prevent dust buildup and avoid the need for a soap-and-water solution.

NightWash RST CleanTech offers a built-in solution to solar cleaning. The company's NightWash product is similar to a permanent lawn-watering product — a hose system with sprinklers is clipped onto solar panels and can be deployed using an app.

NightWash uses low-pressure filtered water with no additional soap to clean the panels. The company says the non-scrubbing system keeps grime at bay due to the frequency of cleaning — it can be programmed to deploy in the middle of the night multiple times in one week, while other cleaning devices are sometimes used just once per quarter. The company says nighttime cleaning helps avoid thermal stress on the panels that could occur during daytime cleaning. SPW

Airtouch

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Optimizing Your Output Our services solution is customized to provide the most efficient energy use for your project, whatever the size or type.

+ Largest affiliated O&M provider in the U.S. + Boots on the ground in 30 states + Over 10GWdc PV and 1.1GWdc wind under management + Medium-impact NERC Operations and Control Center + 30+ NERC facilities, GOP and GO Services + In-house HV technicians + Industry leading safety ratings + Strong OEM relationships

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CONTRACTOR'S CORNER

KELSEY MISBRENER • MANAGING EDITOR

CONTRACTOR’S CORNER:

Knobelsdorff Enterprises Minnesota utility-scale EPC introduces solar careers to local students

Knobelsdorff Enterprises pronounces the “K” in the family name, but that’s not the most interesting part of this contractor’s legacy in Minnesota.

In high school, CEO and president Karl von Knobelsdorff was criticized for planning to work in the trades after graduation instead of going to college.

But since joining the family business in 2005, von Knobelsdorff has helped the company grow into a full-service solar EPC that also invests time and money into teaching local students about careers in solar energy.

In this episode of the Contractor’s Corner podcast, von Knobelsdorff and senior VP of operations Aaron Pyfferoen talk about KE’s educational program and how the company is navigating the challenging solar terrain — both code-

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related and earthen — in one of the coldest states in the country.

An edited portion of the interview is below, but be sure to listen to the full podcast for more insight on how the company is handling the module supply shortage and keeping projects moving in the midst of great market uncertainty.

SPW: What has been the most rewarding moment of your career at KE? von Knobelsdorff: For me, it’s developing people. That is the single most rewarding part of my job: watching young talent come in, going into the high schools and talking to kids, getting them fired up about the trades.

Tell me more about your experience going into high schools. Do you find that the students already know about solar as a job prospect?

They don’t. I’m a high school graduate; I didn’t go to college. I came right out of school, and I loved to work. I was not a good student; I just had a good work ethic and drive.

I’m pretty passionate about the trades and getting kids involved in the trades, because when I was in school, I was told by my high school guidance counselor that I wouldn’t amount to anything because I wasn’t going to college. I would love to see her and be like, “Yeah, I turned out all right, I think.”

We started a program two years ago called “Operation Trades Awareness,” where we wanted to find a way to give back to our local communities that we work in. In our first year, we partnered with seven local school districts.

It starts with kindergarten. Kindergarteners get a book on construction. We go in and read the book to them, they get to take the book home and then they get a flier that goes home to

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CONTRACTOR'S CORNER

the parents promoting the trades, getting them thinking early on what the trades look like, what a career path looks like.

Eighth graders, we actually take on a field trip to a solar site and they get to learn all about renewable energy and what goes into the project, from design and procurement to civil and grading work, fencing and pile-driving, the racking, module-setting, DC wiring and commissioning. They see that project from tip to tail of what goes into it.

And then graduating seniors, we give a home starter tool kit and then that same flier. Last year, I think we hired 10 kids right out of talking to those senior classes. It’s been a great program. It’s a lot of fun and we’re looking to expand that both regionally and nationally.

Tell me about the most unique project your company has done.

In Minnesota, we really didn’t have a solar market in 2014.

Come 2015 and 2016, community solar legislation brought a lot of contractors to the state that were not licensed in the state and didn’t know how to operate in Minnesota. Some of our most challenging projects were really picking up the pieces after other contractors failed.

There are numerous portfolios of projects in Minnesota where we came in at the end and got to get them past the

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finish line and built great customer relationships that way. Then the next round, they ended up hiring us or bringing us to other states for them.

What’s different about installing in Minnesota?

Minnesota has some challenging licensing requirements where the state decided that the mechanical racking is electrical work, so you have to perform that under a two-to-one ratio. It’s nothing more than pushing bolts and setting structural steel — it’s not electrical work, we don’t go to an electrical apprenticeship program to learn how to set structural steel.

But Minnesota decided it was electrical work, so you now have to have electricians set structural steel and assemble mechanical racking.

It’s not work that electricians usually want to do, so it posed some real challenges to try and have enough labor to be able to do that work under a two-to-one journeyman-toapprentice ratio.

The second most challenging piece is winter. We had a lot of developers coming into the state who had never worked in the northern climate and didn’t understand that from November generally to March, they’re not ideal conditions. You’re working in frost and snow and frozen ground and doing underground work. It just adds cost.

That is a challenge of educating customers sometimes.

We could build through the winter — it’s going to cost you 30% more than you anticipated, but we can do it. SPW

Some of our most challenging projects were really picking up the pieces after other contractors failed.

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LEADERSHIP TEAM VP of Sales Mike Emich 508.446.1823 memich@wtwhmedia.com Managing Director Scott McCafferty 310.279.3844 smccafferty@wtwhmedia.com EVP Marshall Matheson 805.895.3609 mmatheson@wtwhmedia.com Associate Publisher Courtney Nagle cseel@wtwhmedia.com 440.523.1685

AD INDEX AceClamp .................................................................................................................28 Altech Corporation .....................................................................................................3 Baja Carports .............................................................................................................5 Borrego ....................................................................................................................46 CAB Solar .................................................................................................................25 Chint ..........................................................................................................................7 EKO Instruments ......................................................................................................21 Hoymiles Power Electronics Inc. .................................................................................1 IMT Solar ..................................................................................................................20 k2 Systems ............................................................................................................... 41 Megger .................................................................................................................... 18 Nucor Corporation ...................................................................................................31 Preformed Line Products ..........................................................................................35

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PV Labels ............................................................................................................... IFC Quickbolt ................................................................................................................. 17

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Renu Robotics ....................................................................................................13, 29 Snake Tray ................................................................................................................32 Solar Power International ........................................................................................ IBC SolarPod ...................................................................................................................20 Soltec ...................................................................................................................... BC Solv Energy ..............................................................................................................49 Voltage, LLC .............................................................................................................33

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