All About Scaling. Groups like REBA are working to make the corporate procurement deals repeatable and less scary. This effort would drastically expand the customer base and speed up the development process for renewables.
The LCOE Report. The annual LCOE report from Lazard is out. It is reaching levels of importance within even Lazard that makes headlines. The report is always informative and shows the progress of renewables based on the basic tenet of cost per kWh. This year it also resulted in an op-ed in Bloomberg written by former head of CBO and OMB, Peter Orszag.
Election Consequences. As you’ve seen, the State of Virginia has shifted to democrat control by a slim margin, something that happened for the first time in a long while. This means that the legislature will be choosing the members of the corporation commission. Dominion may desire to build 1.5GW and the legislature may want to review that choice.
Big Congrats. Congrats to Vote Solar for their new partnership with Bloomberg’s Beyond Fossil Fuel campaign. Maybe their first stop will be Virginia? Also, congratulations to the SEIA board members that won last week’s election. A passionate and diverse group of solar professionals that will do a great job moving the solar industry forward.
National RFP. This is a message for the plethora of utility scale developers and investors that read this newsletter. An informal poll if you will. Let’s assume a 100MW project anywhere in the continental US with the output sold to a creditworthy entity, like the State’s university. Which State would have the highest price and what variable is the most impactful? What would you think is the highest rate that such a project would need?
- GreenBiz: Demand from first-time, repeat buyers powers new era of large-scale renewables growth
- Solar Power World: Lazard LCOE analysis shows onshore wind and utility-scale solar cost-competitive with coal and nuclear
- Utility Dive: Dominion Virginia plan for 1.5 GW new peaking capacity will lead to more gas plants, NGOs fear
- Bloomberg: Wind and Solar Power Have Become Amazingly Affordable
- Axios: Solar power systems are getting bigger, better over time
- Vox: Colorado’s cleanest energy options are also its cheapest
- PV-Magazine: $1 billion, 1.5 GWac, scaling manufacturing, and 73% growth in Q3 for SolarEdge
- Greentech Media: Batteries vs. Blackouts – 1,100 Homes Powered Through Vermont Outage With Storage
Opinion
Best, Yann