Busted Brackets. I was going to make fun of all of you that picked Illinois to win it all but then Florida went and watched too many family guy clips about Oral Roberts. My championship game remains intact but I guess we’re all assured of a bad year in picking. That is except for our leader, who must reveal their identity to get mid bracket credit, for being in the top echelon of all brackets including having still every Elite Eight team alive.
The Good And Available Jobs. The political pendulum always swings wildly before the pen hits paper and when it comes to infrastructure/climate/
Climate Diplomacy. US and Chinese diplomats met in Alaska for a face to face meeting. Climate was discussed and while there was some hope for a working group to be established, it wasn’t. There were some higher level tensions in the room so climate may actually be a topic where some agreement can be found early on. Let’s see how Blinken and Kerry tag team this effort.
Don’t Call It A Comeback. Some positive movement on PURPA facilities that should make this a viable market going forward, especially in solar plus storage facilities. Look out for the trifecta of tracking solar with storage coming to a neighborhood near you.
Repeal And Replace. Power plants, starting with the ones closest to population centers will be shut down and replaced with cleaner generation and storage in a much more distributed way. I’m saying that the facilities will range from large central solar with grid scale storage, smaller solar farms as you get closer to the demand and then DERs at the demand location. All operated in a systemwide way using smarter and faster pricing signals. We call this the future of ClimateTech.
Financing The Plus+. Solar + Storage PPAs continue to gain momentum among commercial energy consumers. My C&I solar friends at Sustainable Capital Finance (SCF) have a great solution for schools, municipalities, non-profits, and commercial & industrial projects. SCF will be hosting a webinar on March 31st, covering industry trends, SCF's new storage pricing & transaction features, as well as challenges and solutions when executing Solar + Storage PPAs. You can sign up here or contact the SCF team at info@scf.com for more information.
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Yann
Have a great weekend! More coming next week.
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Last, Call Bracketology. Last Call for entries, you must register and get your bracket in before today’s tipoffs. The most important SolarWakeup day of the year is here, time to join this year’s March Madness bracket. As always, the winning bracket gets to write the column for a day as well as an awesome backpack from our friends at EnergeiaWorks, sponsors of the HotJobs. So head to ESPN Fantasy and look for the ‘SolarWakeup 2021’ group and use password solar to join. Feel free to invite your friends and colleagues to join the fun.
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A Big Market, Gets Bigger. This is the + decade. Solar+, that is. At the core is that the energy transition is happening, in real-time, in front of our eyes. There are still drivers that determine how big, how fast and how beneficial but now SEIA has a forecast for that. SEIA expects that over 324GW of solar will be installed this decade. That’s a lot and the reality is that we will build all of that and much more. We can be happy with that number but never satisfied and thus we need to continue to push the envelope and against any force that is attempting to slow the growth.
Not All Love. I’ve highlighted some of the early work on NEM 3.0 in California and now the utility joint proposal has been published, let’s just say that not everyone is on board with more solar.
Trust The Process. The filing caused market pressure on solar stocks yesterday. On day 1 of the process, we don’t know how it is going to play out and if we are passive in this then it will not be good for solar. This is not just a DG versus central discussion either, this is about controlling the benefit of the generation away from the market and consumers. But if we recognize that political involvement means more value to solar and clean energy companies, involvement that is both people power and dollars for advocacy, then the process should result in a fair outcome because that is what the people want.
Not For Spectators. A lobbyist told me in my very early years in solar that politics is not a spectator sport and it’s full contact, no light days on the Capitol. Ask yourself this, no matter your company, what are you doing to participate in the process?
Bracketology. The most important SolarWakeup day of the year is here, time to join this year’s March Madness bracket. As always, the winning bracket gets to write the column for a day. So head to ESPN Fantasy and look for the ‘SolarWakeup 2021’ group and use password solar to join. Feel free to invite your friends and colleagues to join the fun.
A Product Showcase. In two weeks, join CALSSA and the dozens of manufacturers in a product showcase. This is a free event if you register in advance, you can do that here. Absent in person events and a desire to stay in front of a computer all day, CALSSA brings you the best way to learn about the latest and greatest.
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Yann