Bracketology. The most important SolarWakeup day of the year is here, time to join this year’s March Madness bracket. As always, the winning bracket gets to write the column for a day. So head to ESPN Fantasy and look for the ‘SolarWakeup 2021’ group and use password solar to join. Feel free to invite your friends and colleagues to join the fun.
Farewell GTM. Jeff St. John has been writing for GTM since 2008 and he takes the pen to bid farewell. Like many of you, my journey in solar and now storage has run alongside that of GTM. With each step in my career hoping for a new mention on the news site and it was no different in my latest career move. GTM has been the leading insider platform for the better part of the decade and will be missed. I can’t wait to see where the current journalists land and who steps into the void left in the market.
All Eyes On ClimateTech. Energy Impact Partners has a ClimateTech index which has been outperforming the broader tech market. ClimateTech is a broad category in the index but let’s look at the next iteration which will create the next trillion dollar company. ClimateTech is the nexus where hardware and software meet to solve really important climate problems. That nexus allows for the scalability to manage enormous problems and turn them into opportunities.
Do More Infra. The headlines around an infrastructure bill are good on all sides of the argument. Utilities are asking for it, unions and contractors are for it, engineers and generators are begging for it and polling says that voters of both parties love it. So how does it actually get done? Bipartisan support has become a DC problem too hard to solve because there is no attack ad in a win-win policy.
The State By State. The weakness in the infrastructure exposed Texas to over $130billion in lost economic output during the winter storm. Some areas of Mississippi are still without water. Every State is now grappling with how their infrastructure compares and what the priority list looks like. Even if the national infrastructure plan passes, States are still the individual markets that enable their goals or slow them down.
A Product Showcase. In two weeks, join CALSSA and the dozens of manufacturers in a product showcase. This is a free event if you register in advance, you can do that here. Absent in person events and a desire to stay in front of a computer all day, CALSSA brings you the best way to learn about the latest and greatest.
- Greentech Media: Greentech Media Bids Farewell
- Utility Dive: Dominion, Berkshire Hathaway push better transmission siting as Biden turns focus to infrastructure
- Axios: New index shows climate tech companies are outperforming the Nasdaq
- Vox: Why every state is vulnerable to a Texas-style power crisis
- PV-Magazine: 10 energy bills to watch in the 2021 state legislative session
- Solar Power World: REsurety adds hourly power price, generation data to renewable mapping software
- Grist: The Battle of Thacker Pass
- Reuters: Malala Yousafzai says educate girls to fight climate change
Opinion
Best, Yann