Electricians, Solar Contractors Clash Over Division Of Work
PHOTO/Matt Pilon
John Carroll, owner of Lunenburg-based Moss Hollow Solar, in front of a ground-mounted photovoltaic system his company installed at Gove Farm in Leominster.
The 2008 Green Communities Act, which created the market conditions for the Bay State's solar energy boom, was originally pitched as good for the environment and for creating jobs.
With more than 220 megawatts of solar panels up and running in Massachusetts, and thousands of homes made more efficient through subsidized weatherization, the law has certainly generated plenty of work.
But an early vision of laid-off state residents getting retrained for careers as solar panel installers hasn't come to fruition, installers and technical educators said.
That's because, for the nearly five years since the law's passage, licensed electricians and solar contractors have been locked in a bitter dispute over which tasks must be done by electricians on solar panel worksites.
Kathleen Manning, dean of the Training and Education Center at Quinsigamond Community College (QCC), said administrators were immediately excited to create a training program for solar installers.
But instead of retraining laid-off workers to install panels, QCC soon learned about the state's strict requirements regarding solar panel installation and had to change course. The school instead targeted classes at already-licensed electricians or to students looking for an introduction to the topic to prepare them for an entry-level certification exam.
It has been mostly the already employed who took the courses, rather than those who were out of work.
"The actual installation really wasn't going to create jobs. It was maybe going to feed the trades a little bit," she said.
Efforts to carve out a special state classification for solar installers have thus far not borne fruit.
Thomas Thompson, president of the Solar Energy Business Association of New England, said the certification, which has been opposed by electricians, is sorely needed to create jobs.
Despite Legal Challenge, Confusion Remains
A court ruling nine months ago in Suffolk Superior Court resulted in a small victory for non-electricians by allowing them to advertise, price and contract for solar installation work — for which state regulators had sanctioned some companies leading up to the suit.
But while Judge Edward Leibensperger ruled that state regulators had overstepped their authority, he declined to make clear what solar panel installation tasks must be performed by licensed electricians.
The Board of State Examiners of Electricians (BSEE), which regulates electricians, has since specified only several tasks — such as drilling holes in a roof or attaching footers to a building — that are not electrical work, saying it would need additional information before it could issue any more policy specifics.
Solar installers said the situation has left them uncertain about their obligations, with some saying they're erring on the side of caution and hiring more electricians. Even local inspectors say the gray area has left them struggling to interpret the rules.
Different States, Different Rules
Complicating the situation is the fact that solar installers from other states, where the rules on electrician licensing and solar work can be entirely different, have shifted operations to Massachusetts to take advantage of lucrative subsidies.
Some states don't have much of a licensing process for electricians at all. And others haven't been as strict about who can perform certain tasks.
Patriot Solar, a Michigan-based manufacturer of solar panel racking that was hired to install racks at a 3.4-megawatt solar farm in Southbridge, is one of them. Late last year, Patriot was fined $1,000 by the BSEE for using unlicensed laborers to assemble and install its racks.
"This was the only state we experienced that in," Adam Parr, an account executive with Patriot, said. "You've got the (BSEE) saying it's a safety issue, but at the same time, our guys who have installed the system before know it better than anybody out there."
Nick Tortis, Southbridge's building inspector, said he issued the solar farm electrical permit to a licensed electrician.
"It's up to the electrician to make sure the work is in compliance with Massachusetts regulations and the electric code," Tortis said.
He thinks the rules aren't clear, and said it has put local inspectors in a bind. Read one way, the court's ruling seems to him akin to an electrician having to build a house in order to wire it.
"The court needs to come out with something a little more specific," he said.
Parr feels the same way. He said his company is running into different interpretations of the rules in different towns.
"I wish the state would make up its mind and put something in writing."
Solar Watchdog
To Leo Miller Jr., business manager for the Worcester-based International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 96, the rules seem clear.
The state's electrical code requires licensed electricians to do electrical work. And the BSEE issued a guidance memo in October after the court ruling, saying it interprets a solar photovoltaic system and associated apparatus to include frames, racks, rails and modules, which must be installed by a licensed electrician.
Miller's union helped blow the whistle on the Southbridge project last year, and Miller said he has contacts at area solar projects he's watching for violations.
He thinks local inspectors aren't policing electrical work properly.
Miller, who was a member of the BSEE from 2008 to 2010, said electricians must train for thousands of hours before becoming licensed and are better qualified to work with electrical systems. He understands that some people perceive the fight to be about his union wanting to capture more work for its members, but he stressed that's not the case.
"For many of us who have been working on this since 2009, it's just not a union issue," Miller said. "It's an electrical construction industry safety issue."
He admits that requiring licensed electricians to do the work favors unions. Large solar projects require a lot of workers, which unions can easily assemble.
As a former BSEE member, Miller said he pushed back against what he viewed as political pressure to create green jobs. He wasn't reappointed in 2010.
Despite Miller's claims that public safety is at issue, John Carroll, owner of Moss Hollow Solar in Lunenburg, thinks it's an IBEW power grab.
"These are people who are trying to create artificial barriers for commerce," said Carroll, who was the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit against the BSEE.
Carroll decided to get involved in the suit after witnessing some of his longtime colleagues in the industry — many of whom had trained electricians in solar installation procedures — subject to labor complaints and forced to lay off staff, some of them Iraq War veterans.
Just several months before the ruling, Carroll laid off his 11 employees and put his company on hold. He said the electrician fight was a big part of the reason for that, and also because he perceived the solar credit market would take a dive later in the year. (He was right.)
Carroll said his company was profitable, but said requiring electricians to do more of the work drives up costs.
He was also forced to run what he described as a covert operation, leaving most of his seven company vehicles unmarked to avoid potential job spying by the IBEW and related groups.
"You're just waiting for this enforcement action," he said. "It's a ridiculous way to run a business."
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