This is your SolarWakeup for July 30th

Inverter Rule Deployed. Just as I wrote about my concerns on the inverters, the FCC came out with a rule about inverter production. Somewhat going further than I expected in that it ‘bans’ all countries of origin but then limits it to ‘new models’. Having heard some experts on what this could mean and how it rolls out, there is room for interpretation on how bad and impactful this could be. More to come. 

How This Happened. I am not going to name names but this came from domestic inverter suppliers that aggressively pursued this rule, hence why it’s both big and not really immediate at the same time. The reality is that this was a way to promote the sale of the company, i.e. increase the value during the sale process and make a compelling case for domestic supply chain. Problematic is that the domestic assembly of these products isn’t scaled and trying to do it quickly is going to lead to quality issues, potentially. 

Where I’m Concerned. How will this rule get interpolated by those that actually need to enforce it? i.e. what happens to projects in the queue and how will the ISO/RTO/Utilities adjust their process, if at all. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see both extremes, utilities that don’t make a big deal of it and those that use it to potentially create rules for the existing inverters that are already installed given that the concerns are based on communications access, i.e. hacking concerns. 

Software Next? What about the software in storage and battery systems? Or the power plant controls in solar plants? The rule could potentially be seen as a basis for expansion and IPPs should (in my opinion) start running their projects in a way that assumes this is going to happen. Stay tuned…

Opinion

Best, Yann