Have A Great Weekend. Q4 is wrapping up and I think we’re all a little bit burnt out on 2020. More opinions and insights next week but make sure you catch my conversation with NexTracker’s CEO, Dan Shugar, this week on all your favorite podcast streams. Just search for SolarWakeup with Yann and you can subscribe, listen and share. It was an hour long conversation that easily could have gone six or seven.
Supply Chains Choke Up. If you are a buyer of products, now is the time to expand your time horizons to ensure continuity of supply. Manufacturers and research companies are underestimating the size of the market over the next two quarters and likely most of 2021. That means that there will be a limited amount of product to go around and if you’re not allocated, you may get hung out to dry. SolarWakeup Buyer’s Group is here to help, ensuring allocations for our members now.
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Yann
A Senate Energy Bill? Could it be possible? Will the Senate be able to pass a bipartisan energy bill in the new session? That’s the headline in the news today and remains an effort being led by Manchin/Murkowski, the most centrist of the Senators. Wait and see, but unlikely.
ESG Pension Funds. When pension funds or endowments divest, I tend to shrug my shoulders. Not because it’s not a big deal but because it is bound to happen anyway. If investing is determining the value of companies in the future, investing in fossil fuel companies is not a good idea over the next 30 years.
Development Platforms Get $. BayWa may be the distributor you know in the US but globally they are a massive renewable energy development firm as well. EIP, the investment firm, is taking a 49% stake in the company for over $600million. The investing thesis will tell you that this investment will be worth well more than a few years from now.
Talk About Dealflow. The untold piece of ESG investment is that currently there is more money than deal flow. This is momentary but the sellers, startups, and companies raising the money are likely to be in a position of power but also in a position to ensure that ESG capital doesn’t have excuses not to grow.
Supply Chains Choke Up. If you are a buyer of products, now is the time to expand your time horizons to ensure continuity of supply. Manufacturers and research companies are underestimating the size of the market over the next two quarters and likely most of 2021. That means that there will be a limited amount of product to go around and if you’re not allocated, you may get hung out to dry. SolarWakeup Buyer’s Group is here to help, ensuring allocations for our members now.
Opinion
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
Quick Hits. Congress is likely to pass a 1-week continuing resolution to push the spending bill to December 18th but Democrats may be trying to add a covid stimulus to the CR. Still no word about tax extenders.
Climate Coverage. David Roberts formerly of Vox and Grist has left Vox to start a climate and politics newsletter. Climate reporting is important, I don’t consider myself a reporter in the traditional sense because I comment from the inside. What David does well goes deep into complex issues and attempts to make them mainstream. If you like what he does, subscribe to his newsletter at volts.wtf. If you want his old job, Vox is hiring a climate writer.
UK Takes Steps. UK regulators are taking steps to make the grid catch up to the energy transition. National Grid, the utility in the UK, is also active in the US. The little known fact is that National Grid supported the original Sunrun capacity participation in the ISO-NE auction. Without National Grid, Sunrun wouldn’t have been this early to the grid services market. Maybe copying some of the UK steps is what the US should be looking to do.
Supply Chains Choke Up. If you are a buyer of products, now is the time to expand your time horizons to ensure continuity of supply. Manufacturers and research companies are underestimating the size of the market over the next two quarters and likely most of 2021. That means that there will be a limited amount of product to go around and if you’re not allocated, you may get hung out to dry. SolarWakeup Buyer’s Group is here to help, ensuring allocations for our members now.
Opinion
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
Transparent Power Plant. OhmConnect has raised $100mm of which $80mm is going towards a virtual power plant. The capital is coming from the Alphabet backed Sidewalk Infrastructure fund. OhmConnect is known for its demand response platform, typically working off utility signals. Those signals cause Ohm to reduce participating homeowners’ demand by shutting off their AC/refrigerators/other loads with smart appliance connectors. How much opportunity is in this market? Shaping demand is one of the cornerstones of CAISO’s look into the future and how California can get to pure renewables because shaping supply isn’t always the most effective way of managing the grid. It’s easy to see how Ohm could deploy $10bb plus in the next few years to operate smart homes.
100% Is Feasible. Yesterday I wrote about Mary Nichols potential nomination to lead the EPA and today a draft report from the CPUC, CEC and CARB is released showing the technical feasibility of reaching 100% renewables by 2045. CARB is led by Mary Nichols who talked at the release about the transformation ahead for Californians. With reliability and grid resilience as the core concern, look above to Ohm’s platform and distributed solar with storage to be the central stabilizing tendon in the infrastructure.
The Climate Diplomats. Biden will enter his term having to play catchup on climate policy. While he will re-enter the Paris agreements, many of our global counterparts are already working towards or attempting to exceed the targets. Biden will also have a Senate and States that fight every step of his agenda to improve the quality of air and cleanliness of water across the Country.
Michigan Has Insights. Consumers Energy has a rate case that is the parting policy from their former CEO who has now moved to run California’s PG&E. Consumers had attempted to squash solar and is now pushing for more revenue in a rate case. How much of this DNA is transported to the San Francisco based utility is to be determined.
Supply Chains Choke Up. If you are a buyer of products, now is the time to expand your time horizons to ensure continuity of supply. Manufacturers and research companies are underestimating the size of the market over the next two quarters and likely most of 2021. That means that there will be a limited amount of product to go around and if you’re not allocated, you may get hung out to dry. SolarWakeup Buyer’s Group is here to help, ensuring allocations for our members now.
Opinion
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann