Factor This!
Factor This! is a weekly podcast for the solar industry that provides in-depth and actionable content not available anywhere else. The podcast features solar energy leaders who actually move the needle, in hopes of making you smarter, your solar job easier, and moving the industry forward. Factor This! is produced by Renewable Energy World and Clarion Energy, and is hosted by John Engel. Have an idea for an episode or want to sponsor the show? Email john.engel@clarionevents.com for more information. Find show notes, transcripts, and resources at RenewableEnergyWorld.com. Subscribe today to renewable energy's newest podcast.
Factor This!
Solar's biggest risk? Too few works to deliver the massive project pipeline
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Praise for the solar industry's meteoric growth often shines on developers and their multi-gigawatt pipelines and portfolios. Seldom does the limelight extend to the construction crews putting steel in the ground.
But clean electrons aren't generated by hope, targets, and schematics. It's the engineering, procurement, and construction firms that are executing the vision for a clean energy transition.
Therein lies an overlooked hurdle on the horizon: There simply aren't enough qualified EPCs, and workers, to meet the booming demand for solar projects. And rich incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act only stand to magnify the glut in supply.
Episode 49 of the Factor This! podcast features Chris Dunbar, CEO of Blue Ridge Power, for an inside look at how one of the industry's leading utility-scale solar and storage EPCs is navigating a chronic labor shortage and a tumultuous market plagued by supply chain constraints, trade disputes, and the interconnection slog.
Sure, gigawatts of solar projects are in motion. But who's going to build them?
