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Utility Monopolies Screw SC Solar After Sneaky Shift On Bill

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

What Happened: Damn, that was cold – although you have to admire solar’s opponents in South Carolina for employing an obscure legislative sleight of hand to kill a bill that would have eliminated residential net metering caps.

After the utilities raised all holy hell about how removing net metering caps would COMPLETELY DESTROY THEIR BUSINESS RIGHT NOW, the cowards in the South Carolina House of Representatives reclassified the bill as a tax increase, which mean it needed a 2/3 majority instead of a simple majority.
So…solar advocates in South Carolina can kiss the expected industry expansion goodbye, at least for now.

SolarWakeup’s View: Those of you who know me recognize me as one of the most cynical human beings in the world, especially when it comes to the Wild-West world of politics. But even my breath was taken away by how brazenly South Carolina’s utility monopoly stole a solar-expansion bill out from under the industry with an obscure legislative maneuver that twisted the bill’s purpose into something unrecognizable, even to its own sponsor.

Remember that article I wrote all the way back on Friday? About how the South Carolina House of Representatives had voted to lift residential solar net metering caps, a move destined to expand the state’s burgeoning solar industry and bring it more in line with its northern neighbor? Remember how I suggested that we not celebrate quite yet because it still had to pass the Senate before becoming law?

Little did I know the utility monopolies would buy their way back into the House to kill it there before it even had a chance to be debated in the upper house.

Through a legislative sleight of hand, the bill – which passed with a majority just last Friday – magically became a “tax increase” bill, which requires a vote of 2/3 of representatives instead of a majority. As a result, another vote was taken, and the bill failed to get to 2/3 by nine votes.

I mean…wow. Just. Wow.

The gobsmacking chicanery in South Carolina highlights a question that is central to whether solar will continue to thrive in this country: Will we continue to let state-supported utility monopolies continue to keep the United States from modernizing and updating our electric-generation system? Or will the people – who, as I wrote about yesterday, want a distributed-generation solar future – finally say, “Enough is enough.”?

It’s time to hold state representatives who decide to side with utility monopolies over their constituents accountable. Let’s vote the bastids out.

More:

South Carolina House kills pro-solar bill after last-minute rule change

The Latest: Solar Energy Bill Killed in Legislative Surprise

South Carolina Sends Solar Soaring With Cap Removal

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C&I Snags $250 Million To Expand Sector Breadth

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

What Happened: Greentech Media reports that the commercial/industrial (C&I) sector now has $250 million in new money to purchase operational assets, thanks to the efforts of CleanCapital and CarVal Investors, the investment arm of industrial giant Cargill.

According to GTM, CleanCapital has purchased mroe than $100 million in distributed generation projects in the past several years. focusing entirely on the C&I sector.
The money will also allow CleanCapital to increase its focus on segments such as energy efficiency, storage and new construction solar.

Daughters of the American Revolution Hall
Photo courtesy of Standard Solar

SolarWakeup’s View: OK, I must admit I was mildly confused by Greentech Media’s story on the joint-venture fund for the commercial segment, so indulge me a bit of insider baseball of the journalism sort.

The headline says the funds will be used to finance “C&I Solar,” but the body of the article doesn’t mention C&I solar at all in the body of the piece, which left me scratching my head. What I think is going on here is that the writer assumed solar when it was not in evidence, and that the funds will actually be used for a broader set of projects than the article implies.

Still, $250 million earmarked to fund energy efficiency, storage and new-build solar projects in the commercial segment is nothing to sneeze at, especially since (as the CEO of CleanCapital told GTM) the commercial segment has struggled to find money for such projects.

“I see a bulk of our capital going towards our continued growth in acquiring operating assets, while continuing our innovation this year to get to C&I projects with unrated offtakers,” President Jon Powers told SolarWakeup.

Powers also told SolarWakeup that it’s their vision to expand the C&I market beyond municipal and rated credits, something that can be challenging for traditional lending operations to understand.

I understand that inancing commercial solar is complicated, given the relative youth of the segment and the perceived instability associated with it. But the wariness of traditional lenders means that I agree with Powers: There is an untapped market in C&I waiting to be exploited if the money was there.

It’s always a good thing to see money coming into the C&I sector, given that it is the one segment of the solar industry that hasn’t had its boom yet. It’s time for C&I solar to have its day in the sun.

More:

CleanCapital and CarVal Investors Team Up on $250 Million C&I Solar Fund

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What Would Consumers Choose? (Solar. They Would Choose Solar.)

