Author Archives: Frank Andorka

The Energy Show: There is a New Utility in Town – Silicon Valley Clean Energy

The Energy Show: By Barry Cinnamon

The electric utility industry is undergoing rapid change. There used to be two types of utilities: investor owned utilities (IOUs, such as Pacific Gas and Electric and ConEd) and municipally owned utilities (MOUs, such as LADWP and Silicon Valley Power). Now there is a third hybrid type, called a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) utility.

IOUs work for their stockholders — striving to maximize their profits by charging the most they can for electricity, maximizing their net assets and minimizing their expenses (often maintenance). MOUs work for their local cities — and try to provide affordable and reliable power in their territory. Not surprisingly, electric rates at IOUs are almost always higher than rates at nearby MOUs. Because IOUs profit by installing their own solar and storage systems and maximizing their own sales of electricity, they do not look favorably on homeowners and businesses installing their own systems. My biggest competitors for almost 20 years have been local IOUs.

CCAs offer the potential for lower electric rates for customers in their territory, without changing completely to a municipally-owned business structure. CCAs buy power from large solar and wind farms, as well as hydroelectric facilities. They then distribute this power over the existing utility lines. The existing utility bills customers and maintains the power lines, while the CCA essentially just charges customers for the energy they use. CCAs offer customers cheaper electricity, and they offer better economics to solar customers.

Silicon Valley Clean Energy (SVCE) is the new CCA serving most of the Silicon Valley area. My guest this week is John Supp, Manager of Accounts Services at SVCE. Please listen up to this week’s Energy Show as we talk about the operations, economics and effects that CCAs will have on both customers and the utility industry in general.

Creditors Spar In Court Over Suniva Solar Cell Production Assets (Full Complaint Attached)

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

You had to know Suniva would come to this, right? Nothing – and I mean nothing – has come easy with this company.

First, it filed a trade complaint, only to get bigfooted to almost an afterthought on its own complaint by its “co-petitioner” SolarWorld. Then it won the case, which led to SolarWorld being purchased by competitor SunPower and Suniva to be…sold for parts.

But now that we had finally moved on to the selling off of assets, even THAT can’t go smoothly for the poor bankrupt module manufacturer. Now two of its creditors are fighting over the production equipment, with one accusing the other of being in the pocket of Canadian Solar and trying to kill the competition (ignoring the obvious fact that Suniva hasn’t produced panel in at least two years).

Will those poor Suniva folks ever catch a break?

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SQN Financial, the creditor that once offered to sell out Suniva’s trade case for $55 million to the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, has filed a complaint with the bankruptcy court that is overseeing Suniva’s dismantling accusing Lions Point, another Suniva creditor, of trying to force SQN to remove the solar cell production equipment from the company’s former Norcross factory. SQN argues that moving the equipment out of the factory would immediately devalue it (think of the devaluation of driving a new car off the lot) and force SQN to sell the equipment for far less than it is actually worth (in their estimation).

But the most interesting part of the complaint (which you can read below) is the section where SQN explains why IT thinks Lions Point is demanding the equipment be moved. It claims that Lions Point owns a stake in Canadian Solar, a Chinese module manufacturer, that is seven times more valuable than their stake in Suniva. They write in the complaint:

To be sure, according to Lion Point’s filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), Lion Point owns approximately 1,920,085 shares in Canadian Solar—one of the three largest solar companies in the world by revenue—that are valued at approximately $31,239,000(US) and constitutes Lion Point’s fifth largest equity holding. Lion Point also has an outstanding loan to Canadian Solar of approximately $14,341,000(US). Lion Point’s $45 million investment in Canadian Solar stands in stark contrast to its approximately $6 million investment in the Debtor [Editor’s note: Suniva].

As we said, we’re not sure how they can argue Suniva competes with Canadian Solar, given that Suniva hasn’t produced a module in more than two years. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter – the case continues to drag on, leaving scars on Suniva’s former employees that will never fully heal. And that’s a damn shame.

SQNComplaint

German Company To Build Cutting-Edge Solar Module Recycling Plant

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Easily lost amidst the excitement and thrill of building more solar capacity is a real concern: What do we do with the solar modules after the typical 25-year lifespan of a particular project?

Fortunately, thanks the the European Union, a German manufacturer is on the case and has built the first industrial-sized recycling pilot plant for an industrial company in its home country.

According to the website Phys.org:

With strong competencies in plant manufacturing and wastewater treatment including recycling, the Geltz Umwelt-Technologie firm has built a test and treatment facility at a large disposal firm to retrieve reusable materials from solar modules.

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Until now, recycling solar modules has been limited to the glass and the aluminum – ignoring all the valuable minerals that make up the heart of the module themselves. Fabian Gelz, a spokesman for GUT, said:

Up until now, there has not been any technical solution to recycle and separate the valuable materials from the mixed scrap. The critical step in the recycling process is therefore the destruction of the polymer layer.

Here’s where German engineering came in. According to the article, “ELSi came up with a novel solution to address this key issue. Using an energy-efficient pyrolysis process, project partners managed to dissolve the undesired polymer layers and easily detach the glass in the panels. This novel advanced process enabled them to successfully separate and recover aluminium, glass, silver, copper, tin and silicon in their pure form.”

“During the process of isolating and classifying materials, the fine materials were separated by sieves and air classifiers. To treat the exhaust gases of the mechanical process, project partners used a thermal afterburner and a quench system with a gas scrubber,” the article continued.

The article says that at its current capacity, the plant could recycle 50,000 solar modules a year and recapture 95% of the materials to be used as raw materials again.

Think about that for a minute: Not only is solar the clean energy of the future but, with this recycling technology (if it works) in place, it could also be the cleanest manufactured form of energy as well. That would make solar an absolute no-brainer – so let’s hope the plant works as advertised.

More:

State-of-the-art solar panel recycling plant

China To The United States: Two Can Play At That Game, Files WTO Complaint Over Tariffs

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Reuters is reporting that China has filed a World Trade Organization (WTO) complaint against the United States over the solar tariffs President Donald J. Trump imposed in February.

Who could have seen THAT coming? (Everyone. Everyone saw this coming.)

From Reuters writers Dan Stanway and Muyu Xu:

China’s commerce ministry said a U.S. decision to subsidize renewable energy firms and impose tariffs on imported products has seriously distorted the global market and harmed China’s interests, firing the latest shot in a broader trade conflict.

This is what happens when you start a trade war – the laws of unintended consequences kick in and suddenly you’re fighting on 10 fronts simultaneously.

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I must admit it’s a little rich that the Chinese are accusing the United States of subsidize its renewable energy firms. That must come as a huge surprise to SunEdison, Sungevity, Suniva and the like. But that irony aside, the latest battle of the solar tariffs – a battle that I’d like to remind everyone didn’t have to be fought, especially on behalf of two firms that no longer exist – will be waged and decided in the international trade court.

I’m taking odds right now that the Trump Administration responds to this decision by saying it won’t be bound by WTO rulings because “Something, something, America First, furriners, bafflegab, argle bargle.”

In filing the complaint, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said this:

As the U.S. violations have severely distorted the global market for products like photovoltaics and seriously damaged China’s trade interests, China’s use of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism is a necessary measure to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests and maintain multilateral trade rules.

According to the ministry, though exports of solar modules have surged 21% this year, only a small fraction went to the United States, with the bulk going to India, a burgeoning solar market with the advantage of being much closer to China than the United States (which makes it cheaper to ship product to it).

No one knows how this dispute will ultimately turn out, but it once again points out how ridiculous the U.S. decision to impose solar tariffs is. Keep this case on your radar; something tells me it won’t be going away any time soon.