Cosmic Robotics’ robots could speed up solar panel deployments

The U.S. has been building so many solar farms that companies can’t find enough people to install the panels. By 2033, the number of solar installers is expected to increase by 48%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Even if those labor force growth projections pan out, the industry is still likely to face a shortage of experts with the right skills. Making the work grueling — and unappealing — is the fact that a significant fraction of solar farms are in deserts. “It’s terrible work in remote places,” James Emerick, co-founder and CEO of Cosmic Robotics, told TechCrunch. To give people a hand, Cosmic has developed a robotic assistant that does the heavy lifting on solar job sites. Utility-scale solar panels can be enormous, weighing up to 90 pounds. Workers are required to hoist them onto racks several feet off the ground for hours a day. Such exertion in extreme environments can quickly exhaust a worker, or worse. Those conditions are partly why Emerick and his colleagu ... Read full article.