By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

What Happened: David Hogg, one of the public faces of the Parkland High School student activists, tweeted out an intriguing idea

• Instead of investing money in arming teachers, use the money to fund more STEM education.
• Specifically, Hogg said such an investment would allow his generation “to create jobs in renewable, clean and independent American energy like wind and solar.”

SolarWakeup’s View: Look, this tweet shouldn’t be controversial. China has invested in solar for years, including investing $329 billion in clean energy in 2016. The United States, on the other hand, has been Scrooge-like with its investments in the same.

Hogg’s tweet, however, indicates that maybe, just maybe, the next generation gets it. It’s time the United States stopped ceding its clean-energy leadership to others, and the only way to do that is to follow Hogg’s suggestion and invest more in STEM education.

This should be a no-brainer, but with the current administration, I think this is unlikely. But I take my hat off Hogg for at least opening the conversation – and it gives me hope for the future. With a platform that includes more than 400,000 followers on Twitter, David is showing where his generation is looking for job opportunities in the future.

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

What Happened: In response to a letter from a couple who wanted to know if they could claim the battery with which they retrofitted their solar system as part of the 30% investment tax credit (ITC), the IRS

• Provided an extraordinarily narrow “yes” answer to the question; but
• While not a blanket yes to all cases, likely opens market for retrofits
• Provides a captured market for energy storage, rapidly declining in costs

SolarWakeup’s View: Truth is, many people in the distributed solar space have assumed that this was already the case. What is the news here, however, is what this could mean for the distributed-generation (DG) solar market.

While the immediate application is for residential customers (as that’s who the query came from), there are benefits to the commercial & industrial (C&I) segment, too. It shows that the IRS, even in this anti-solar political atmosphere

at the federal level, recognizes that the coupling of solar and storage are a critical part of the overall picture for DG solar.

As more businesses recognize that formulation, it will encourage them to add solar to their electricity-generation mix. Plus, collecting the reward as a tax break makes the reimbursement mechanism much more efficient for businesses to understand and gain the ITC’s benefits. California is in a NEM 2.0 transition that includes higher demand charges and time of use rates, makes the financial case for storage to be included with on-site generation.

Costs for energy storage have declined rapidly in the past year. Adding storage to existing solar installations will likely drive new hardware systems using dc-coupled architecture. While it is more complicated on the software, it allows for energy storage to be integrated with the existing solar inverter without having to replace it. FlexGen, an energy storage supplier, spoke with Yann Brandt at SolarWakeup Live! New York about the trend towards dc-coupled storage. The IRS guidance necessarily lowers the overall costs of installation, which is going to increase the potential for solar penetration in this underserved market.

More: 

IRS Letter on Home Batteries Could ‘Open Floodgates for Residential Storage Retrofits’ (Greentech Media)

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

What Happened: SunPower Corp. told a meeting of its authorized dealers, Monday afternoon in San Diego, that it would be adding two storage solutions to its Equinox home solar system. A spokesperson for SunPower said, “SunPower has been exploring storage offerings and capabilities for our residential customers. One example is our recent partnership with Sonnen. SunPower dealers can choose to work with Sonnen to offer residential customers the best storage and solar combination solutions to fit their specific energy needs.”

• sonnen, a German manufacturer of a sleek, residential  stand-alone battery system
• Tesla, with its Powerwall product

SolarWakeup’s View: SunPower has been put in a challenging position since the Section 201 trade petition. Earnings have been hammered, and the fourth quarter of 2017 was not kind to the module manufacturer. Part of the problem, of course, is that Trump imposed a 30% tariff on all imported solar modules, which has disproportionally impacted the module maker’s profits.

While SunPower is awaiting a possible exemption from the tariffs, based on their claim that their IBC modules are significantly different than those competing with the U.S. manufacturers, the company can’t sit idly by hoping the tender mercies of the Trump Administration will help rescue their bottom line.

So last Thursday, the company announced it would be launching a commercial solar + storage product offering. And late Monday, SunPower told their dealers the company was partnering with Tesla and sonnen to add energy storage to its Equinox home solar system. Some 500 dealers, representing 150 installers,have traveled to Southern California for the dealer meeting.

To some, these moves may seem like Hail Marys, but from my perspective it’s a smart business decision. With prices of solar modules at historical lows and battery prices decreasing, it’s a great idea to get ahead of a curve that is clearly coming—and coming soon. It also allows dealers to respond against time of use rates and attacks on net metering.

It’s clear SunPower CEO Tom Werner is looking to the future of the solar industry and seeing that battery storage is it. And he is betting SunPower, especially with its module business stuck in neutral, will be the leader in complete home solar systems. The stock market may have the final word on whether they think he’s right.