Dec. 5—Business, education and government leaders told Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Monday the chronic workforce shortage is the greatest obstacle to taking full advantage of new incentives to help companies better compete with China and invest in renewable energy.

Hassan hosted online her fifth annual Innovate NH Entrepreneurship Forum with much of the focus on climate change provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act that will encourage building state-of-the-art chip manufacturing in the U.S.

"We have more work to do to support entrepreneurship and business and promote a brighter economic future for everybody," Hassan said at the outset of the forum.

Dan Weeks, vice president of business development with Revision Energy, said solar companies cannot keep up with the number of homeowners and small businesses looking for renewable options as electric power production charges double for consumers this winter.

The Inflation Reduction Act provides bigger tax credits for those who convert to solar and promotes apprenticeships to train more installers.

"We have never seen this level of demand before with the monthly leads (for new business) coming in," Weeks said.

"It pains me to say when folks ask for getting solar that there is a pretty long queue and we want to get to them even more quickly. We need a cool one million new electricians in the next decade."

Hassan said she is proposing follow-up legislation to make these professional apprenticeships eligible for Pell Grants.

COVID made shortage worse

Michael Vlacich, regional administrator with the Small Business Administration, said the shortage of skilled laborers is a long time coming and will remain for quite a while.

"These workforce challenges predate the pandemic that only made them worse and we have demographic challenges as well," Vlacich said.

"Our resource partners can help companies with ways to shift their (workforce) approaches."

Patrick Magari, president and principal engineer at Creare of Hanover, said when buying foreign chips, U.S. companies spend far too much time and money to ensure they are not counterfeit.

"This is having a very adverse effect on our national security in my opinion and driving up costs," Magari said.

Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig said the $44 million Build Back Better Regional Challenge grant will make the state's southern tier a national pathway to train and fill much-needed jobs in the biofabrication industry.

"These partnerships with higher education and industry will ensure employers can hire workers fully trained and ready," Craig said.

During the forum, several said the other pressing workforce obstacle is affordable housing in New Hampshire, a state facing a .5% vacancy rate when 5% vacancy is considered a healthy market.

Hassan said Congress could reach consensus next year on expanding a popular federal tax credit program for developers of low and moderate-income housing projects.

"We need to have more tax credits available, there is discussion about how to pay for that, always a tricky issue with a tightly-divided Congress," Hassan said.

"There is renewed recognition on both sides of the aisle that we have to increase investment in this program."

Hassan said she is proposing a federal grant that would provide an equal match for state government spending on workforce housing initiatives.

Other speakers at the forum were Marian McCord, vice provost at the University of New Hampshire, Creare Vice President Jay Rozzi, and Maureen Toohey, deputy executive director with the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI).

klandrigan@unionleader.com