George Hershman is CEO of SOLV Energy. He describes how the company's operations and maintenance (O&M) business generates recurring revenue.
Assertion Supported
Hershman: 85% of solar labor is mechanical, not skilled electrical
“If you think about a solar project,
You know, probably 85 to 90% of that is really, you know, labor and mechanical labor, right?
You are, we're putting posts in the ground, we're bolting together racking systems, and we're installing modules.
And then, you kno…”
Insight
Hershman: Solar installation is closer to manufacturing than traditional construction
“I think we look at our business much more akin to manufacturing than we look at it as construction, right?
You think about, we are, we're trying to do this, a, the same activity a million times, and how do we do that just
Slightly more efficient.”
Insight
Hershman: Truck logistics, not labor, is solar construction's primary bottleneck
“The amount of trucks that we have to move becomes the gating activity, not the amount of people, right?”
Opinion
Hershman: Human labor is still faster than construction robotics
“On a one-for-one basis, you know, I can still use human capital and labor, right? To produce faster than robotics that are out there in the market?”
Insight
Hershman: Just-in-time delivery fails on utility-scale solar projects
“There is no just-in-time delivery on these projects. If you do just-in-time delivery, like, that was the whole mantra of our, the commercial, my commercial life when I was building commercial construction, is that you are on small constrained sites, and you wo…”
Assertion Supported
Hershman: SOLV Energy solar projects now average over 300 megawatts
“Now those projects are, you know, averaging over 300 megawatts and up to a gigawatt in scale.”