Happy President’s Day! Today’s Wakeup coming from the skies en route to San Francisco, the definite hub of all things solar. While the homestate of Florida boats its 4,000 solar jobs, California still represents the center of our industry and a third of the jobs in the sector.

News

• CleanTechnica: The Ivanpah Solar Power Plant Uses Relatively Little Water
• Fox: World’s largest solar plant scorching birds in Nevada desert
• News12: Solar panels collapse under heavy snow, ice in NJ
• Gigaom: 5 utility industry trends to watch this year
• RE World: Transmission Among Options to Better Integrate Renewables
• Reuters: U.S. decision watched in dispute over solar imports from China
• RE World: Unintended Consequences of California’s Solar Tax Exclusion

Opinions

• Forbes: Is Cleantech An Appropriate Investment For Google?
• Vince Font: The Solar Energy Outlook for 2014

Have a great day!

Yann

Happy Valentine’s Day! Seems like everyone is getting along, except for a few folks in Hillsboro, Oregon. It appears that Solarworld is going at it alone this time with its latest trade complaint. There is very little to gain for Solarworld and a lot to lose for the solar industry if the case proceeds. As DOE highlights successes in lowering the cost of solar, Solarworld is doing its best to artificially increase the cost of clean renewable energy for millions of electric customers.

News

• PV-Tech: Obama administration needs to step into SolarWorld’s complaint
• NY Times: A Huge Solar Plant Opens, Facing Doubts About Its Future
• Breaking Energy: Progress Report: Advancing Solar Energy Across America
• Bloomberg: U.S. May Impose China Solar Duty in Threat to Installers
• Boston Globe: Solar use will push energy costs up in MA
• RE World: New Report Navigates Solar Securitization
• Daily Caller: Government-backed solar costs 161 percent more than coal

Opinions

• GTM: Postcard From the Grid’s Future: Hawaii as a Solar Laboratory
• Jigar Shah: SolarWorld To US Solar Industry: Drop Dead

Have a great day!

Yann

Walking into my first PSC meeting in 2007 to discuss net metering in Tallahassee, I saw no more than 10 people, representing both sides. The utilities had one lawyer and a few staffers for all 4 IOUs in Florida, no big deal since solar is $9/watt and won’t hurt the utility business model. Fast forward to yesterday and EEI publishes a joint statement with NRDC on how to save the utility model in the future. We’ve come a long way but there is a whole lot of work left to do and solar to install.

News

• NRDC: Path-Breaking Agreement to Get More Clean Energy into Our System
• EEI/NRDC: Joint Statement to State Utility Regulators
• LA Times: Delays at DWP confound customers, thwart installers
• GTM: Over Half of US Home Solar Used Microinverters or DC Optimizers
• CleanTechnica: Strange Bedfellows Of The Energy Industry
• Bloomberg: NRDC and U.S. Utilities Urge Grid Payments for Solar
• Business Insider: China Will Take Gold In The 2014 ‘Solar Power Olympics’

Opinions

• Nathanael Greene: Attacks on Solar Should Be Rejected. Period.
• Tor Valenza: 5 Common Mistakes That Solar Companies Make on Twitter

Have a great day!

Yann