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

What Happened: Sunrun has produced a consumer-friendly report called Affordable, Clean, Reliable Energy, which asks the ever important question: What would consumers choose for their own electrical production?

In a delightfully readable format, Sunrun’s CEO Lynn Jurich posits that given a choice between a distributed-generation, renewable-energy based electrical system and the traditional fossil-fuel based one, consumers would choose the former.
She also forcefully lays out the case for solar as a job generator and calls for an end to the “war on solar” (now there’s a woman who knows how to use catchy slogans).
Lastly, Jurich argues in favor of removing the state-sponsored monopoly status from most utilities and letting the market decide what the best future for the U.S. electrical grid is. (You go, Lynn!)

SolarWakeup’s View: More of this, please.

Poll after poll after poll indicates that American consumers, by and large, prefer solar electricity. The most famous poll of all showed the number approaching 90%. So why have we failed so spectacularly to rally those throngs of solar-loving Americans behind policies that would help maintain and expand the industry beyond where it is now?

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I have a theory, and it has to do with the technical nature of our industry.

It’s easy to get excited about efficiency ratios, inverter harmonics and other deeply technical issues, and they are interesting to most people within the industry. But most American consumers are like me – the engineering aspects of solar, while interesting, wouldn’t be enough to get me off my couch and to a pro-solar rally.

That’s why Sunrun CEO Lynn Jurich’s new 32-page advocacy piece, Affordable, Clean, Reliable Energy is such a refreshing change from the typical pro-solar article. Jurich’s clear, concise article hits on two of the most compelling arguments for why consumers should – and do – choose solar energy:

Solar is a job generator.
Solar allows consumers to seize control of their own electric future.

Jurich also issues a challenge to utilities who, in many cases, seem scared to compete against solar: Let the free market decide. Remove the state-sponsored monopoly status that most utilities enjoy across the country and give consumers the choice of what kind of electrical future they want. Would they want a decentralized/cleaner/cheaper electricity-generation system;; or rebuilt 19th century centralized/dirty/fossil based one. Jurich bets they would choose the former.

It’s a message that more solar companies must do a much better job of proclaiming every day – and I thank Jurich for at least giving it a good start.

More:

Sunrun - Consumer Centered Energy April 2018

Massachusetts Moves To Make Energy Data More Transparent

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

What Happened:The Rocky Mountain Institute reports Massachusetts might be on the verge of starting another American Revolution, at least when it comes to promoting transparency in its citizens’ energy use.

Governor Charlie Baker has proposed An Act Relative to Consumer Access to Residential Energy Information, which would create energy-use certificates that would be used to record energy-use evaluations for the state’s homes.
It would give Massachusetts homeowners information that would allow them to do a serious evaluation of their home’s energy use.
And starting in 2021, people trying to sell their homes would be required to make that information available to potential buyers (great quotation on that later).

Could this home of British sedition lead another American Revolution when it comes to getting more energy usage information about your home (or your future home)? That’s a definite maybe.

SolarWakeup’s View: Could Boston be ground zero for the American Energy Revolution? According to the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Jacob Corvidae, it just might.

In a post on the Institute’s site, Corvidae discusses the potential importance of Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s initiative, called An Act Relative to Consumer Access to Residential Energy Information, as a potential model for the rest of the country when it comes to helping citizens become more informed about their energy usage.

First, it will allow homeowners to have a better understanding of what home improvements are the best investment. For example, if you have older windows or poor insulation, making that investment before, say, adding an outdoor pool or grill pit might bring the best ROI for your home. And after 2021, homeowners would be required to disclose their energy-use certificate to potential buyers.

Here I’m going to quote Corvidae because, as I look out my Ohio-based office to watch snowflakes flutter to the ground – on April 9, mind you – his comment struck a particular chord:

For buyers comparing two similar homes—such as different three-bedroom, two-bath, 1,800-square-foot two-story homes—knowing which one is already cozy and inexpensive to heat and which one will take some investment to get there is important information to have. You don’t want to wait until you’re ready to sign the closing documents, or until your first winter in the house, to find out which one you got!

With the rapidly changing energy market in the United States, the information Baker wants homeowners to know and understand about their own dwellings could be the first step in creating an educated energy consumer – and that would be another revolution worth celebrating.

More:

Can Massachusetts Correct a Market Failure by Making Home Energy Use More Transparent?

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