Overview
E Light Electric Services, Inc. specializes in large-scale renewable projects, which require the installation and maintenance of solar energy systems. The Pflugerville Solar Project is a utility-scale project with 144 megawatts of capacity intended to bring low-cost solar power to the Austin area to help meet its commitment to clean, renewable energy.
With the solar energy industry on the cusp of a growth spurt, hiring in today’s market has only gotten more competitive. E Light looked to Workrise (Formerly HCS Renewable) to help staff up its projects cost-effectively—supporting its commitments to hiring local labor as well as providing safety training.
The Goal
E Light needed to fill a large number of positions with a mix of general labor and labor already skilled in solar installation. E Light had a commitment to the city to staff the project (a minimum of 50%) with local laborers. The skilled positions required some knowledge of measuring, cutting, assembling, bolting, layout, and electrical testing—all specific to the solar industry.
In addition to its commitment to the city, bringing in a labor force from elsewhere in the US would have made their prices skyrocket. The cost of per diems can increase the cost of a project by 2x. With the bulk of the skilled solar workforce already deployed in West Texas, E Light needed to partner with a company who would have access to a local workforce close to the project.
E Light needed to leverage a local workforce to adhere to city regulation and to keep costs low.
Solution
Workrise identified high potential local workers and trained them up to support this project. This enabled E Light to keep costs low but it also empowered the local workforce by putting them into roles they may not have had access to without the partnership with Workrise. The training program was broken into two parts in order to help support new skill development and safety compliance. One was the standard OSHA-10 training required of all workers going onto the jobsite; the other was a combination training encompassing OSHA-10 as well as an introduction to the foundations of solar installation.
Reducing overhead and empowering workers
