This is your SolarWakeup for October 10th, 2017

The Scott Pruitt Hypocrisy. You should chuckle at the audacity that Scott Pruitt has. On one hand, the cabinet is pushing for subsidies for old, inefficient power plants and nuclear power is getting bailouts all over the place and on the other hand, Pruitt wants wind and solar to compete without subsidies. Solar has been clear for several years, get rid of ALL energy subsidies, including exploration credits and solar & wind with storage will rule the day.

America Without Clean Power Plan. The bad guys had a good day yesterday as the clean power plan dismantling makes some advances. CPP was always a market adder as opposed to a market maker but most of all, it made States get rid of the dirtiest power plants, which was good for everyone. History will view these people accordingly.

Make It Political. It seems like the punches are coming stronger and more often doesn’t it? We have done a bad job of making the arguments political. For example, my county commissioner voted against a resolution opposing the IOUs anti-solar bill. Now he is running for State House and that vote should cost him the election in a district that is 25% independent.

Why Solar Fails At Politics? In a $25billion solar market, which is twice the size of the gun market in the US, why isn’t solar more powerful? The answer is in our trade group budgets. Combined, the numbers are paltry and our opponents are very powerful and well capitalized. What if one of the solar trade groups had a $50million budget? What if they had an email list with 5million active solar supporters that would pick up the phone and call their legislators or activate against a bill? What if needs to become reality.

First Solar Stays Out Of Mud. It is no secret that First Solar, by being excluded in the 201 petition, benefits from a tariff. Utilities would be forced to work with First Solar solely on the cost comparison. Based on the louder pushback from utility developers, it seems clear that there is some undercurrent of disagreement here.

Presented By EnterSolar.  EnterSolar is a leading provider of solar photovoltaic solutions to the commercial marketplace that is ranked the #1 solar developer in New York State and in the top 10 nationally.

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann