This episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast features Josh Rangel, founder and CEO of Rangel Renewables, a rapidly growing company providing renewable energy solutions. Josh discusses how he is partnering with community colleges to train new wind technicians to meet surging industry demand, his plans to expand into repowering projects with his crane company King Heavy Lift, the positive impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act, and how he is fostering a family culture and safety focus at his company during a time of unprecedented growth. The hosts also explore the global shortage of qualified wind technicians and what skills are most valuable for new hires to have. Throughout the wide-ranging conversation, Josh shares invaluable insights from the frontlines of the U.S. energy transition.

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Joel Saxum: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I’m your co host, Joel Saxum, and today, Allen Hall and I have a very special episode in store for you. Joining us on the show is a forerunner in wind energy growth and a leader in the U. S. energy transition, Josh Rangel. He’s the founder and CEO of Rangel Renewables, a company that’s been growing rapidly, providing renewable energy solutions to the industry.

And he’s also the visionary behind King Heavy Lift, a key player in the race for a greener tomorrow. But today, he’s not just a business builder. He’s here to share his invaluable insights into the wind industry, hiring the right technicians, developing their skillsets, fostering an amazing family style company culture and discussing how the IRA bill is driving unprecedented growth in our field.

Without further ado, let’s get started with this episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. One of the things that we talked about off air was the fact that you’re not, Rangel isn’t out to steal technicians from that company and this company and that company. What you’re really doing is adding to the overall talent pool.

Because that’s the problem we have as an industry. We have, there’s a batch of really good technicians and people within the industry that know what they’re doing and can do it. However, We’re not going to be able to sustain the growth in what we need to accomplish for our energy transition unless we take brand new green people and train them up and give them opportunities to succeed.

So how are you guys attacking that problem?

Josh Rangel: By partnering with the community colleges this is my big point that I get all the time. I’m interested, but I just don’t know what to do. I don’t know where to go. How do I apply? What are the steps? Do I need to go to a school that is requiring me to go for two years?

When you get a call and hey, we need 35 individuals in two to four weeks, can you support it? I necessarily can’t have somebody go out to a school for two years and then say hey, you know Call me back whenever you’re ready to go. And so Streamlining the processes as we identified. Okay. Hey The market is going to continue to grow, not enough, staff that can do the work.

Trying to do our best to now working with Aaron to educate those from our social media posts or to go to apply, what the steps are to take.

Joel Saxum: Absolutely. And one of the tools that you have to do that is you’ve got access to some funds too, don’t you?

Josh Rangel: Yep. So with the Houston Community College, there’s a program that we’re able to access now having Rangel Renewables and King Heavylift.

I own both businesses 100%. I can offer up to a half million dollars on the Rangel Renewables side and half a million dollars on the King Heavylift side to trades. And so upwards of 2, 000 ahead each year. So when I talk about a economic impact for making sure that. Again, as low cost effective for them as possible.

That way, when they get into the program, it’s one to two weeks, depending upon what certifications that’s needed. And then at that point, they’re off and running and then identifying with their field supervisor and are forming and leads. Where we can, again, support and make sure that these guys have a successful plan of action to succeed.

We just hit our two year mark of no recordables. And so again, that’s the men and women in the field making sure that they’re the one another’s keeper. We have programs to promote safety. So if you identify that a tagline was feared and didn’t need to go back in the field hey, document that and then we have an application that they can submit it to.

And then we vote on in the back office to see which is the most critical, crucial one that You know, was a big safety hazard and then whether it be beats by Dre or cool coolers, just having a laundry list of things that they would like for themselves. So now it’s Oh man, you got, you had a Yeti cooler and it had the Rangel logo and you get that brand of, the good cat safety of the month.

And then it’s I want to be able to do that. So then you get an influx of, Oh, I found trash. All right. All right.

Joel Saxum: Yeah, that program, the idea of having that direct field to office connection is crucial, because you always, no matter what industry you’re in, there’s always the, hey, safety meeting.

