This is your SolarWakeup for January 28th, 2020

The EV Solar Overlap. With another auto OEM announcing a major investment in EV and autonomous vehicle manufacturing, you may ask yourself what the overlap is between the solar and auto sectors. There are two important intersections between us that will make solar a central player in the growth. While EV owners tend to never go back to traditional vehicles, the adoption of EVs by new consumers is slowing, even flattening. Quite simply, consumers are scared of something they don’t know how it works and don’t know where to start. Dealerships are not the best place to go because most sales teams don’t actually have an EV. BUT, homeowners that go solar are much more comfortable to try an EV and with the solar contractor most likely showing up in one, they also know who to ask questions to and get a charging plug installed at their home. Not only does the solar contractor create the path to EV ownership, it also breeds the consumer comfort you need for new technology adoption. Large scale solar also makes the EV future much cleaner. Buses, cars, and even garbage trucks will be electric and that drives electric load growth which has to be met with new renewables matching the load profile.

GreenRock Future. BlackRock is getting more attention for its renewables investments off their CEOs letter about sustainable focus. This isn’t new but it is growing in both scale as well as breadth of investable markets beyond the traditional solar and wind markets.

A Sober Look At Davos. Joel Makower of GreenBiz has a unique and fresh view of how sustainability was discussed at Davos.

Why States Matter. New Jersey has been moving their market forward, not without change, but in a way that takes stakeholder experience into account and making the market continue its leadership position. This is why the solar industry continues to rely on the leadership at the state gubernatorial and legislative level.

Speed Translation. The outgoing CEO of BP says that oil majors should not act too fast on climate change because their is technology risk. Translation: BP needs to get more cash out of the ground in quarterly earnings before realizing that it hasn’t been able to execute in the renewables market. 

Opinion

Best, Yann