Holiday Schedule. Starting tomorrow I will be winding down for the holidays. You will still receive a newsletter most days as long as there is coverage but the column will be shortened or non-existent. I want to thank you for an amazing 2018, the support through my move to San Francisco and another year of engagement. The SolarWakeup Live! events have taken off and we are all advancing solar together through great conversations. As always I appreciate the relationships we have going and I’m always grateful to connect with you in person. 
Would You Like This Apple? There is a place for several tech giants to take a leadership position in solar. Google went into it with Sunroof but other than that, the initiatives have remained focused on the supply of electricity. This article asks an interesting question of what it would look like if Apple took on the hard work of clean tech hardware by acquiring Tesla. I find the combination interesting and realistic. 
Resi Solar Power. 2018 has been a great year for residential solar and this story about Freedom Forever is a sign of the sector. More importantly, companies that focused on making customers happy with high quality installs were able to grow drastically. On the other hand, bad installs led to bad reviews and declining sales. I’m excited to be part of this segment right now, moving beyond incentives and subsidies to grow the part of solar that consumers love to take part of. 
Jim Rogers. Ten years ago, I had the pleasure of talking about solar to a group of Governors with Duke CEO, Jim Rogers. We weren’t quite on the same page on what solar could provide but he was respectful of this arrogant 25 year old’s comments. We gave our presentations and shared a few words afterwards and that was my interaction with Rogers. My condolences to Jim’s family and I leave you with these words, said after his retirement from Duke to EnergBiz in 2014. “I'd want the solar on the rooftop. I'd want to run that. I'd want the ability to deploy new technologies that lead to productivity gains to the use of electricity in homes and businesses. I would go after the monopoly that I see weakened over the last 25 years.  My goal would be to take customers away from utilities as fast as I could, because I think they're vulnerable. Regulations will not be changed fast enough to protect them.  The business model will not be changed fast enough.”

Opinion

News

 

Have a great day!
Yann

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Freedom Forever, one of America's fastest growing solar power companies, announced today that the company has doubled its revenues in 2018 from $55 million to $110 million. Freedom Forever has established itself as one of the home solar industry's most dynamic forces - and is poised for continued growth and expansion in 2019 and beyond. "At the core of Freedom Forever's business model is the fundamental belief that our customers come first. Our ongoing success is a direct result of the consumer-driven, service-oriented approach we follow, which is designed to make renewable energy an attractive proposition for homeowners by maximizing their return on investment," said Brett Bouchy, CEO of Freedom Forever. "2018 was a banner year as we cracked $100 million in revenue for the first time. As we look forward to 2019, we see continued room to grow as we bring our services to a broader market in more states, and as more homeowners become aware of both the cost-savings possible with solar energy and the role that renewables have in ultimately countering climate change." Freedom Forever has been among the fastest growing energy companies in the United States with 3000% revenue growth over the last three years. So far, the company has installed solar systems on more than 10,000 homes in California, Arizona and Nevada and installed a total of 26 Megawatts of solar capacity in 2018. In November, Freedom Forever expanded operations to Colorado and looks forward to continuing to expand into several additional states in 2019. "From the beginning, Freedom Forever has continued to show consistent and rapid growth, showcasing our ability to cultivate and maintain long-lasting relationships with our customer base through impeccable service to our clients," said Jessica Sumikawa, Executive Vice President & Chief Legal Officer, Freedom Forever. "We are proud to be a leading force behind the increases in solar energy adoption rates and we will continue to cultivate consumer demand for home solar as we spread our green energy solutions to new regions throughout the United States."

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

As North Carolina climbed the list of best solar states in the country, the growth was often attributed to utility-scale solar installations. But Duke Energy wants to remind you that it's also provides nearly $6 million in solar rebates to 1,300 residential and commercial distributed generation customers, too. And the new window for getting solar rebates for next year opens on January 2. The Duke Energy solar rebate program is one of many customer programs the company is implementing as part of the Competitive Energy Solutions for North Carolina law passed in 2017. The rebates have helped many residential and business customers take the solar leap. "We are proud to make Birdsong the first Charlotte brewery to go solar," said Chris Goulet, president of Birdsong Brewery. "Partnering with Duke Energy and its solar rebate program made the project's economics even more attractive. The company's solar installation is a big step toward making our organization more sustainable." North Carolina is No. 2 in the nation for solar power, including more than 8,000 Duke Energy customers in the state owning private solar systems. The company's rebate program launched this summer attracted so much interest that capacity for residential and non-residential customers was fully subscribed within weeks. There is still capacity for nonprofit customers in 2018. More than $6 million has been distributed to customers in 2018, with additional rebates set to be paid later in the year as systems are connected. The program will run through 2022, with an estimated 7,500 customers expected to receive Duke Energy rebates for solar systems. The company will soon begin accepting new applications from customers who want to participate:

• On Jan. 2, the company will open the window for an additional 20 megawatts of new rooftop solar installations for residential, non-residential and nonprofit customers.
• Per the N.C. Utilities Commission order earlier in the year, the company will also reallocate any 2018 capacity for projects that have not been installed. That means customers who were waitlisted in 2018 with already-installed projects will be allowed to collect any available rebates. Any unconnected customers, or those that connected projects Oct. 3, 2018, or later, are eligible to apply in 2019.

Under the program, residential customers are eligible for a rebate of 60 cents per watt for solar energy systems 10 kilowatts (kW) or less. For example, a typical rooftop array of 8 kW is eligible for a $4,800 rebate. Installed systems 10 kW or greater are eligible for a maximum rebate of $6,000. Nonresidential customers are eligible for 50 cents per watt. Nonprofit customers (such as churches and schools) are eligible for an enhanced rebate of 75 cents per watt for systems 100 kW or less.

Selling The Green New Deal. A recent poll about he Green New Deal revealed that almost nobody knows about the bill or what is in it. When the surveyor provided some of the details, 100% renewable energy in 10 years, clean energy job training and money for energy efficiency and renewable energy, the respondent came out in favor of the Green New Deal. This included 75% of moderate republicans and 57% of conservative members of the GOP. This is one step off from Fox News running a trailer for the inconvenient truth! The takeaway is simple, don’t sell the issue, sell the solutions. But make sure to sell it nonetheless, explain what is in it for the voter and they’ll be in favor!
All About New York. Governor Cuomo had a big day when it comes to big goals. The NY PSC rolled out the goal to reach 3GW of energy storage by 2030 (it will be higher). During the Governor’s speech on his 2019 legislative priorities, Cuomo outlined the goal to get to 100% renewable energy by 2040, 5 years before the goal set by California. This is a big goal for one of the largest energy users in the Country but more important is that the State needs to move to execution. Time for talk is over and the Governor needs to enable the execution of the development that will allow the work to start.
Offshore Wind Farming. 3 developers bid into a Department of Interior auction to lease Federal lands. The bids were for $135million PER ENTITY and they were to build offshore wind. One person that would know about this is Abby Hopper, who before joining SEIA was the Director of BOEM, the government entity in charge of the auction that enabled $405million in leasing fees to be paid for the ability to generate this electricity. 
Get Your Podcast Conversations. Three new podcast recordings have been released in the past week, NJ BPU President Fiordaliso, SEIA CEO Abby Hopper, and Gabe Philips of GP Energy Management. Please share the podcast with your friends and colleagues and help spread the word about them. A lot of work goes into recording and editing them so it would be appreciated to get the listen count up. Stay tuned for more coming up, make sure to subscribe to the podcast to stay in the loop on everything SolarWakeup Live!

Opinion

News

 

Have a great day!
Yann