Everybody has the capability of stop work. Everybody has the capability of stop work, right? Everybody says that. But sometimes when you’re on site, it’s almost like the mob mentality, where you’re like, ah, let’s just get this thing going, let’s just do this. But you’ve enabled your people to actually Step aside, they can do it, can they do it anonymously or either, either way, they have a direct connection to maybe the people that aren’t at the field level to the back office.

You guys know exactly what’s going on right away. I have to think that your clients love this.

Josh Rangel: Today, we just passed our audit for our first year with an ISO. Fantastic. Now, is it necessary on certain accords? No, but if I know that all our men and women in the field and in the back office are going home to their loved ones every single day, that’s pretty better.

And so note that I’m again, back to the statement, I’m reinvesting the money that we’re getting from profits and putting it back into the business because this business will be generational. We will be a global entity. We will be a billion dollar company. But you have to instill the right ethics and morals and standards.

Allen Hall: So the last time we had you on the podcast was about a year ago, and I think we thought we knew what was going to happen over the next 12 months. And I don’t think that has gone the way we necessarily thought it was going to go. And I’m curious for you, especially with the repowering, all the things that are happening in the industry, and particularly in the Midwest, what you thought was going to happen versus what happened.

And where do you think we’re going in the next 12 months?

Josh Rangel: I’m very thankful for maintenance. Our port, our portfolio boasts of a large quantity of maintenance. 2020, we had a tremendous year on not only new construction, but 75 percent of our work was repowered. We did over a gigawatt of installation in 2020.

We did 10 out of 12 months, day and night. So we were around the clock and starting with, the management meetings going into the foreman. Going into toolbox talks and, having our morning roundups, then you work basically a 10, 12 hour day, and then you’re going into night shift. And then it’s doing the same thing with those guys and getting them ready and prepared and moving light plants and trailers and man lifts and making sure all that, is accounted for now with the change and going back into the political sense, then you have a change in power and where’s the money going to be allocated.

And you have your. IRA and what does that look like? And now when we are submitting our bids, what kind of apprenticeship program do you have? What taxes can you provide? As a minority business owner, OEMs, certain companies are now telling me you have to let us know that because we’re also required to utilize companies like yourself from the repowered standpoint.

Now that you have that transition of cash coming through the door, what it’s looking like for infrastructure. Now looking at, Hey, if we can align ourselves with transmission distribution, greenfield, brownfield projects, but in line with some of the electrical work that I’m familiar with, then I might, again, there’s going to be probably other areas for grants or opportunities for companies to grow.

I’ve also thought about, do I open up another company for the offshore market? I think maybe Texas offshore, something to that metric, but. Then again, does that align with another half a million dollars that I can provide to the trades to get them into the industry? And now I have access to 1.

5 million to be able to every year get individuals through, the schools and certification programs that are needed. So with Repower, we’re starting to get more RFQs and I believe that it’s due in part two, not only the RA, but the tax credits that are in line. More owners are saying, Hey, they’re the tax credits are there.

So let’s go get it. And then technology too has just grown so vastly and what you can do, then what you’ve done, even as five years ago.

Joel Saxum: Yeah. Another side of that, we’ve been talking with some people too, is everybody’s watching Repower and everybody cause you’re looking at the bright apple in the eye, right?

But one of the truths here is that in 2010, 11, 12, we also had a huge wind push. If you watch for installed capacity, there was a spike during those years. And now that buck is due, right? They’re all 10 years old. So they’re qualified for PTC. So not only is it the boom that we had back then, but the new apple of the eye today is a perfect storm for repowers and investment.

Josh Rangel: Right. And to that you deemed to ask the question why aren’t you guys just building the new town? Why can’t we just go new construction all the way through or as an owner? You’re thinking if the collection lines are, all the substations are in here…

Joel Saxum: It’s connection queues, grid queue. Yeah.

Josh Rangel: If I’m unable to save an extra five to 10 million on the civil side, and all I have to do is just take a few components off and add an adapter and then throw on the new technology, I think I want to go that route. And that’s where I, my personal opinion, but also, working with, several.

Higher ups that in the industry understand why that push for repower is there. Due to the fact of not only cost savings on the front end, but also with the tax credits on the back end as well.

