Contractor’s Corner: Burns & McDonnell Utility-scale EPC prioritizes training to save time on big jobs.

Utility solar sites are becoming more challenging to develop, with most of the vast, flat options already gobbled up by now. Choosing an EPC that’s organized, experienced and well-trained in the latest technology for less-than-ideal site layouts can be the difference between an on-time and on-budget completion or a missed target.

Kansas City, Missouri-based Burns & McDonnell brought a long history of engineering in the power space to self-performing solar EPC work about a decade ago. The company has found success in close relationships with manufacturers and dedicated hands-on training time for crews before install day comes around.

An edited portion of the interview is below, but be sure to listen to the full podcast for more insight on the tight labor market and how the IRA’s apprenticeship requirements are affecting the large-scale solar space.

Find the Contractor’s Corner podcast on your favorite podcast app. Thank you to this month’s sponsor, Scanifly.

Scanifly is the only drone-based solar software focused on automating the survey and design stages of your solar project’s life.

Adam Bernardi, renewable EPC sales and commercial strategy leader: Burns & Mac, as we refer to it, has been in the power business for over 100 years. We started our roots as an engineering company, and that has been the big differentiator for us in solar. As you know, solar sites continue to get more complicated. We’re moving away from just very square pieces of flat farmland that people are building solar on, and we just recently did a job in Oregon, effectively, on the side of a mountain. That requires the engineering thought process and expertise to really optimize these projects to achieve our clients’ goals, whether it be capacity or energy.

It was about 10 years ago that we bolted onto the self-perform capabilities that really accelerated our growth into the EPC portion of solar. We were always there as an engineer. So we’ve taken the 15 years of engineering experience we had and over the last 10 years, built that to be a fully integrated EPC contractor, which separates us from general contractors that don’t have engineering capabilities or expertise within their four walls.

What’s one way you’ve cut soft costs at your company?

Dalton Ruddell, renewable development engineer: To go back to Adams first comment, Burns & McDonnell was an engineering company first. So, now that we’ve added on the construction aspect, we pride ourselves in developing tools that ultimately support construction and help them gain efficiencies in the field or reduce man-hours associated with installing each widget. Secondarily, now that we’ve added the construction function, it allows for a complete feedback loop where our construction professionals sit with our engineers and help implement things that they could have improved in previous experiences into the engineering design on future jobs.

Bernardi: I think that’s a great point. Training has been a big focus of ours. Even pre-IRA, we’ve felt the need to be able to partner with the craft resources, I’ll just use unions as an example. [We’re] going into those union halls and bringing the equipment that they’re going to be putting together months ahead of mobilization, so that way, we can not only identify some of the craft that will be working on our job, but also provide them some training and some hands-on experience. We almost think of it like a sports game. We want to be able to practice as much as we can before we hit the field and are ready for game time.

Ruddell: And then maybe the last thing that we’ve done is put as much technology as we can into the equipment that we’re using to build these projects, whether it’s skid steers or dozers or forklifts. Anything that we can GPS-enable helps. Having a data set in the cab for the individual running that piece of machinery to A) know exactly where they’re going or directing them where to go, and B) what piece of equipment or what widget they’re supposed to have on the forks and where that’s going has definitely helped improve costs.