A Green State Power installation.
Will Stewart was a general contractor and his brother-in-law (Tilden Hagan) had studied electrical engineering before they opened Green State Power (No. 444 on the upcoming 2015 Top Solar Contractors List) in 2008. The company, now up to four people, has built 1.1 MW of solar total and 200 kW last year.
Green State Power is a small company, but it has big aspirations. Stewart said it aims to break into utility-scale solar construction, but there’s just one problem.
“Some of the big guys in North Carolina were in it years ahead of us. Some had contacts in the industry, some came over from Europe,” Stewart said. “The long and short of it is, we were a little late in the game.”
North Carolina attracted large companies from across the globe with its 35% tax credit for solar projects.
“Investors won’t hire you if you haven’t built a utility-scale project, and you can’t build one until someone hires you,” Stewart said. “It’s the chicken and the egg problem.”
Not to be deterred and unflinchingly realistic, Stewart admitted that he simply wasn’t going to be hired to build a utility-scale project, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t eventually develop and build one himself.
By working with investors and other EPCs, Green State Power has been able to work as subcontractor and co-EPC on projects, building the portfolio necessary to do its own utility-scale EPC work.
In the meantime, Stewart has been busy developing his own projects, getting them teed up to sell, directing his own role on the project.
“What we’re doing is selling a fully developed project and working under another EPC so we can get that experience on our resume,” Stewart said.
A fully developed project includes all the details, such as interconnection paperwork, environmental studies, permitting and even paying the interconnection fee, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. When all the details are in order, it’s ready for financing from a tax equity investor.
“There is no way a larger developer is going to call us, so we’re building relationships with the investor, who will agree to finance one project,” Stewart said. “They will have an inside knowledge on our role in the project, and hopefully they will have more comfort with us in the future.”
Green State Power is in the final stages of closing a sale on its first developed project, a 6.7-MWdc array in Bladen County, North Carolina.
