This is a linkpost for: https://cleanenergyreview.io/p/accelerate-the-energy-transition

A Tesla Model 3 can beat a Porsche 911 from 0 to 60 miles per hour, but getting set up to charge it at home might take months and cost thousands of dollars depending on the home’s existing electrical setup and utility-side constraints.

The challenge: installation is proving to be a key bottleneck for deployment.

First, the pool of skilled electrical and HVAC1 labor is not growing fast enough to match the growing demand. Some forecast that achieving the goals laid out in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will require 2 million more workers focused on just clean energy deployment and building efficiency, while the industry struggles to add just a fraction of the 9 million jobs the IRA could create overall. To be more concrete, California has a stated goal of 6M heat pumps deployed by 2030. With just 1.5M deployed today, the incremental 4.5M heat pumps represent a big ramp for the ~35,000 HVAC workers in the state, causing delays and higher prices.

Source: Directional top-down estimate from the ‘Green Collar Workforce’ series here

Second, many households are finding the capacity of their existing service panel (where breakers are located and power is routed to individual circuits in a house) too small to support new heat pumps or EVs. Where a service panel upgrade is needed (e.g., for the ~30-35% of homes with panels 100 amps or smaller2), utility permitting and line-side upgrades can add significant time and cost to electrification efforts. In a 2022 study commissioned by PG&E and SDG&E in California, the upgrade process took up to 10 months and cost up to ~$30,000 in instances where significant line-side upgrades were needed.

Accelerating the deployment of these technologies in the face of these constraints will require avoiding and simplifying installation as much as possible, rather than just optimizing existing processes (e.g., through measures like SolarApp+).

Avoid

Avoiding installation entirely is the first line of defence, going a long way towards shifting these technologies to being bought, not sold. A few examples of this include:

Balcony solar - In many parts of Europe, it is legal (code-compliant) to purchase solar modules online and (with included micro-inverter) plug them directly into a home power outlet to help offset energy usage. This practice is boom...

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