Post Election Interview. As promised, yesterday I spoke with SEIA’s CEO, Abby Hopper. SEIA and the solar industry have to maneuver a divided government in an effort to move solar forward for the solar+ decade. We talk about the ITC extension, trade issues and improving interconnection/permitting issues for all parts of solar. You can find the podcast on your favorite stream or here.
Post Election Market Update. On Friday you can join me on Roth Capital’s solar market update call. Register for that here as we talk about politics, supply chain constraints and just how fast the market is growing.
Biden Makes Moves. The President-elect named his long time advisor and former ebola czar as the next White House Chief of Staff. Ron Klein has been Biden’s COS before and knows where the keys to the situation room are. There are names floating for cabinet members and also the idea of creating a climate czar or climate department. Governor Inslee, recently reelected, is often the name that comes up when discussing a climate leader but don’t get too lost in the headline names. The key is to find the staff that get into the weeds of the policy. I’m more interested in the chief of staff to the FERC commissioners or the legislative affairs director for energy policy than the climate czar. Be patient, hiring will happen over the next two months.
The Smart Grid Poster. It’s not the most exciting topic but interconnection queues are well over 100GW and the cost to upgrade the grid is getting higher every day. There is a misaligned interest between the grid operator and generators while the grid is in bad shape. It was built decades ago and that is why there was a map of a 21st century smart grid in Joe Biden’s office as Vice President. Also, think of where this grid would be built. Tens of billions of dollars would be invested in a lot of the states that have republican representation in the Senate. Biden is going to want FERC to get RTOs to clear queues and let wind and solar projects move forward. Maybe we will have infrastructure week coming soon after all.
Buy Smarter. Solar products don’t get to installers in a straight line. It goes through layers, packaging, repackaging, unloading and reloading of containers to get to its final destination. Most of the time, installers pay more than double than the original cost to manufacturer because of those inefficiencies. Plus the pricing for products is not transparent which makes one installer pay more than the next. Take some of that inefficiency out of the process by joining the SolarWakeup Buyer’s Group, a membership organization that puts the purchasing power back in installers’ hands. Find out more at solarwakeup.com/pricing
- Vox: Why the Biden administration should establish a Department of Climate
- PV-Magazine: Saul Griffith wants to electrify everything and rewire America
- Solar Power World: The Value of a Vet: U.S. veterans are key contributors to solar success
- PV-Tech: Lightsource bp adds to Array Technologies tracker partnership with new 1.4GW deal
- Greentech Media: A Looming Transmission Crunch for the US East Coast’s Offshore Wind Ambitions
- Solar Builder: Cypress Creek closes $200M debt financing backed by 1.6 gigawatt solar portfolio
- GreenBiz: How Biden’s election could kickstart U.S. adoption of zero-emission vehicles
- Utility Dive: Transmission troubles? A solution could be lying along rail lines and next-generation highways
Opinion
Best, Yann