“As a nationally ranked solar leader, we’re taking advantage of Arizona’s sunshine and making important investments in our system to serve our fast-growing communities with affordable, reliable, and clean energy now and well into the future,” said APS Director of Renewable Generation Jim Piotrowski. “Partners like McCarthy Building are helping us expand our existing portfolio of 10 utility-scale solar plants and harness close to 300 sunny days a year in our state to make progress on our commitment to power homes and businesses with 100 percent clean, carbon-free electricity by 2050.”
The Agave Solar project brings far reaching economic benefits to the local craft workforce, and the McCarthy team is placing a priority on recruiting local workers and U.S. veterans for positions by recruiting at Hiring Our Heroes events organized by the Solar Energies Industry Association. Area residents and military veterans interested in working on one of these solar projects can find job postings for positions ranging from entry level to experienced, including Laborer, Installer, Operator, Crew Lead, Electrician, and Journeyman Electrician.
Workers will assemble, install, and wire horizontal Nextracker single axis trackers supporting approximately 424,000 First Solar Series 6 modules. U.S. solar tracker manufacturer Nextracker recently expanded and reconfigured a facility from Atkore in Phoenix that has a production line dedicated to Nextracker. The facility is producing steel tracker components for utility-scale solar projects, including for the Agave Solar Plant. In addition, the Agave Solar project is using Sungrow Inverters, ABB inverter transformers, and working with trade partners at Blount Contracting for civil work and American Fence for fencing the project.
“McCarthy is proud to be assisting APS in expanding solar infrastructure in Arizona while providing jobs, training, and workforce development for hundreds of local individuals within the metro Phoenix area,” said McCarthy Renewable Energy & Storage Project Director Steve Gotschall. “We have a long history of delivering renewable energy projects within Arizona for APS, as well as for utility-scale projects across the country. It is extremely rewarding to help develop and train the future workforce in the fast-growing solar energy field right here in our own backyard.”
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In addition to recruitment and on-site skills training, McCarthy’s training emphasizes a culture of safety and is developed with an eye toward fostering a long-term career path — an approach and philosophy that is shared by all project partners.
When fully operational, in the summer of 2023, Agave Solar Plant will be capable of generating enough clean energy to meet the consumption of up to 24,000 average Arizona homes. This is equivalent to avoiding more than 194,970 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually, which represents the greenhouse gas emissions from 42,010 passenger vehicles driven over the course of one year.
