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Forbes Article Reveals 320 GW Of Untapped Solar Potential

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

What Happened:Long-time solar industry denizen Silvio Marcacci took to Forbes to argue that low- and middle-income Americans could represent a 320 GW untapped solar market in the United States.

Marcacci’s conclusions are based on a new report out of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory – the first of its kind – that made the assertion.

Marcacci writes: “NREL’s research shows that most rooftop solar technical potential is highly concentrated in the states and urban areas with significant building stock and high levels of existing residential solar deployment: California, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.”

SolarWakeup’s View: First off, let me congratulate Silvio Marcacci on landing in the pages of Forbes. Silvio has always been a great champion for solar, and seeing his name (and our message) reaching some of the world’s wealthiest investors and businesspeople is a sight for sore eyes. So thank you, Silvio.

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Silvio’s piece centers on a new report out from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) that says, in essence, solar needs to get out from the neatly tree-lined, gated and wealthy communities it has traditionally served and into the low- to middle-income markets, where the customer acquisition may be more difficult – but at 320 GW, is clearly a hugely lucrative potential market.

The key, NREL says, is moving away from a single-family-home model of solar development and into a more collective model like community solar. Silvio points out that California has successfully implemented two programs (SASH and MASH) that could serve as models for the rest of the country (as California is wont to do, particularly within the solar space).

He adds:

Solar developers can play a role tapping this market. NREL reports 60% of LMI residential potential exists on renter-occupied and multi-family buildings where long-term contracts may not work for residents – in other words, not single-family homes in affluent neighborhoods.

This means community solar or shared solar projects could be installed on large buildings like government facilities, community centers, or churches and then opened up to LMI households through community solar, virtual net metering, or other shared subscription programs.

I’m so glad someone is pointing this out in such august pages as Forbes – it’s a message investors, and the solar industry, both need to hear.

More:

This Untapped Market Could Add 320 Gigawatts Of New U.S. Residential Solar Energy

Decision On Fate Of $1 Billion DTE Natural Gas Plant Looms

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

What Happened:The clock is ticking on the future of DTE Energy’s $1 billion natural gas boondoggle, with a decision expected by Friday.

Links on the Michigan Public Service Commission website to rebuttal testimony over the next three days are broken, so the public doesn’t have access to them.

Solar advocates across the country are watching what happens in Michigan to see if the aggressive tactics will succeed in stopping the plant.

Proposed natural gas plants are increasingly being denied in various states as unnecessary, particularly in solar-friendly states like California and Arizona. But the DTE Energy plant would be the first serious test of the idea outside of those states.

Is the image of the sun setting on a utility pole too heavy handed? I worry it’s a little heavy handed.

SolarWakeup’s View: In what has become a battle between the forces of a dominant utility and the solar industry, the fate of DTE Energy’s proposed $1 billion natural gas plant could be decided as late as Friday. And don’t think for a second solar advocates around the country aren’t hanging on this decision like a cliffhanger on the season’s finale of This Is Us.

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After all, the Michigan solar industry needs a win after watching net metering destroyed last Wednesday by the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC), replaced by an inflow/outflow system designed to penalize solar users and remove the traditional one-to-one net metering program and leaving solar consumers open to the tender mercies of a fee concocted by the utilities.

In addition, the MPSC would have rubberstamped the plant nearly a year ago if they could have. The only reason construction hasn’t already started is the overwhelming opposition raised by the solar industry and rallied by groups like Vote Solar (who has intervened in a non-solar case for the first time) and Power Up Michigan.

That last note is important: It’s one thing to oppose rate changes and other policy decisions in support of solar. It’s quite another to raise objections to utilities using other forms of energy instead. If solar can get a victory in Michigan, expect other state solar advocacy groups to follow suit.

This article was edited at 4:18 pm on 4/24/2018 to correct that Michigan’s disastrous net metering dismantling happened on Wednesday, not Friday as the article originally stated.

This article was edited at 9:29 am on 4/25/2018 to reflect the rubberstamping was more an aspiration than a reality, given that the MPSC had to wait a year before approving the plant. To reiterate, the deadline for approval is Friday.

