Guide
Who builds a utility-scale solar farm: developer, EPC and the trades
The companies on a solar farm from site to switch-on, who hires whom, and when each one is chosen.
A utility-scale solar farm is built by a chain of companies, and each one is chosen at a different time. Knowing the chain tells you who to call and when.
The developer
The developer finds the land, files in the interconnection queue, wins the permits, signs the power buyer and raises the money. It often files under a project company named for the site. It chooses the builder, usually a year or more before construction.
The EPC contractor
The EPC contractor designs the plant, buys the equipment and builds it. A few dozen companies build most of the utility-scale solar in the US. The EPC's project manager and superintendent choose the trade subcontractors and the equipment; they are the people to reach.
The trades, in the order they arrive
Survey and layout come first and stay to the end. Then clearing, grading, roads and the stormwater controls in the SWPPP. Then pile driving, racking or trackers, and modules. The electrical crews build the collection system, the inverters, the project substation and gen-tie. Fencing, landscaping and commissioning finish it.
Some builders self-perform civil work, piling or survey; others hire each scope out. Whether a builder self-performs a trade decides whether there is a subcontract to win at all.
Where the names come from
The developer is named in the queue, county agendas and state filings. The builder is named most often on the construction stormwater permit, in a developer's press release, or on the builder's own project and careers pages. Trades are named on their own permits, on a substation or gen-tie filing, or by the trade itself. Groundtrace names a company only when one of these records does, and marks each as confirmed, reported or estimated.