{"id":102873,"date":"2023-07-24T08:00:18","date_gmt":"2023-07-24T12:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/\/?p=102873"},"modified":"2023-07-11T15:49:45","modified_gmt":"2023-07-11T19:49:45","slug":"contractors-corner-bq-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/\/2023\/07\/contractors-corner-bq-energy\/","title":{"rendered":"Contractor\u2019s Corner: BQ Energy <br><span style='color:#404040;font-weight:600;font-size:15px;'>Brownfield solar developer stays busy within its chosen specialty.<\/span>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-102879\" src=\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/BQ-Energy-Sunlight-Beacon-NY-2-500x325.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"325\" srcset=\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/BQ-Energy-Sunlight-Beacon-NY-2-500x325.jpeg 500w, https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/BQ-Energy-Sunlight-Beacon-NY-2-368x238.jpeg 368w, https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/BQ-Energy-Sunlight-Beacon-NY-2.jpeg 770w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bqenergy.com\/\">BQ Energy<\/a> is a national renewable energy developer working solely on brownfield projects. The company started in wind development but quickly found success in adding solar to otherwise unusable lands.<\/p>\n<p>In this episode of the Contractor\u2019s Corner podcast, founder Paul Curran talks about the evolution of brownfield solar development and how new technologies are expanding opportunities for the company.<\/p>\n<p>An edited portion of the interview is below, but be sure to listen to the full podcast for more insight on how <a href=\"https:\/\/\/2023\/04\/energy-community-bonus-credit-lucrative-project-sites-tax-dollars\/\">new IRA incentives<\/a> will impact BQ\u2019s brownfield solar development strategy.<\/p>\n<p>Find the Contractor\u2019s Corner podcast on your favorite podcast app. Thank you to this month\u2019s sponsors, <a href=\"https:\/\/scanifly.com\/\">Scanifly<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/aurorasolar.com\/empower23\">Aurora Solar<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.re-plus.com\/\">RE+<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-97180 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/scanifly.png\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 59px) 100vw, 59px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/scanifly.png 198w, https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/scanifly-150x150.png 150w\" alt=\"\" width=\"59\" height=\"60\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/scanifly.com\/\">Scanifly<\/a>\u00a0is the only drone-based solar software focused on automating the survey and design stages of your solar project\u2019s life.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-102875\" src=\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Aurora-Logo-lock-up-500x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"165\" height=\"74\" srcset=\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Aurora-Logo-lock-up-500x225.jpg 500w, https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Aurora-Logo-lock-up-368x165.jpg 368w, https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Aurora-Logo-lock-up.jpg 868w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 165px) 100vw, 165px\" \/> <em>Join industry leaders, policy experts, and solar pros on August 16 at <a href=\"http:\/\/aurorasolar.com\/empower23\">Aurora&#8217;s Empower <\/a>to learn more about the issues that matter most to your solar business.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-102874\" src=\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/RE_Plus_4C-Blue-500x283.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"82\" height=\"46\" srcset=\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/RE_Plus_4C-Blue-500x283.png 500w, https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/RE_Plus_4C-Blue-368x208.png 368w, https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/RE_Plus_4C-Blue.png 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 82px) 100vw, 82px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Join the industry at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.re-plus.com\/\">RE+<\/a> September 8-11 in Las Vegas to meet, network and accelerate the growth of your business.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/1562089726%3Fsecret_token%3Ds-wLQO1pTus5E&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Solar Power World: BQ has been installing brownfield solar projects since 2008. Tell me about those first projects and how things have changed since then.<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><em>Paul Curran:<\/em> It changed quite a bit. We actually started out doing some wind projects. It was a good experience, and we realized that there were a lot of old oil company properties out there, so we went looking for those types of properties. And then eventually working with some landowners, we realized that solar made a lot of sense in about 2008. So we did a few of those and it really took off from there.<\/p>\n<p>The biggest thing that&#8217;s different now is most of the stakeholders in our projects are big coal companies or big oil companies or steel companies or people who own a landfill. Those people are heavy industry and were not early converts to the idea of renewable energy. They were really skeptical of the whole idea.<\/p>\n<p>Nowadays, thankfully, the experience proved itself out. We can show them coal mines that we&#8217;ve converted into solar fields and so forth. It&#8217;s a much easier conversation to start, but in those days, it was very tough sledding to convince people that, \u201cYeah, we&#8217;re going to be OK building a very, very large solar field on this closed steel mill.