Downstream solar always gets me excited. When looking through the permitting bill, AB 2188, in California and having a conversation with the Go Solar Broward team during the SunShot conference, it all dawned on me. Permitting is a huge time suck, surely solar contractors, big and small, feel this way. Having just put solar on my house and almost giving up because of the permitting, it may just be the biggest opportunity for growth in the soft cost portion of solar. My article on the topic below.

News

• SolarWakeup: 3 Ways Permitting Creates Opportunity For Solar
• Finance & Commerce: Rooftop solar leases scaring homebuyers
• Forbes: Developing Software To Manage Solar And Storage
• CleanTechnica: Solar, Wind, Natural Gas Dominate New US Power
• GTM: How Texas Could Easily Meet New Carbon Regulations
• East Valley Tribune: Local fire departments prepare for more residential solar
• RE World: Challenges to Financing Renewable Projects on Military Sites
• Grist: How to not lose your shirt when the climate goes bust

Opinions

• CleanTechnica: Will Renewables Cause A Utility ‘Death Spiral’?

Have a great day! Yann

As I see the convention season ahead, I think that in October it will be 2 years since SolarWakeup started. Part news aggregator and part market analysis, it has been a joy to do. I was never a marketing person in my work, but it is definitely eye opening to see how solar markets and pitches. Especially from a media perspective, I am surprised. I don’t write often, a fact that I am currently considering a change to but if I did write every day, why would I ever write about a press release that every other writer also just received. You are a special company, spread the joy one journalist at a time and they will or may return the favor.

News

• AZ Central: Political advocacy group jumps into debate on taxing leased solar
• Solar Server: Share of third-party solar in residential U.S. market to peak
• Nat’l Journal: Julian Castro is Obama’s Newest Climate Denizen
• Solar Power World: Solar O&M Tools for the Solar Investor
• Daily Breeze: CA law would fast-track residential solar panel installations
• PV-Tech: California property tax exemptions for PV systems extended to 2025
• Energy Collective: Equity at Stake in Solar Energy Ownership Debate
• RE World: Storm Clouds Gathering Over the US Solar Industry

Opinions

• NY Times: The Big Green Test; Conservatives and Climate Change

Have a great day! Yann

Last week was the time to promote #PutSolarOnIt, a massively successful effort to organize around solar. Give the team at Mosaic credit for the campaign which included the President tweeting. Moving forward, all focus is on #SolarPledge. The first and only campaign that spans nationally, without a State focus that will ensure advocacy for distributed solar. Ask your company to sign the #SolarPledge, and if they won’t then you have some questions to ask yourself.

News

• CleanTechnica: Will You Take The Solar Pledge?
• GTM: Best Path to a Low-Carbon Future Includes Plenty of Wind and Solar
• Motley Fool: How Obama’s Climate Policy Could Create $1.3 Trillion in GDP
• RE World: Awakening the Potential of Clean Energy Bonds
• Think Progress: Utility Deal For 20 Years Of Solar Because It’s The Cheapest
• Desert Sun: Demand for solar water-heating rising
• Grist: Celebrate solar power at a solstice event this weekend
• Solar Novus: Seismic Guidelines for PV Installations

Opinions

• Hank Paulson: Lessons for Climate Change in the 2008 Recession

Have a great day! Yann