Allen Hall: So that, does that change what you do over the next 12 months? I’m just curious as we see wind farms and you’re probably out there telling everybody like, Hey, that went from 10 years old.

You probably got to repower it and we’re ready. Does that change the way you structure what happens next? Because you see all that repowering happening in front of you.

Josh Rangel: Yes, sir. And this is gonna be in line with a question you had about king heavy lift. When you’re building new construction sites, crawlers are great.

They’re fantastic for what they’re doing, but on the repower side, and you’re moving from pad to pad, they want something a bit more mobile but also the cough for mobing in and demoing. Start to really jump in. So by identifying, utilizing hydro cranes, LTM, 1750, 1650, 1500, those cranes can really get after it.

And so with King heavy lift identifying role, what cranes do you want to go to market with and how do we want to make sure that we’re entering to be successful. And right now we’ve been subbing some of our cranes out on particular projects, but. As we’re moving into 2024 and going into 2025, what we’re seeing with repower projects and RFUs, let’s get a few of the hydro cranes.

That way we can start getting our portfolio built, the finances where they need to be revenue wise, because again, as I’m trying to move into the offshore market and you’re dealing with a billion dollar companies what Rangel Renewable is doing revenue wise and project wise. And how many cranes is King Heavy Lift and what type of lifts are you doing and in what capacity?

And so when you really put those together, now providing a full turnkey service to our customers, it really just makes sense to say. We trust them and we know that they can do the job.

Joel Saxum: Yeah. You become the solution provider, right? They’re saying we got a problem or we got a project. Let’s just call Josh and Aaron and the team, and they’ll figure out what they need to do to support us.

That’s the way you want it. That’s the perfect spot in the industry to be in.

Josh Rangel: For sure. And so that’s where. Really trying to strategize with purchases and getting manpower and aligning ourselves to make sure that again, if I know that we’re going to need another 150, 200 guys, girls in the next 12 months, what are we doing now to plan for it?

And again, align ourselves with purchasing of cranes and what that looks like. So super excited. Again, I say that we’re blessed and highly favored and doing a lot of great things. We’re in our seven year anniversary. So Friday going to supply, propose a few things and again, but when I look at it, we’ve really been operating as a true wind company the last four years, going into December.

To be able to say that. You just can’t put it into words. Yeah. So thankful and blessed. And I just remember it was like the first, I gotta read this first payroll, Lord help me. It like, and then it’s hey, I would look on LinkedIn. It’s what man, this is so cool. Their LinkedIn profile shows, wind technician Rangel renewables.

It’s like, all right, two months and then three months. Like, all right, people we’re seeing that, no one’s quitting. We’re doing this.

Joel Saxum: Yeah. Congrats, man. It’s not an, it’s not an easy road.

Josh Rangel: Oh yeah. No, not at all. And I probably, I know I make Aaron pull his hair out cause I’m like, Hey, we just started three new guys.

Are they on LinkedIn? Man, I just, they’re just trying to get on board. I’m like yeah, that’s fine. But LinkedIn makes sure they’re on it.

Allen Hall: Yeah. I do think you’re playing in a unique space at the minute, right? Because in business, particularly in the business you’re in, timing is everything.

That if you can ride the wave, you need to be riding that wave. And it become a little bit dangerous, right? That there’s a lot of money moving around and a lot of possibilities and not always, you may not always win that next contract that does that sort of change your perspective on what’s going to happen over the next 12 months in, in the sense of there’s a lot of activity, we can bid a lot of jobs out.

But we also know on the same token that getting good people on site can be difficult and to do the quality of job you guys have done, that there’s a standard you have to meet there. And does that sort of change your perspective on, Hey, we’re going to be much more selective on, on the tasks we do or the customers we work with going forward?

Josh Rangel: With wind, we can do wind and we knock it out of the park. On the King heavy lift side with cranes, I’m not just subject to wind projects. I’m also available for infrastructure, marine and construction sites. And we’re in the Mecca, oil and gas energy capital of the world in Houston. We have all the refineries, petrochem facilities, outages.

So really making sure that if we needed a pivot or diverse by the portfolio and say, Hey, we have these four cranes out and they were moving and moving the last 10 months, we might have a low for a month and a half. Okay. Let’s go move this to outage and they’re going to be out there for the next six weeks.