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Has oversight of these kinds of projects changed over the years? Did the EPA even know what to do with you guys when you first started out?<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-102878\" src=\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/BQ-Energy-2-500x325.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"325\" srcset=\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/BQ-Energy-2-500x325.jpg 500w, https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/BQ-Energy-2-368x238.jpg 368w, https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/BQ-Energy-2.jpg 770w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/>EPA had a clue. Most states didn&#8217;t. As recently as last year, we got the first permit for a landfill-based solar project in Texas. And it&#8217;s not uncommon that we are the first one in a given state. The good news now is that the state of Texas can go to someplace else and say, \u201cThese have been up in your state for several months or several years \u2014 what is it that we should be looking for and what is it that we have to consider?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not quite as bad the first time we went through it. There were certainly some learning curves. I recall, in Massachusetts, which was one of the first states that did a lot of this, there was a question of, \u201cWould the grass grow underneath the solar panels?\u201d Grass on a landfill is very important. It&#8217;s not just for aesthetics. It basically holds the soil in place so you don\u2019t get erosion, which is very important to the landfill.<\/p>\n<p>We didn&#8217;t know \u2014\u00a0would the grass keep growing? It turns out that grass grows very well in the shade. So we did some work with the University of Massachusetts to verify that, and it turns out that the answer was, \u201cYep, it&#8217;s just fine. Don&#8217;t worry about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4><strong>So you&#8217;re a little bit of a test pilot for some things.<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>That happens from time to time, where we&#8217;re trying to do something different or new, or just when that particular state or the regulators have some concerns. To the extent that they&#8217;re reasonable, it&#8217;s not that hard to measure how much grass grows. So we&#8217;re happy to work with them on that.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>What has been the most challenging brownfield project your company has completed, whether that&#8217;s permitting or technical construction?<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-102877\" src=\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/BQ-Energy-Mt-Kisco-500x325.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"325\" srcset=\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/BQ-Energy-Mt-Kisco-500x325.jpg 500w, https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/BQ-Energy-Mt-Kisco-368x238.jpg 368w, https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/BQ-Energy-Mt-Kisco.jpg 770w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/>It&#8217;s a little bit like asking, which of your children misbehaves most? Depends on what you&#8217;re doing that day. We&#8217;ve done projects on nuclear fuels reprocessing centers. We&#8217;ve done abandoned steel mills; we&#8217;ve done them on landfills. We have one now down in Houston where the landfill maintenance has been really rattled, so going through and trying to design around literally decades of bad maintenance on the landfill has been very challenging.<\/p>\n<p>In that case, it&#8217;s simply a question of trying to work around what we&#8217;re given. We&#8217;re going to make the landfill and the area around the landfill a lot better, just by virtue of doing appropriate maintenance. A landfill is supposed to be kind of like a golf course \u2014 a wide open field of grass. This one looks like a jungle. There are trees all over. Those types of projects where there has not been appropriate maintenance are always our most challenging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BQ Energy is a national renewable energy developer working solely on brownfield projects. The company started in wind development but quickly found success in adding solar to otherwise unusable lands. In this episode of the Contractor\u2019s Corner podcast, founder Paul Curran talks about the evolution of brownfield solar development and how new technologies are expanding&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10031,"featured_media":102880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1720,3004,1713],"tags":[],"class_list":{"2":"type-post","10":"entry","11":"has-post-thumbnail"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Contractor\u2019s Corner: BQ Energy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In this episode, BQ Energy talks about how brownfield solar installations have changed over the past decade.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/\/2023\/07\/contractors-corner-bq-energy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Contractor\u2019s Corner: BQ Energy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In this episode, BQ Energy talks about how brownfield solar installations have changed over the past decade.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/\/2023\/07\/contractors-corner-bq-energy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Solar Power World\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-07-24T12:00:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/BQ-Energy-featured.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta 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