PAC12, Bill Walton and SolarWakeup. Today at 4pm PST/7PM EST, I will be talking solar with Bill Walton. This Zoom event will talk about how PAC-12 schools can be more renewable and sustainable. Registration Link
A Bill In The House. It’s infrastructure week in the House of Representatives. H.R. 2 was introduced as the Moving Forward Act and includes the greatest hits for solar professionals. Extension of the ITC at 30%, a storage ITC, and other tax benefits. It also includes a direct pay at 85% of the ITC for section 48 qualified projects, section 90404 of the bill if you’re interested in bill reading. Let’s see where McConnell takes this and how the White House tweets about infrastructure week. The House is planning on passing the bill before July 4th.
A Side Of Fossil Bailouts. Of all of the kinds of bailouts that the administration could engage in, they are buying up bonds including junk bonds of failing companies. If the bond bailout program stays on track, the government will end up investing $19billion into fossil fuel companies. Of this, $4billion could be in bonds that are expected to go to zero. So let’s save our Solyndra headlines and cost of solar ITC for others, because this is and has always been about political payback.
Amazon Joins VC Crowd. On the heels of my write-up yesterday, Amazon got into it with a $2billion fund pledge. Led by their corporate development team, the $2billion fund will invest in sustainable technologies and services that help the company reach its 2040 goals. I’d like to add a recommendation to Amazon and other VCs, you should house an investment partner or better yet the lead office in Miami. This is ground zero for climate change in America and Florida has all of the market dynamics that companies will have to be good at. Strong utility incumbents, a need for political understanding, a vibrant farming community, warming seas, and of course roads that fill with water during high tides as the city succumbs to rising oceans.
Support CALSSA. Trade associations have lost quite a few revenue opportunities and CALSSA needs your help. You can support the team that supports your business by bidding on a silent auction with some good items. Please do what you can! Here is the link for the silent auction.
Advertise On SolarWakeup. The advertising space for Q3 is filling up, contact me if you are interested in supporting this platform and reaching the solar audience on a daily basis.
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Yann
VC In Solar. We need some exits to really feed the excitement. With a recent wave of new climate tech venture capital funds being announced, some that have been investing for 2 years, I am looking forward to hearing about the exits and hopefully the next IPO. There’s been early investing in the software space and plenty of private equity action in the hardware and project side of the business. My expectation is that this really takes off but with a focus on margin, revenue and exits.
Margins For Stars. When you’re a contractor, service provider or other retail business then you make plenty of decisions based on the online reviews that will follow your decision. The biggest problem in residential solar has been bad equipment and the underpayment (or nonpayment) of labor related costs for a warranty claim. When an inverter goes down, the installers goes to the job to determine the cause of the issue. That truck roll is not paid for but required by the contractor. Then the inverter(s) get a return authorization from the manufacturer and gets replaced. Most of that time and cost of the replacement (material aside) gets covered by the installer. My point is that lower failure rates are worth far more than the original cost of the inverter.
TVA As The Leader. The TVA was a missed opportunity for our industry during the Obama years. First, it could have created a network of solar professionals, advocates and experts that have real utility work experience. Keep in mind that the TVA CEO came to California to take over PG&E as their CEO. The other part would have been the board of directors that guide the utility into the 21st century. If and when Joe Biden wins, this is where I am going to focus and I will be vocal about my desire to see some of you nominated to the board at TVA. This is a public entity and it should be shaped to our goals. Stay tuned for how you can get involved with Clean Energy For Biden.
Support CALSSA. Trade associations have lost quite a few revenue opportunities and CALSSA needs your help. You can support the team that supports your business by bidding on a silent auction with some good items. Please do what you can! Here is the link for the silent auction.
Bill Walton And Friends. In a fun event on this Wednesday, join me and basketball and broadcasting sensation Bill Walton at the virtual PAC-12 Sustainability Conference. This is a free event and if you’ve never seen Bill talk about solar, it’s a huge treat. Pass along the registration link to anyone that may want to join you. Don’t you think that every PAC-12 school should be 100% solar?
Clean Energy For Biden Event Alert. Today. Please Join Dr. Jill Biden along with Governor Kate Brown, Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, and Labor Commissioner Val Hoyle for a virtual conversation! Sign Up Here!
