Now West Virginia Is In The Game! Telling a story is more than having it. We talk over and over again about how solar can be a way out for coal miners that through no fault of their own are out of work. A hundred years ago coal meant an industrial revolution, energy that drove the economy into the 20th Century. Today we have solar, a distributed source of power that will drive us through the 21st Century. I applaud the team for putting together this amazing video. It’s short, less than 4 minutes long, but the message needs to be heard. Please forward this on, so that your friends, colleagues and family can see what our industry is capable of.
Tesla Will Fight 201 Petition. Privately, many solar people have asked me who I think is behind the 201 petition, some throwing out the Tesla name because of the Buffalo Gigafactory. I was always skeptical given the support SolarCity had put early on into the ITC extension when some could have argued that killing off competition could be in their favor, same with net metering. A Tesla spokesperson confirmed to Axios, on the record, that they will be fighting against the 201 petition even with a US manufacturing facility. Heritage is against it, ALEC is against it, SEIA is against it, Tesla is against it. Who is for this except for two bankrupt companies, one owned by Chinese and one drowning in debt from Qatar? How is this good for America and Americans?
Ratebasing It. If your business depends on deploying capital to supply energy to a growing demand, the absolute last thing you want to see is lower demand. Even taking into account the growth of population, energy sales in the US are down 3% since 2010. If you look at it per capita, sales are down 7%. This is very much a lightbulb problem and not a solar problem but it will soon become an EV solution. Utilities have to think about demand and the largest place they’ll get it is in transportation. If I were a utility CEO, which I would love to be (Recruiters: call me, I am available), I would be taking a massive initiative to put charging stations across my territory and incentivize EV purchases. I may even propose a pilot to use my cheap debt to finance EV purchases for Uber and Lyft drivers. (Call me!)
- YouTube: A West Virginia Solar Story
- Axios: Tesla lobbies against solar trade protections
- EIA: Today In Energy
- CNBC: The 5 red states leading America in green energy
- PV-Tech: SolarWorld on brink of being saved
- Rocky Mountain Institute: Understanding the Innovation Dividend of Clean Energy Investment
- PV-Magazine: California judge backs blocking utility’s TOU rates plan
- Utility Dive: Trump formally establishes infrastructure council, with focus on energy
Opinion
Have a great day!
Yann