More:

Coalition Delivers 10,000 Michigander Letters Calling on DTE to Drop Its Gas Plan and Choose Clean Energy (Vote Solar)

Power Up Michigan

Michigan Public Service Commission

Source: As Parent Company Struggles, Schletter Eyes Closing U.S. Operations

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

What Happened:Sources close to the situation have told SolarWakeup that Schletter, the German solar racking company going through insolvency (what bankruptcy is called in Germany) at home, is close to closing its U.S. operations.

Calls to company’s main number and to the marketing manager go directly to a generic voicemail.

Calls to the office and cell phones of the company’s vice president of sales reach recordings saying they have been disconnected.

SolarWakeup’s View: Though there has been no official announcement, multiple sources close to troubled racking company Schletter say the U.S. subsidiary has closed its doors. Calls to U.S. headquarters’ main number and to the marketing manager go directly to generic voicemail, and calls to the office and cell phones of the company’s vice president of sales reach recordings saying they have been disconnected.

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A Google search for the company turns up the follow question being asked of the company and one reply by someone who describes themselves as a former employee:

It should be noted that with no WARN Act notices have been filed by the company.

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 (the “WARN Act”) is a U.S. labor law which protects employees, their families, and communities by requiring most employers with 100 or more employees to provide 60 calendar-day advance notification of plant closings and mass layoffs of employees, as defined in the Act.

Schletter’s Germany parent company filed for bankruptcy in March.

Schletter US may well be another casualty in the needless and mindless trade war the Trump Administration had declared on the world, starting with his announcement of tariffs on solar modules in January and followed by tariffs on steel and aluminum, all of which would have had deleterious effects on Schletter’s main business.

The racking-and-mounting segment of the U.S. solar industry, of which Schletter USA was a part, spoke out as a group forcefully and often against the trade complaint brought by bankrupt solar module manufacturer Suniva and later joined by SolarWorld in an attempt to jack up their valuation in preparation for sale.

Last week, SunPower announced it had purchased SolarWorld’s assets, and Suniva’s main creditor SQN Capital Management announced it was selling off all the company’s manufacturing equipment. So neither of the two combatants of the idiotic tariff battle are likely to exist in six months.

But the effects of their ridiculous battle will be felt long into the future and, by all accounts, have claimed the employees of racking giant Schletter.

SolarWakeup will continue to monitor this situation and update the story as necessary.

More:

We’re Happy For SolarWorld Employees – But That’s It

Suniva Being Sold For Parts (Literally), Just Like We Said

Could Decade-Old Florida Report Finally Be Relevant? Let’s Hope So

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

What Happened:After languishing for a decade in relative obscurity, it might finally be time to dust off a Navigant Consulting report on the solar capacity of Florida, now that the Public Service Commission (FPSC) has made third-party leasing a reality.

The Florida report, prepared for the FPSC in 2008, reported that the state’s potential solar production could reach nearly 56 GWh annually by 2020.

While the goals of the Florida report are impossible to reach in the original timeframe, the mind boggles at how quickly Florida could transform itself into one of the leading solar states.

SolarWakeup’s View: Well, 2020 is no longer a realistic goal, but the Florida report created for the state’s Public Service Commission gives a tantalizing glimpse into what the future of the solar industry could be.

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At the request of FPSC, Navigant Consulting prepared a report concerning the amount of power the sun could produce for the Sunshine State, and the short answer was that it could potentially provide a lot – 56 GWh, in fact. The report also found that, had investor-owned utilities started investing in solar heavily 10 years ago, they could be providing 23% of their electricity generation from renewalbe (a goal Florida Power & Light seems to trying to make in three years ever since it lost its battle to scotch third-party solar development in 2016 – but I digress).

Florida, thanks to the outsized influence of its electric utilities, has struggled to reach its full solar potential in the past. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association’s latest data, there is currently only 1.4 GW of solar capacity there.

But last week’s decision to legalize third-party solar leasing, Navigant Consulting’s Florida report has suddenly become relevant. It will be interesting to see how quickly it rises to its well-deserved status as the real sunshine state.

More:

Florida Public Service Commission OKs Sunrun’s Petition – So It’s Full Speed Ahead

Sunrun Could Start Operating In Florida In Earnest Within A Month

Bonus:

The full 311-page report:

FL_Final_Report_2008_12_29