And then once the outage is done, we can shoot it back and it’s going to go back to the, projects in Iowa and it’ll be there for another 12 months. So really making sure that they’re not sitting, but also. Whether it be new construction, repower, maintenance is going to be pretty consistent. So we signed a three year service contract with a large OEM and it looks like we’re in line to do that with another OEM.

And wow, that’s great. Yes, sir. So consistently, we should be good on the maintenance side for. Blade bearings, main bearings, generators, gearboxes drive drains we’re doing a couple of nacelle swaps out in Colorado right now. We’re just small odd jobs, having to replace.

Whether it be fluids or oil or checking in on the batteries. And there’s just a plethora of things that need to be done. But again, it goes back to now being asked for BOP work a little different, but I’m open for it because again, that opens up another area for. New technicians to come into the industry and learn what we do.

Allen Hall: Oh yeah, absolutely. And that does force your people to have sort of a broader sense of skills, right? That if you’re doing BOP or you’re up tower a little bit, those are not always the same thing. And getting back to the training piece for here for a minute, that does mean, uh. Technicians, I know we use the word technician very broadly, right?

But that does mean that the technicians need to have some sort of basic fundamental skill, whether it be a mechanical or electrical even some civil work, that they have to have some area of expertise that they’re baselined in. Does that then drive how you select technicians?

If, we had a good example, we were talking to some companies up in Canada last week and they were going through this discussion about where to find technicians and What kind of skill sets are you, are they looking for? And one of the things that popped up was I don’t want somebody who’s just wind specific.

I don’t want somebody who just only knows how to fix blades or to grease gearboxes or whatever it is. I want somebody who has a little bit of a broader set of skills that can do, can be multiple things. Probably superior in one of those things at least, but has a broader sense of skills that the electrician can do.

Lubrication work or can go do BOP work. Is that the kind of person you’re looking for generally when you’re out and trying to bring new people on and for all these new jobs that we just created?

Josh Rangel: Yeah, no, great question. And it goes back to the culture of our business and making sure that we just don’t have people that are one sided.

If you hired me, I’m only gonna do blade swaps and that’s it. You’re probably not going to be a great fit because we have to be flexible and nimble. Our customers saying, Hey, we got to go shop out a generator. If you don’t know it, I’m going to put you with an experienced technician or a lead or a foreman that does, and go start to gain that experience.

Joel Saxum: Not just throw it, not just throwing them into the fire because you see that way too much in this industry, to be honest with you.

Josh Rangel: So identifying with our customers, if we’re going to start aligning with the BOP, having in house training. That way, if they are open for it, then it’s will get me in line with who’s already performing these tasks and then they’ll go through a week or two weeks worth of training to identify what those questions are and having labs to identify circuits and what they need to be looking out for, just basic maintenance work.

And again, it goes back to, there’s just not enough people in this industry, and we gotta go create them.

Allen Hall: That is so true, and that is industry wide, and we hear, Joel, we hear that all over the place. I don’t care what part of the planet we’re on at the moment, when we ask about technicians, same problem.

Joel Saxum: Yeah, you can be in Sweden, offshore in the UK, you can be in Italy, South America. Everybody’s like, where are we going to get these people from? How are we going to do this? The the global wind energy consortium, they came out with a report the other day and the statistics in it were staggering.

It was like with it by 20, I think it was 2040, they were saying 400, 000 new wind energy technicians globally, like 400, 000 people that need to be trained in the next. 17 years. That’s crazy.

Allen Hall: All right, Josh, thanks for being on the program. I, everybody wants to talk to you and try to connect with you. And I always say go to the website.

So you want to just tell everybody where they can find you.

Josh Rangel: Yeah. So if you’re wanting to connect, please reach out on our website, www.rangelrenewables.com or LinkedIn. I’m very active on that platform. And we have our social media platforms on Facebook. As well as Instagram and Twitter, the new X. So look forward to connecting with you guys.

And also our number to reach us at the office is 832-304-8328. Again, look forward to connecting and hopefully see you guys soon.