Labor coalition seeks to ensure apprentices help construct community solar

Apr. 14—A New Mexico trades labor coalition is pushing state regulators to guarantee community solar projects are constructed with enough apprentices as required by law.

New Mexico Building Trades Council, or NMBTC, is a coalition of 15 building and construction trade labor organizations and represents about 10,000 employees in New Mexico, according to the company.

The organization filed a response last week to a request from the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission seeking input on how the process of rolling out community solar is going. It's the first time New Mexico has tried to enact community solar; lawmakers approved the program in 2021.

Most community solar projects, if not all, haven't broken ground yet, according to separate responses from renewable energy companies and utilities. Construction is held up while companies hammer out interconnection agreements with utilities and utilities procure equipment to upgrade the power grid, both of which experienced unanticipated delays, according to the responses.

But before construction gets going, NMBTC wants to make sure there's a plan to employ enough apprentices in building the solar facilities, according to the company's response.

The trades coalition referred to the Public Utility Act, which requires that there must be a certain percentage of apprentices from an apprenticeship program involved in the construction of New Mexico facilities generating electricity for retail customers.

NMBTC said the statute requires 10% apprentice utilization for construction from 2020 to 2024, 17.5% apprentice utilization for projects between 2024 and 2026, and 25% apprentice utilization for projects beginning in 2026.

To prove construction crews are meeting the requirements, NMBTC asked the PRC to require the 45 chosen community solar operators to show reports of how they plan to comply with the standards.

NMBTC proposed requiring the operators to file a response under oath to a bench request order before construction starts, showing the total amount and classifications of employees during construction and additional details showing how many apprentices there are and what apprenticeship program they're registered with.

NMBTC suggested requiring the same reports on a monthly basis during construction, too.

"Such information would not only enable the Public Regulation Commission to enforce (state statute), but would provide useful information to the Commission as it continues to develop and refine its regulations governing Community Solar Projects..." NMBTC wrote.

This isn't the first time NMBTC has filed for this. The organization requested the same things in a June 2023 filing, which the PRC hasn't yet addressed.