This is your SolarWakeup for July 26th, 2017

The Industry’s Eternal Shadow. Reuters does a good job of summarizing the current shadow over the solar industry. It seems that there is always something going on, ITC, net metering, or tariff for the second time. Based on what I heard about InterSolar, the show was smaller (by a whole level), no manufacturers and a general sense of pessimism. More importantly than the tariffs themselves, I think most solar contractors/developers would like some stability in the rules. The delays and unknowns cause more disruption than most policy decisions even when the policy decisions cause a reduction in market size.

The Impact of EVs. Assuming that the full scale of EVs does not include the ability to move energy from the car to the grid, power markets will have to adjust to the needs of transportation fuels. For the first time in the industrial age, utilities will compete with oil companies, two industrial sectors that have kept clear of each other for over a century. More importantly the grid operators will need to create the right price signals so the EVs and generators can adjust to the needs of the customers. If the customers don’t get the right price signals to turn on/off their demand, the market will not be able to brute force supply the needs of a transportation sector.

Well Wishes. Eric Wesoff wrote his good bye letter from Greentech Media. This publication has covered many of the articles over the years and we wish Eric well. There is no doubt that Eric was an editor with an opinion, if you pitched stories to him or his team you have encountered it first hand. We did share the tendency to hide in the press rooms in jeans and boots!

Panda, Panda, Panda!