Clean Energy For Biden. You can now support Joe Biden’s campaign on behalf of the SolarWakeup community. I was involved in Cleantech For Obama and this marks another moment when the solar industry can get behind the former Vice President. Join me by donating here.
Grid Electrification. Much news was made this weekend when PG&E came out in support of electrifying new construction in California. This may be news in the literal sense but it’s not for climate reasons. Electrification is a monetization strategy for a bankrupt monopoly. The gas pipelines have been a giant liability for the utility and there is little additional rate base in that market. Electrifying, especially in dense geographies means more infrastructure that needs to be upgraded.
Actions Will Prove My Comment. If you listen to my interview with Nick Chaset, CEO of East Bay Community Energy, you will hear about the complicated relationship between the CCAs and the IOUs. Especially as it comes to the important local resource adequacy procurement, CCAs have lost their control on what projects get greenlit. With the new central procurement process, local storage, demand response and microgrids can’t get paid for local RA unless PG&E and SCE say yes. While you’re there, please rate and review the podcast. You can do this even if you don’t listen to it, as a favor to me.
Utilities And SPI. Not to belabor the point but since SPI is happening this year and is going to be down in revenue quite a bit, I will remind you that half of the profits from the show go to SEIA and the other half go to SEPA. SEPA, which doesn’t have the word solar in it, has launched SEPA TV. So if you want to know what SEPA stands for at this moment in time, you’ll get to hear executives from APS, NYPA, Xcel, Edison International, PSEG and PNM.
Debt Gets Fracked. Chesapeake Energy has filed for bankruptcy protection, to restructure $7billion in debt. By no means does this mean they’re going out of business, they just want to pay their bond holders less for the debt continuing the trend of losing money for shale investors.
Just Because. Trump’s Twitter account had the word Solyndra in two separate tweets this weekend. I thought ‘scandals’ in the scale of millions was behind us at this point. Also, we can’t blame Obama for the Bush deal and the loan program was profitable.
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Yann
Friday Funday. Another great week as we wrap up Q2, cross it off your calendar and go into Q3 without anymore excuses. Drop ‘in these times’ ‘because of corona’ from your vocabulary and do your work. Everyone is in a similar situation, just get it done. No more column today, have a great weekend.
Virtual Power Podcast. Check out the latest episode of SolarWakeup Podcast as I interview East Bay Community Energy’s CEO Nick Chaset. We talk about CCAs, CPUC’s ruling and the future of virtual power plants.
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Yann
Shale Revolution Was A Loser. The shale gas revolution was supposed to be something special, lots of money being made and littered around. According to a Deloitte report the reality is the total opposite and the numbers are staggering. Over the past 15 years, the US shale industry has returned $300billion in negative cash flow and impaired $450billion in invested capital.
Climate Change Polls Improve. In the latest Pew research on climate change, results continue to show that our industry and the broader clean energy space has excellent bipartisan support. That support is greater than 80% on most issues when you remove conservative republicans from the analysis. Invest more in ‘alternative energy’ is 81%-97% and the big winner is planting a trillion trees which polled at over 87% for all political groups. At the end of the day the polling is much better on the solution than the issue.
Young People Know. The GOP has an internal generational problem on the issue of climate change and renewable energy. Boomers support renewable energy at 55% versus the millennials at 79%. You may be surprised to know that there are republicans working in solar and they tend to be my age or younger. That’s the upside of solar, it’s fundamentally a bipartisan issue. You can support it for a variety of reasons that align with your ideology.
Revenue Stacking Goes Distributed. It was a recent switch that went off in my mind but virtual power plants are a huge new segment for our market. Batteries will not just be there for homeowners that are looking to shift energy consumption or to have backup power. Owners of storage will be able to monetize by partnering with load service entities just like East Bay Clean Energy did for their pilot program. Keep your eyes on this space, I’m intrigued.
SEBANE Annual Awards. Join SEBANE for our Third Annual Summer Solstice Celebration and Awards Event, being held virtually today. The Summer Solstice and Awards Celebration will feature remarks from SEBANE President Mark Sylvia, public officials, and industry stakeholders, will include a virtual happy hour.
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Yann
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