Tres Commas. Bloomberg is highlighting some success stories in the ‘green’ sectors. Solar has been an industry where people have done well but we don’t have a solar billionaire as of yet. Who will it be and how will they use that wealth to advance the industry? If you think you can be that person, come on the podcast.
Green Coffee. Starbucks announced their headline carbon initiative, to lower their emissions by 50% by 2030. Unlike tech companies, I find their path much more complex given their distributed footprint and shear quantity of waste and plastics. That being said, their transition to non straw tops happened very quickly so maybe the company embraces change along with their customers. Knowing that the outcome is the right thing to achieve, I look forward to learning how the company executes and how solar plays a role. Maybe this is an interesting solar hot water integration.
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Yann
Schmoozing In Davos. The World Economic Forum starts today and climate change is going to be a central topic. The conversation between JP Morgan’s CEO, Jamie Dimon, and BlackRock’s CEO, Larry Fink, should go something like this. Climate change is a real problem but can you believe that we get to invest trillions of dollars to solve this for the world? Coal plants are not investable anymore and unless a regulator will guarantee a double digit return, I won’t even invest in a natural gas plant. The only thing worth anything on those plants is the interconnection so we can put giant batteries there.
In Reality. This is clearly the investment thesis that others are seeing. Bay Area VCs are hailing climate tech as the trillion dollar opportunity as well. On the other hand, we have’t gotten to that point yet, the conversations in Davos will be more scientific which isn’t necessarily a bad thing so that folks can be educated on the situation. That education will let deals get to the point of being seen. Once they are seen, investors will see the economic case without needing the environmental influence to say yes.
Without The Markets. One of the key regulatory intersections to deploy the capital into projects is the lack of open markets. Advocates are playing by the rules to try and make these markets more open but they are in a fight against well run monopolies that know not to give an inch. From a political standpoint, it creates a catch-22 for politicians that either want to see more renewables or those that favor free market capitalism.
What’s Next. What else do you want to see from SolarWakeup? Different type of content, events or medium? What has been published from this platform that you want to see more of? In the mood for some feedback and community brainstorming.
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Yann
Mops And Buckets For Climate Change. Building a wall around Manhattan drew the ire of Trump on Twitter, get your buckets ready New York.
Tech Helps The Fight. We’re entering an era where action has a technological and financial capability of success. Here’s Jeff Bezos showing off the new electric rickshaw that Amazon will use in India.
The Trade Deal. Phase one of the trade agreement with China was signed last week, amongst which was promising outlook for the silicon sector. As details come out, there will be plenty of opportunity to assess how this could help the solar space. It does leave in place all other tariffs on solar related items like inverters, aluminum and other commodities.
Looking Ahead. A few weeks ago, SEIA elected a new board Chair. In a quiet contest between Swinerton CEO, George Hershman and Nexamp CEO Zaid Ashai, the board elected Hershman. The Swinerton CEO has been a leading voice in tariff fights which leads the expectation that SEIA will continue to focus a large amount of time and resource on the topic. It has yet to be seen or heard how SEIA plans to move forward after the ITC loss including the discussion on the next step-down at the end of the year. I continue to wish and hope for SEIA to do public outreach to groups that could view this election as a double down on utility scale solar, away from DG and the regulatory policies that enable that segment.
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Yann
Social Media Action For Reefs. Former Miami Dolphins player, Jarvis Landry, caught me by surprise when his post included a call to action on climate change as it pertains to reefs. A new level of action for climate that solar should think about.
Two Investments, One Deck. Union Square Ventures is a well known, successful, early stage venture capital firm. This is a firm that did part of the series A for Twitter in 2007. Two new investments and 60 slides on why they are looking at climate tech as part of their thesis.
Forget Carbon Neutral. Microsoft is challenging its team to get to carbon negative by 2030, a leap from the carbon neutral goals set just a few years ago. Making this possible for its millions of customers would be a great next step. Here is their post outlining this.
We Knew. “Yeah, we knew. Everybody knew,” he said. “And somehow we all ignored it.” Those are the words of Shell CEO Ben van Beurden.
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Yann