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Yann
SolarWakeup 3.0. For those of you that have been following SolarWakeup for sometime know that my work tends to come in cycles given the turnaround/growth work that I focus on. In between, I focus on two things. First is the next big leap for SolarWakeup and the second is consulting which leads me to create the thesis for my next full time work. Last time, SolarWakeup 2.0 was the expansion of the daily coverage to more than 1 paragraph which recapped the main stories with an addition of my take on the story. SolarWakeup 3.0 will do even more for the solar market and will launch next week. Thanks to many of you for supporting and reading all these years.
Texas And Florida. News broke late last week including some Twitter aviation sleuths showing that Elon Musk and Tesla board members were eyeing a site outside of Austin for the next factory. This factory would be used for the Cybertruck and east coast deliveries of the Model Y. The company has secured a 2,100 acre site for the plant and would continue a trend to move from California to the Austin region, East Bay folks will tell you that it’s the most commonly discussed destination. The other is Miami, many VCs have setup shop in Miami for the beaches, weather and no state income tax. Florida makes an awful logistics center for cars though.
Monopoly Treatment. Already a convicted felon for a gas explosion, PG&E was found guilty of manslaughter many times over last week. This was while the company was on probation for the previous felony and in bankruptcy. To recap, the credit profile has a recent BK and two felonies. If that was a solar off taker or homeowner, you wouldn’t be able to approve them for a $20k loan let alone the responsibility of serving millions of Californians. Capitalism doesn’t work if there is no repercussion for bad behavior, how the company expands on the monopoly or keeps it is hard to understand.
A Full Wrap For Homes. Credit given to where it is due, Panasonic has understood that homeowners want the comfort of a warranty when they install solar. Unfortunately, when solar is installed on a home more than the panels can cause issues, like a leak from bad mounting or faulty inverter. Panasonic now offers a complete warranty that includes paying for labor to fix anything that goes wrong on the system including inverter and mounting. The partnership includes Enphase and Unirac to complete the wrap.
Think Of Roof Integrated. GAF Energy has been the lone company to tackle roof integrated solar alongside Tesla’s solar roof. Now SunPower is getting into the game with a deal that uses the OneRoof technology with KB Home. I’ll be interested to see how this plays out 10 years from now.
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Yann
Friday Rundown. What a week! It started off with a ridiculous 45 hour drive for me and a never ending jet lag but here we are another week down. We now have 10 days left in the worst, strangest and seemingly longest quarter in my time in solar. Here we go
From Alabama’s Reporting. As the regulators approve a gas plant but not solar, reporters write. “The original expansion proposal included five 80-megawatt solar projects paired with battery storage banks that could be used after dark when the panels would not normally provide power. There are limitations, however. The batteries for the project would last about two hours before needing to be recharged by the sun. That might not be long enough during a cold winter morning if the sun wasn’t shining.”
EPA Forgot Its Second Letter. Toxic water? Don’t worry about it.
Equality, Diversity, Solar’s Work Begins. What are the actions and changes you’ve embarked on to make your business more diverse?
Repowering and Developing Big Solar. It’s been a few years since I focused on large scale development and I’ve lost touch with who is doing what. As wind gets into the repowering of existing farms, there will be the same work in solar. We are also seeing early stage development getting much larger in scale and reaching new geographies. This work is no longer limited to large companies, individual developers are reaching key interconnection milestones as well. Not too many teams have the financial wherewithal to fund development and construction but I expect to see more of you raising your hands for these 100MW opportunities.
Bill Walton And Friends. In a fun event on June 24th, join me, Bill Walton and his friends at the virtual PAC-12 Sustainability Conference. This is a free event and if you’ve never seen Bill talk about solar, it’s a huge treat. Pass along the registration link to anyone that may want to join you.
Presented by Adani Green Energy. Adani is a fully integrated renewables company, from solar cell and module manufacturing to ownership and operation. The company has a top global operating and contracted pipeline of over 14 GW. Adani is the recipient of the largest solar award ever of 8 GW, which includes a single site project of 2 GW - tied for the world's largest. No one knows mega-scale projects like Adani.
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Yann