Author Archives: Solar wakeup

This is your SolarWakeup for August 11th, 2023

Major Grid Resilience. Wisconsin is taking a major leap with Alliant’s leadership, adding nearly 1GWh of energy storage to be installed in the near future. The two sites will collocate energy storage at newly built PV plant, exemplifying how storage is creating more value for solar pipelines and letting us use solar energy at night. I would be too modest not to mention that FlexGen is the partner on these projects, highlighting the important work that we’ve been doing for a decade plus and more recently having focused on turning batteries on faster and keeping them on with industry leading availability through our HybridOS EMS. We’ll be at RE+ and have some exciting product release announcements in the coming weeks.

So Common So Amazing. Another day and two major factory announcements. We can’t be numb to this norm, First Solar announced a 5th factory in Louisiana and Maxeon a 3GW plant in New Mexico.

Thoughts? Every now and then a story breaks and I find out because I get 50+ texts and emails from SolarWakeup readers.  Yesterday that was the ‘leak’ that Esdec (aka PanelClaw, Ironridge, Ecofasten, QuickMount) was trying to go public for over $5billion. Obviously, I have some history here while also not having been involved in a few years. We’ll see what my role is to provide comments and thoughts to you all so I’ll wait to think how much behind the scenes is appropriate. We haven’t seen the S-1 but I will say this, if this is worth $5billion, we all may be forming SolarWakeup racking co in the near future!

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 10th, 2023

The Storage ITC Is Here. Years of talk, years of advocacy and one giant piece of legislation leads to this, a successful portfolio raise for tax equity on a stand-along storage project. In this case, SMT Energy is showcasing their raise in a way to show that a good project with bankable & capable partners developed by an experienced team can put the money to work. I’ve known the SMT team for many years and super happy to see them get this done. 

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 9th, 2023

Possibility Doesn’t Pay The Bills. GM will follow Ford in marketing that the vehicles are capable of vehicle to grid (V2G). The theoretical use case of V2G, especially in aggregate, is really interesting. The actuality of getting vehicles to discharge the right amount (so that drivers can get home) is much more complicated. But this is all in the name of nothing at all if grid operators don’t start actually paying for the resources even on a standby basis. Some of the most expensive power plants in the Country run less than 10 times per year while solar has been saving the grid during this last run of heat waves without getting paid for the resilience.

Shortsighted Economics of Innovation. I’m saddened to see Proterra file for bankruptcy protection. It is my hope that the company will be acquired or recapitalized, logically by an OEM. Proterra is the national interest for large vehicle electrification, maybe a few years early. I had the pleasure of meeting former CEO, Ryan Popple, and interviewing him for the SolarWakeup podcast prior to his untimely passing. Let’s all root for the next chapter in Proterra’s future.

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 8th, 2023

The Physics Of Funnels. Fill a funnel too fast and it all ends up on your face. Make the funnel too wide and you have too much momentum in the receiving reservoir. You have to pour it at the right pace for the type of ratio from big to small or you have to have the right ratio for the speed of the pour. The same is going to be true for large points of interconnection from offshore wind farms. The larger the farm and the more specific the interconnection point needs to be designed for or it risks disrupting the grid stability on the receiving end.

Opinion

Best, Yann