Big Rooftop In Northeast. Big numbers for rooftop solar in the northeast per the EIA. These are policy driven initiatives and we need to do more of it across the Country. Residential solar is doing well but needs uniform permitting that is instant to come to life while commercial solar needs fundamental changes to the market and policy drivers.
Blame The Policy. Much to your surprise, the number of coal jobs in America is much smaller than you would expect. According to the bureau of labor statistics, coal jobs are now under 53,000 nationally. When someone tells me that solar can’t make up the coal jobs, I argue that the legislators in coal states are to blame. Not only are they trying to save the market, they are also trying to stop solar. Solar jobs won’t grow if politicians don’t want to let the market work.
Easier Acquisitions. Solar installers now get to go to a single loan source for roofing and solar (and probably storage). Not only is Sunnova doing this interesting work, they are also one of the only loan providers that do thorough vetting for all parts of the install by including racking in their approved vendor list. Congrats to their team for innovating and putting their logo up on their building in downtown Houston.
20 To Go. That’s how many coal plants are left in the West. Don’t blink, you will miss their closure.
- PV-Magazine: Northeast US added 800 MW of rooftop solar in 2019
- Axios: Wind and solar would struggle to replace coal-mining jobs
- Solar Builder: Sunnova to bundle roof replacements along with home solar + storage financing
- Los Angeles Times: Coal plants are closing across the West. Here are the companies sticking with coal
- Vox: New conservative climate plans are neither conservative nor climate plans
- GreenBiz: Why ‘climate tech’ is the new cleantech
- Utility Dive: New York aims to kick off solicitation for up to 2.5 GW of offshore wind in 2020
- Greentech Media: Generate Capital’s $1B Raise Draws Global Infrastructure Funds to Cleantech
Opinion
Best, Yann