This is your SolarWakeup for August 27th, 2020

Solar Market Survey.  Please take 3 minutes and fill out our survey looking at the current state of the solar market. Take The Survey 

Watching Hurricane Laura. In a nearly identical track to Hurricane Katrina (Laura is sparing South Florida), a massive category 4 hurricane with a storm surge described as unsurvivable by the national hurricane center is hitting the Gulf Coasts of Texas and Louisiana. The surge has a chance of reaching 30 miles inland which makes me ponder the idea of living 0.25 miles from the Altantic. I hope those of you reading this in the path of the storm are preparing yourself and doing what you can to stay safe, we’ll be here for you afterwards. Next week, there will be talk about the need for infrastructure that is distributed because we will also see the images of thousands of utility trucks heading to the region for mutual aid and rebuilding the wood poles that we can our electric infrastructure.

My Hope, Via Miami Mayor. The Mayor of Miami is a republican which isn’t notable by itself. What is notable is that Mayor Suarez went on Axios yesterday and said that the republican party needs to change its position on the environment. You can’t look at hurricane Laura and think what if that hits Miami today, Hurricane Andrew was a wind event but if that happened today the water damage would be catastrophic and the Mayor knows that. So I ask this, what is it going to take for national republicans to stand up and say that we need to put solar on every home in America?

The Northeastern Response To Blackouts. After a storm that is out of the control of a utility, southern states are used to losing power for days or weeks. Everyone knows it could happen and that’s why homes on hospital grids go for more money. No regulator or even consumer blames the utility so it was a surprise to me to see Governors of New York and Connecticut be outraged at the utility response to Hurricane Isaias. Maybe utilities should do more planning and include disaster mitigation and response in their IRP which would likely yield better investments.

Solar Plus Plus Plus. Wildfires, snow storms, hurricanes, heat wave are just a few of the big items that seem to be pushing our grid to the edge. When the connection between your house or apartment to the wood pole outside breaks, you are on your own. Your food goes bad, medical devices go on critical backup and you can no longer cool your home. We reached a million solar rooftops in California late last year and CALSSA embarked on a million solar batteries earlier this year but the future is well above 1 million given the external factors facing us today and the tailwind of regulator support that calls for more deployment of distributed resource. Much more on this coming.

Roth Capital Market Update. Next Tuesday at 10am Eastern, join me and others on the Roth Capital solar market update. You can register here. 

Buyer’s Group Price Challenge. Installers across the Country are saving money with the Buyer’s Group, like modules under $0.40/watt. Take the price challenge today and discover your savings. 

Opinion

Best, Yann