Spruce Comes Back. After having been taken over by their senior lender and stopping the loan business, Spruce is back in the market with a bit of a twist. Spruce will be buying solar portfolios based on the knowledge that the company has in operating the assets. I wouldn’t be surprised if this leads to also managing portfolios for institutional capital when the solar market grows to beyond 1million new homes going solar per year.
South Carolina Dealmaking. Legislators and the utility are closer to a deal that would uncap the net metering rule for a period of 2 years. The ‘cost’ is that PURPA projects that need contracts over 10 years would have to create some sort of guarantee that the rate stays below the avoided cost. Hard to read the fine print on that and think that the contract isn’t really a contract but I will speak to some developers and try to understand what it means. Good news for residential though and I’m sure homeowners will be making sure their roof warranty stay intact by asking for Quick Mount.
A Climate Emergency. The UK parliament has agreed on Brexit, just not from the EU but instead from carbon emissions. The parliament wants the UK to be net-zero by 2050 and urged the Committee on Climate Change to adopt a resolution stating that fact.
Down To $5.3Billion. The oil companies have had a tough quarter, Shell’s profits were down year over year and only achieved $5.3billion for the quarter. The others were down as well and the total profits barely surpassed $10billion for the quarter in total. Hard to imagine that the consolidation between solar/EVs/storage and the oil majors doesn’t continue into the next decade.
Presented By RayTray. RayTray is a solar wire management system. Designed for commercial ballasted flat or standing seam roof projects. It was created by commercial solar installers for commercial installers. It is a great, cost-effective solution for managing home runs, quicker and easier to install than conduit. RayTray is listed to conform to UL Standard 870. It is highly customizable with no grounding needed and no roof attachment. It can hold up to thirty 10 gauge wires per tray. RayTray also simplifies O&M, giving quick access to wires, all at a cost of less than a penny per watt.
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Yann
More updates tomorrow as I am on the road and out of time!
Presented By RayTray. RayTray is a solar wire management system. Designed for commercial ballasted flat or standing seam roof projects. It was created by commercial solar installers for commercial installers. It is a great, cost-effective solution for managing home runs, quicker and easier to install than conduit. RayTray is listed to conform to UL Standard 870. It is highly customizable with no grounding needed and no roof attachment. It can hold up to thirty 10 gage wires per tray. RayTray also simplifies O&M, giving quick access to wires, all at a cost of less than a penny per watt.
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Yann
This Is Mainstream. Imagine if I told you last year, let alone 5 years ago, that a national poll would rank climate change as the most important issue for primary voters. That happened in the latest CNN poll, where 96% of respondents said it was very important. Climate change beat out healthcare and gun control in this poll. See the detail below and you can see the entire poll here.
The Counter Point. If climate change were the top issue, why is Governor Jay Inslee, who only talks about climate change, only polling at 1%? Is it purely a name ID issue and that he needs more people to hear him say the words?
The Counter Counter Point. The day before the poll went out, which was released prior to today on embargo (which means the press got it earlier), Beto O’Rourke released his $5trillion climate plan. While this is one poll, candidates are taking it seriously enough to lead with the issue.
Who’s Advising The Teams? I don’t know anyone in solar embedded with the teams and that worries me. There should be industry insight going into the campaigns and at the very least data being fed to the campaigns so they know our talking points. An example would be when President Obama used the Solar Market Insight data in the State of the Union speech.
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New York Incentive For Storage. NYSERDA is making things going forward and with these incentive levels, expect a lithium rush to the Empire State. ‘Retail’ projects will start with incentives of $350/kWh and larger projects will start at $110/kWh. Both create a major catalyst for the market to expand and with the pool of available capital, it should be able to last for sometime. I actually worry that the incentive is too high as battery costs are declining rapidly. In the meantime, let’s see with integrators are best positioned to serve the developer markets. My interview with Engie Storage CCO is coming soon to the podcast and catch my interview from last year with FlexGen CEO, Josh Prueher on the topic.
But We Need More. With reporting from down under, it shows that energy storage is a vital part of where we need to go. That is why you’ve seen CalSEIA and COSeia change their names to include storage, CALSSA and COSSA respectively now. The next decade will decide what the technologies of storage with be, including pumped hydro when possible. With California and New York going big on incentives to drive the markets, expect the storage sector to develop robust pipelines and drive the price down alongside the auto OEMs.
Beto Takes On Climate. The former Congressman from Texas that took the nation by storm last year during his race against Ted Cruz has outlined the first policy for his Presidential campaign. The policy is a $5 trillion climate plan that gets us to reach ‘net-zero’ by 2050. In some ways this is the ‘I have my own plan so I don’t need the green new deal, plan.’ Beto has been quiet but with 20 candidates in the primary, it’s going to take some work to stick out. In other climate news, Congressman Seth Moulton is calling for a moonshot to develop nuclear fusion technology to solve climate change.
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Yann