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It's mostly the capital expense of setting it all up. And about 50% of that expense these days are labor costs. And finding enough labor to do what you're des
by PaulDavisThe1st 2y ago
It's mostly the capital expense of setting it all up.
And about 50% of that expense these days are labor costs.
And finding enough labor to do what you're describing is currently challenging.
- reducesuffering 2y agoCalifornia did way more installation with higher labor costs and lower solar potential though.
- hedora 2y agoYou're talking about a part of the country with chronic job shortages. Concretely, they have a low employment rate and a high number of unemployed people.
- PaulDavisThe1st 2y agoThe unemployment rate in AZ is 3.6%. There are roughly 133k unemployed people there. Many of them likely lack the skills and/or physical ability to do solar PV installs.
- sundaeofshock 2y agoSkills can be acquired through proper training. Maybe even in the job. We used to do that…
- black_puppydog 2y agoSolar is being built quite quickly these days, and in areas that have much less expected solar influx. So labor isn't it.
- PaulDavisThe1st 2y agoThe GP was commenting about the lack of widespread solar in AZ, which is quite different from large scale solar in AZ. The reasons why you don't see as much small scale (residential/commercial property) solar PV in AZ (or NM, where I live) are different from the reasons why solar is being built quite quickly these days.
- napierzaza 2y ago[dead]
- onlyrealcuzzo 2y agoPer MWh in a place with the solar radiation of Arizona, the labor cost is lower for solar than a new gas peaker.
- PaulDavisThe1st 2y agoThe GP was retrospectively asking "why is there so little solar PV in AZ?" The question was not "what would be cheaper to install right now, solar PV or gas?"
- onlyrealcuzzo 2y ago> And finding enough labor to do what you're describing is currently challenging. You brought up the challenge. It's less of a challenge than adding new gas-powered MWh.
- PaulDavisThe1st 2y agoNot sure about that. The latter is even more capital intensive, but you probably wouldn't look to hire from within AZ for that project, and so the labor pool gets bigger. You're going to be hire a substantial contractor for a project like that. The labor for residential/commercial solar PV comes mostly from the local population, and each project is doable with small crews. So I don't know for sure which one is more challenging. Very different challenges, certainly.