The first solar project that PCL's Walter Schachtschneider ever worked on in 2010 produced just over nine megawatts. A little over a decade later, he was part of the largest solar project in Canada, producing 692 megawatts direct current (MWdc) / 465 megawatts alternating current (MWac) over a sprawling 3,340 acres — enough to power 100,000 homes annually.

Schachtschneider didn’t just witness the solar boom. He helped build it.

Now, after helping PCL become a leader in the industry, he’s working hard to share that expertise with his colleagues and create a deep institutional solar expertise at PCL.

As the director of engineering for PCL Construction’s Solar Division (PCL Solar) based in Toronto, Schachtschneider consults on builds across Canada, the United States and Australia. But his career didn't start in solar. He joined PCL in 2008 with 25 years of construction experience under his belt. After working on mission critical data centers and conventional building projects in his first couple of years with the company, he moved into the burgeoning solar portfolio.

“I was working in data centers, and a few of us began exploring renewable energy as a new market opportunity for PCL,” Schachtschneider says. “We took the next eight months and spent all our time figuring it out. Andrew Moles, Solar Division general manager, literally first wrote down the idea on the back of a napkin. From there, we developed a robust business plan and it got approved.”

His industry-leading expertise on solar energy projects has distinguished PCL Solar as a builder of choice and helped it secure more than $5.85 billion US in new solar and battery energy storage system (BESS) engineering, procurement and construction work across three countries. This work encompasses the installation of more than 10 million solar modules, includes 13 BESS projects totaling over two gigawatt-hours (GWh).

“We can tell owners with confidence exactly what we’re doing,” Schachtschneider says. “Our objective is to maximize the owner’s profitability. And when potential clients see what we’re proposing in terms of production, they usually tell us that nobody promises as much production as we do, and the project is most profitable if PCL builds it. It helps if you make life easy for the people who are making these decisions.” 

As solar builds have increased in scope, size and capacity, so has Schachtschneider’s knowledge of the field. His colleagues say his particular brand of technical expertise and real-world experience has given rise to PCL’s proprietary software for analyzing designs and their performance more effectively. This in turn gives PCL a competitive edge when pursuing and executing projects, as we can design more efficient projects. The vast amount of data about geography, weather and other factors that we can work into models is the secret sauce that Walter and his team provide. PCL Solar’s designs perform better and deliver higher returns, which ultimately wins us more projects.

“He’s a bundle of knowledge. If you don’t know something and think no one else knows it, Walter probably knows,” says Warren Amalsad, a senior solar designer who first met Schachtschneider in 2017 during a student co-op term. “He looks intimidating to talk to because of his size, but he’s a big teddy bear.”

Schachtschneider mostly chalks up his vast solar knowledge to a good memory, but also to never passing up opportunities to learn, grow and develop his career. “Sometimes I have to rewind a lot of tape in the drive upstairs,” he jokes. “But you take the challenges as opportunities to learn, and they can help you solve problems you had no idea would come along.”

Over his nearly 15 years in the solar industry, Schachtschneider has seen plenty of these challenges — from supply chain issues and material shortages to policy hurdles and talent gaps. These issues, however, have given him valuable insights that he brings to his work every day.

“He’s like a huge encyclopedia,” says Aleksandar Milojevic, an engineering manager with the Solar Division who has worked with Schachtschneider for more than a decade. “He knows everything. You can’t believe it. Civil engineering, architectural, structural, electrical — whatever you ask about, he has that knowledge.”

Schachtschneider has a philosophy: If you can do it in-house, do it. This has given PCL an edge in the solar space, because it means PCL has developed experts in every facet of solar operations — from design to analytics — who can optimize projects and maximize client profits.

“We put our team and our methods up against international competition, and we win the contracts,” he says. “It all has to do with our in-house expertise and the understanding that, at the end of the day, this is a business venture for the developer.”

Doing this work in-house also means better communication among all team members, which makes projects and processes more efficient and reduces costly rework.

“We’ve developed standards and we adhere to those standards because everybody understands that if we speak the same language, it’s difficult to misinterpret things,” he says. “Everybody understands the importance of doing things consistently, correctly and in the most understandable fashion because it leads to fewer mistakes.”

Schachtschneider also developed proprietary software through Microsoft Power BI that collects and analyzes millions of bytes of data from PCL solar installations around the world, either in real-time or from the previous day. This data is used to produce both high-level performance summaries and richly detailed reports that can pinpoint energy production down to the hour. This analysis can identify problems on existing sites and give PCL insight on things to include or avoid in future projects.

“Walter calls it his $2 billion research facility,” Amalsad says. “Having all this extra data helps us build better in the future.”

“This software is the ultimate in what I would consider continuous improvement,” Schachtschneider adds. “There are four steps: You plan; you do; you study, which is what we’re doing with this data; and then you act on the results.

“Without a tool like this, I have no idea how you would manage a couple hundred million data points coming in and truly understand what the issues are.”

Data collected includes overall plant availability, energy production, heat maps, weather and the brightness of sunshine hitting solar panels. “It’s amazing what we can tell in Toronto about what’s going on in Australia,” Schachtschneider says with a laugh. Data like this helps PCL explain periods of decreased energy production to clients, and it can even point to minute details, like if grass on a project site has grown too high and is blocking light from reaching panels.

Where possible, PCL Solar works with the developer to collect data for performance testing for two years after completion. In some cases, project owners have allowed Schachtschneider’s software to collect data beyond that window because the reports generated are so useful to them, to PCL Solar and to future solar and BESS solutions.

Those who work with Schachtschneider describe his leadership style as relaxed and supportive, but still with clear expectations. Schachtschneider is proud of the team he’s built at PCL Solar and the people to whom he has shared his knowledge and expertise.

“At the end of the day, it’s really satisfying to see so many team members who I hired as students become full-time employees,” he says. “I don’t pretend to always have the best idea, but we work through problems as a team and collectively choose the best suggestions and strategies for each project. I see some of the things that we’ve tried to instill have stuck, and they approach their daily tasks in a very value-added way that embodies the PCL culture.”

The best advice Amalsad has received from Schachtschneider is to “remember the 1%” — to remember the importance of executing expertly designed solutions with precision so that small errors don’t compound into huge issues.

“When I look through something and it looks fine, I think about, if I'm missing something, what's it going to do down the road for PCL?” he says. “What will it mean for the project and for our relationship with the client?”

“If you make one mistake, it might cost a few dollars. But if you don’t catch that mistake and repeat it thousands of times, it suddenly becomes worth millions,” Schachtschneider explains. “Construction work on a solar project is quite simple. It’s just the massiveness of the project and the different conditions you encounter that makes it interesting and challenging.”

While he’s mused about retirement in recent years, Schachtschneider’s colleagues say they don’t think he’ll ever really slow down. “Two years ago, he said, ‘I’m going to redo the roof of my house by myself,’” Amalsad recalls.

With that level of enthusiasm and dedication, Schachtschneider has equipped the next set of PCL leaders to build the solar energy projects that will continue to grow in capacity and power the future.