This is your SolarWakeup for July 20th, 2017

Why Didn’t Retail Energy Solar Work? As I started hearing news from people in Mass that Direct Energy was folding its solar unit, I was a bit surprised. I have long thought that retail energy providers would do very well in residential solar. They know marketing and customer acquisition extremely well and they know what customers pay better than solar companies. Or at least that’s the theory because it isn’t working out that well. In thinking about why the exits, I have to think that the sales force signing up retail customers don’t want to sell less electrons or selling retail contracts is hard enough without confusing the customers with solar.

This Is Dumb, Exhibit 742. Zuckerberg continues his campaign tour of America, this time visiting Glacier National Park. Everyone with half a brain knows that the National Park will need a new name soon because the glaciers are disappearing at an alarming pace. However, on this trip the ranger with climate science background was not allowed to tour with Zuckerberg. This is like the Nevada PUC trying to kill solar and is then surprised when thousands of Nevadans protest the change. You can’t hide reality, because it’s real.

Are We Getting Arrogant? There is no secret that our new solar policy theory is to find the common ground with companies trying to stop solar. Part of it is the financial commitment to policy has been reduced, part of it is that we may not be scared anymore because we have storage. I may be overstating this but let’s not get too comfortable because getting back something that you give away is very hard in policy.

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann