Learning about SEIA Chapters. I have spoken to many people in and around State SEIA chapters. One thing that becomes clear early in the conversation is that SEIA chapters and national SEIA are separate entities. No sharing of revenues, no flow of funding and oftentimes separate policy intiatives. In the latest episode of EnergyWakeup, Rebecca Cantwell from CO SEIA spoke about the dockets in Colorado. While CO SEIA intervened in all three dockets, SEIA also intervened in two dockets. Our industry is already stretched on resources of time and money, are we really that divided that National and Colorado associations need to intervene separately? Especially in a State like Colorado that is operated with an executive director and solid membership base, couldn’t SEIA help funding the intervention instead?
Getting more money to States. We know we need more money for State policy fights. We also need more money to make State chapters stronger. There needs to be a more transactional approach between SEIA with a $10 million budget and States like Colorado that only have a $250 thousand dollar budget. The question is, where can the money come from? States have the problem when pitching national companies that they are already members at SEIA and some paying $150k to be on the board. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the point the companies have and that there are limited sources of money to go around. There is a pot of money available though, read more below the pitch.
Are you offering storage for your solar projects in California? I want to hear from you. In the near future, I will be doing a learning tour and meeting with contractors and developers throughout California working in and around energy storage.
How to give money to State Chapters. 38% of SEIA’s budget comes from SPI according to the 2015 filing. SPI is the lifeblood of the solar industry when it comes to budgets, much like the State conferences are for State Chapters. SPI actually makes double the amount that goes to SEIA, half of the profits go to SEPA. SEPA got $3.7million from SPI in 2015 which was about 56% of their revenues and less than $1million in revenues came from members as opposed to SEIA’s $5.7million dollars. I’ve been to SPI and one thing is certain, board members of SEIA have much bigger booths than SEPA’s board members. A 50/50 split between SEIA and SEPA doesn’t seem like a fair arrangement anymore. SEPA probably agrees with this given the demographic of the exhibitors and attendees are strongly slanted towards SEIA. If the split were to change, as it should, use that pool of capital to fund a matching pool to State chapters. Bring temporary EDs to new States and get more local companies involved in policy. More on these topics this week.
Make sure you listen to the latest episodes of EnergyWakeup. Listen to the importance of State level solar policy from Rebecca Cantwell, the executive director of COSEIA. And hear from solar entrepreneur, John Gurski, the founder of Energy Toolbase, a cloud based analytics and proposal tool.
- SolarWakeup: How Intervening with Xcel Energy Dockets intersects with SEIA
- Utility Dive: Florida lawmakers pass bill to eliminate property taxes on solar panels
- Financial Times: US anti-dumping cases fuelled by Trump trade threats
- PV-Magazine: California transmission fee overhaul could set a new deal for distributed solar
- Greentech Media: Currency Risk Is The Hidden Solar Project Deal Breaker
- NRDC: Pruitt vs Planet – Who Supports & Opposes the Paris Agreement
- PV-Tech: SEIA – SCE grid upgrades are ‘premature, excessive’ and undervalue solar energy
- Quartz: The US is using so much solar power that it will have to prepare for the August eclipse
Opinion
Have a great day!
Yann