DC, Vote Solar, Collision Course. Join me in DC for Vote Solar’s Equinox tomorrow evening. There should be some great surprises and news that matter to your business. Get your ticket right now.
David Roberts Chimes In. David has been noting that he wanted to cover the blackouts from a different perspective and be last to the rush of articles. Here are his thoughts on the things that could be done.
One Of Those Things. Is happening on January 1st with the new home solar mandate that is kicking off. This legislative effort was the work of many and required many different parties to get to the table.
More Is Needed. That is why hundreds of mayors sent a letter to Congress asking for the ITC to be extended. Have you sent yours?
Because We Are Outmatched. PG&E alone has 100 regulatory staffers in Sacramento, add that to every other utility lobbying force across the Country and then add the oil and gas lobbying staff. In case you wanted to see the numbers behind the lobbying, Axios has you covered.
Reality Check. Yes, the republican co-chair of the climate caucus isn’t running for re-election. His decision not to run has nothing to do with climate and being the co-chair makes him persona non-grata in the GOP caucus. This is a political problem.
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Yann
SEIA Election Endorsements. There is an important election going on for SEIA’s board, particularly the DG Division. If you are a member, please vote for Karla Loeb for the Chair of the DG Division. Karla is the head of policy for an east coast solar provider and has been a strong supporter advancing solar in States that are often forgotten. Most importantly she is intimately knowledgeable on DG matters. For the Vice Chair of the DG Division, please vote for Michael Healy. Michael has been on the SEIA board and provides important institutional knowledge to the board. Both Karla and Michael are near DC and will absolutely be as involved as anyone you can hope for.
IEA Highlights Rooftop. IEA is out with their new Renewables Report for 2019 and they are highlighting the massive potential of distributed solar. From a global perspective, IEA sees commercial solar taking off and even after 600GW, it would only represent 6% of the technical potential.
Google Shares Knowledge. If you were wondering how Google executes on its renewable contracts, they are providing answers. Their auction system ensures not only qualified bidders, allows for understanding of the offer and then provides the best price. The white paper is short and to the point, and full of information.
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Yann
A Give Back Evening. Last Friday I spent a few hours with my friends from the California solar industry at the CALSSA annual dinner. I personally try to attend as many of these as I can in both my SolarWakeup and Quick Mount capacity to support the important work of the State trade association. On Friday I was excited to see the generosity of members, raising over $100k for CALSSA, with major donations coming throughout the evening. Companies showed up for the $15billion market that pays their bills and creates their jobs but think of that, CALSSA operates on an annual budget that is about 0.01% of the total market. As I was leaving I realized some notable companies that make a ton of revenue in California were missing. Where were they? Where were you? This has been bothering me all weekend, why isn’t every company giving at least a few thousand to CALSSA and State chapters? PG&E has 100 regulatory staffers and CALSSA has a $1.6million budget. Thanks to all that gave and those that didn’t, you should ask yourself why and try to defend that decision especially if you made a profit in the California market.
Is Solar Divided? Something is brewing in the solar industry (in reality it’s been there for a decade) but it’s getting worse. Utility scale solar and distributed solar are at odds in regulatory proceedings as well as trade group boards including SEIA. Right now it’s just healthy debate but it scares me that we don’t see the benefit of each other’s position. Solar is a market in totality, residential solar likes the headlines of solar being the cheapest form of electricity and utility scale likes the headline of 2million homes with solar and amazing public support. Let’s be realistic about one point and I say this to my friends in utility scale solar that are always missing from State chapter events. Your market will tank and the likelihood of legislative victories will disappear if the people that you need for support can’t put solar on their homes. Utility scale solar needs net metering, ITC and interconnection rules and fights so that there is a market for large scale solar. There is no large scale solar market without the regulatory environment that has the support of voters. If a homeowner cannot put solar on their home or net metering doesn’t exist, the perception will be that solar doesn’t work or is too expensive. I’m happy to debate this with any of the large scale voices in private or public and in the meantime challenge you to send a $5k check to a State chapter near you.
A Decade Of Incompetence. The CEO of PG&E was out on Friday stating that utility driven blackouts could last for the next decade. Now ask yourself what would happen if you were asked by your CEO or board to fix an enormous problem, a problem you may or may not know the answer to, and your response is that it would take you ten years to fix it. Every CEO I know would either terminate you or give that problem to someone else. I can’t believe that the CEO of a major monopoly utility in control of all of the assets in the system could say that a problem like the blackouts would exist for the next decade. What happened to the ‘responsibility to serve’?
Our Work With Ag. I’m a loyal listener to Kara Swisher’s various podcasts and she’s been highlighting tech’s work in agriculture. Solar and farmers have had a nice relationship over the past 5-10 years renting land to solar farms but I wonder what else is possible. Farmers play such a vital role in American society and this story needs to be told with more vigor. I’d love to have conversations with farmers around the Country to understand their view of the industry and what else they’d like to see.
A New DOE Secretary. Go ahead and Google Dan Brouillette, your likely next Secretary of Energy. A longtime hill staffer with some ties to the auto industry but a nuclear scientist he is not. Fun note, Brouillette was part of the legislative team that drafted the bill that gave us the loan guarantee program which made money for taxpayers.
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Yann
Solar Growing Up. Florida has the strictest building codes in the Country and part of that is testing your product in Florida test labs and having the State approve them. Solar has never done that in the past but now that is changed. The second biggest residential solar market in the Country is getting the solar market to grow up and I’m glad Quick Mount was able to be a part of that.
Pushing Your HOA. A state rule preventing HOAs from limiting solar is key, but not all states have done that. Know your rights and fight for them at the legislative level if you need to.
Attacking The C&I Market. One fund is saying good bye to PURPA deals and replacing them with C&I. As we see installed projects trading in the secondary market, I wonder what effect this will have on the expansion of the development funnel for projects and how they’ll be financed. Open Energy is working on a new tool that prices C&I projects for developers to allow them to get deals moving forward without having to go through an entire underwriting process.
Farewell, Again. Rick Perry is out. Officially.
If Only. I had a dollar for everytime I said years ago that we should go all in on ERCOT development. Shoulda coulda woulda.
CALSSA, Vote Solar, MDV-SEIA. For the next 6 weeks there are some of the biggest events in the Country to help your business. See you there!
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Yann