SolarWakeup Live! The Solar Bill of Rights and Solar Rights Alliance with Dave Rosenfeld

SolarWakeup Live!: By Yann Brandt

In this episode I speak with Dave Rosenfeld of the Solar Rights Alliance about the bipartisan legislation that was filed in California last week, the Solar Bill of Rights. The bill is California focused legislation but the story rings true across the Country, consumers deserve the opportunity to go solar without obstruction from the electric monopolies putting barriers in the way.

Dave runs the Solar Rights Alliance which brings together solar consumers and creates the response mechanism to help the solar industry push politics forward. Much like the NRA, SRA members join (for free) when they go solar and that is where the Solar Rights Alliance partners with solar installers to get customers involved. If we all do this together, installers will have a million solar customers to lean on for political response.

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Join the Solar Rights Alliance at solarrights.org

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This is your SolarWakeup for November 8th, 2018

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The Wins. Solar was on the ballot in a couple of ways on Tuesday so I wanted to give you my initial thoughts. On the plus side, clean energy executive was a career that was embraced. Several candidates ran on their clean energy experience and a few won which means that there will be members of Congress that understand our work and provide some insight to our trade groups. The biggest win may have been the ballot question in Nevada which was a direct question of more solar for corporations. The voters supported the motion and will have to do so once more at a future election. Another notable plus is the number of Governors that won while supporting a 100% clean energy future, the list includes CO, OR, MI, WI, CA, IL, and ME.

The Losses. First, you have to note that the RPS in Arizona was overwhelmingly defeated and the eulogy on carbon tax may have been written in Washington State. Notable is the $23million spent by NextGen to push for the RPS in Arizona and I can only imagine the policy that could have enabled the market if solar advocates were given $23million into their advocacy platforms. I’ve said it before, solar advocates are some of the most effective advocates in the process and are largely hampered from being able to fight more fights by financial resources. The candidate for NC-9, Dan McCready, was as solar as a candidate that was running across the Country and he almost won his race, losing by less than 2,000 votes.

The Trends. Solar as a political issue continues to be non-existent, these political times mean that secondary issues get little focus. However, with the solar favorability index, it is important to let all legislators know the political reality of supporting or opposing the issues important to us. More trend discovery by GreenBiz in the rundown.

GE Sells Current. GE has sold their esco/lighting/sometimes solar business to an investment firm. The notable solar transaction was for Home Depot. Best of luck to the team.

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann

 

This is your SolarWakeup for November 7th, 2018

Thank you all for showing up at SolarWakeup Live! in Jersey City. It was an amazing crowd of 180 top solar executives and first round of feedback says that the conversations with the speakers had great content. The excitement of the day and the yet to be digested election results means that the column will be back on Thursday.

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Have a great day!

Yann