PG&E Says, Kick Rocks. As expected, PG&E has named Bill Johnson as the CEO and ‘refreshed’ the board of directors. The only name remotely associated with associated with clean energy is a board member of NextGen Climate. Vote Solar came out with statement where Adam Browning said, “White we need a renewable energy leader, TVA, under Bill Johnson’s leadership, is a renewable energy laggard.” PG&E came back with a soft defense of the climate progress by TVA which any solar installer in the territory could easily refute. The most telling aspect of this is the comment from someone that was friendly to PG&E last session. PG&E looks to be taking the approach of most monopolies and expects everyone to get on board with their plan and they will not get on board with anyone else’s.
CCAs Making A Play. The California Community Choice Aggregators are coming together and offering an option to the legislators that want option b instead of bailing out PG&E. The CCAs are saying that PG&E should become a ‘wires-only’ business and let the CCAs serve the customers. This is an intermediary step to retail choice, which I would assume CCAs are not advocating for. I hope that the legislators give this a serious look in the name of safety and let PG&E focus on keeping the State safe.
Grassley Makes Easy Statement. I was hoping that I didn’t have to read this but after Trump said that the noise from wind farms cause cancer, my phone and email didn’t stop. Now that Senator Grassley from Iowa has given a great quote on the topic, let’s highlight the “idiotic” nature of the comment. (Not my words) Solar farms may cause sunburns I guess…
Solar Needs To Do Better. Solar is going to be a marketplace for schemes and sleaze bags that are trying to get rich quick. We see them all of the time and have friends that ask us about the latest ‘rebate’, ‘credit’ and ‘energy audit’ robocall. These scams are easy to point out but we also need to have a conversation about the folks that install solar with the same attitude. I get that I am vested in this as a manufacturer of racking products and while I think everyone should use Quick Mount products, I respect most of my competitors that meet a level of engineering, testing and quality. I am happy to compete for the business of installers that follow the code and work with the building inspectors to give homeowners solar systems that will last the duration of my 25 year warranty. What solar can’t have, and what is happening, are installations that will leak next year when the installer is long gone. I have plenty of solar wall of shame content from social media and we can point to plenty of non-code compliant product being peddled at some of the biggest conferences as well.
- Bloomberg: Bankrupt PG&E Names TVA’s Johnson as CEO, Forms New Board
- CleanTechnica: California Community Choice Aggregators Bid For Partial PG&E Takeover
- Axios: Grassley – Trump’s wind turbine comments are “idiotic”
- New York Times: Scammers Peddling Bogus Tax Breaks Find Traction on Facebook
- Utility Dive: As Maine re-ups net metering, fight over solar tariffs brews in Connecticut
- Renewable Energy World: Arizona Public Service issues RFP for large solar + storage plant to provide ‘solar after sunset’
- PV-Tech: UK large-scale post-subsidy pipeline soars 67% in just six months, topping 4.2GW
- Greentech Media: Idaho Power Signs Super-Low Solar PPA to Buoy 100% Clean Energy Plans
Opinion
Have a great day!
Yann