This is your SolarWakeup for October 26th, 2017

Solar Pro Running For Office. Today’s podcast is with Meghan Nutting. You may know her because she’s been working in solar policy for the better part of a decade working on State policy in over 20 States. Now she is running for State House in Colorado, representing the Denver area. Great conversation about what it takes to run and how more solar people should be doing it.

Donate. What would be better than having a solar professional in the Colorado State Assembly? Chip in what you can and pass the hat in your office. $25 or more is super helpful, let’s show Meghan the power of SolarWakeup. Maximum donation is $400 and no corporate checks. Donate Here.

Puerto Rico. A 2 person shop from Whitefish Montana is bragging about having 40 workers in San Juan and we may be looking at US citizens staying without power for a year if this continues. This looks ripe for Federal intervention given the bureaucracy and the strange contracts to unqualified contractors. At least the solar industry appears to be making headway in building some systems.

Privatization. PREPA is not a shining example of how you run a utility. With ideas and interest being floated on privatizing parts of the utility market, with PREPA retaining the wires. This could remove PREPA’s credit from the equation and allow generation to trade in the island market. The problem about Government credit would remain since public entities represent a large part of the market and unpaid bills. As a smart person in the utility space told me, after all this, “who makes the decision on making a change?”

Acquisitions. Yesterday it was all about raising money, today we have a group of acquisitions. Cypress Creek sold more projects to Australia’s New Energy, which has been on a buying spree. On the power front, TransCanada is unloading solar assets and Vistra is looking to acquire Dynegy. I’m a bit confused about the Vistra acquisition given the recent announcements to close ERCOT plants.

Live! DC. Early bird tickets for SolarWakeup Live! DC are now available. The room is small, just 50 people will be able to be there live and if it goes like Boston, it will sell out in advance of the event, reserve your tickets now.

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann