Community Solar Goes Mainstream. The most relevant topic going on in solar, especially in the Northeast, is community solar. The benefits are giving access to solar for renters and consumers with lower FICO scores, lowering the cost by building bigger facilities and not needing long term contracts. That is why I am bringing the experts in the field for a super sized panel to SolarWakeup Live! in Boston. Reps from CleanChoice Energy, BlueWave Capital and Ampion know the space and will share their knowledge.
Fight For PG&E’s Board. Things are warming up in the PG&E board room. While a bailout bill is being floated in Sacramento, shareholders are fighting for control of the board room. BlueMountain Capital, which owns significant stake in PG&E, has written a letter to the shareholders and plans to nominate a brand new board of directors. There are some notable names on the list which you will recognize
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SolarWakeup Live!: By Yann Brandt
SolarWakeup Live!: By Yann Brandt
In this episode I speak with Dave Rosenfeld of the Solar Rights Alliance about the bipartisan legislation that was filed in California last week, the Solar Bill of Rights. The bill is California focused legislation but the story rings true across the Country, consumers deserve the opportunity to go solar without obstruction from the electric monopolies putting barriers in the way. Dave runs the Solar Rights Alliance which brings together solar consumers and creates the response mechanism to help the solar industry push politics forward. Much like the NRA, SRA members join (for free) when they go solar and that is where the Solar Rights Alliance partners with solar installers to get customers involved. If we all do this together, installers will have a million solar customers to lean on for political response. This episode is sponsored by UtilityAPI. Get a free data pull for one meter by going to utilityapi.com/Wakeup. Support our sponsors! Join the Solar Rights Alliance at solarrights.orgTesla, It’s Here. Tesla has announced some major changes including the release of the long awaited $35k model (before incentives) and guided to almost half a million cars to be manufactured. That’s a lot of EVs. The result of the lower priced car is that the stores will be closed and all purchasing will be done online. This obviously impacts the plan to sell solar in the stores and maybe the idea is to also sell solar online. Installers tell me that they are doing well with Powerwall 2 but I don’t see how Tesla Energy will focus on keeping up with others on the solar side.
DIY, Retail Solar. Q4 last year was massive, all data pointed that way and Sunrun executed with 115MW installed in the quarter. The company also announced that it would go into Home Depot stores in 15 States, at the same time that Vivint Solar announced it would enter 200 Home Depot stores in 8 States. This comes after Tesla announced it was leaving the Home Depot channel last June. Now is the time for both companies to focus on the sales and financing strategies that turn solar companies into billion dollar revenue businesses while letting my team manufacturer and supply them the racking. We’ve got a wonderful factory in California ready to serve! (same goes for all of you!)
Solar Homes, In Texas. While everyone is looking at the California new home market opportunity from the solar mandate, other developers are going all in on the net zero construction trend. Award winning Whisper Valley in Texas is building 7,500 homes near Austin with solar coming as a standard install on every home. The good folks at Rocky Mountain Institute also tackle the topic of net zero homes in a post today.
Speaking To And Of Homeowners. Ever wonder what happens to the homeowner after you install solar? Make sure you are getting them involved with Solar Rights Alliance by having them opt in to join the group automatically. I interviewed Dave Rosenfeld, the executive director of SRA, about how this works and why it is so important. The episode is presented by UtilityAPI.com/Wakeup. Check out how you can get your customer’s meter data in minutes instead of weeks.
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New POD, Solar Bill Of Rights. Last week a new solar bill was filed in California but this bill was focused on consumers’ rights and bipartisan. The Solar Bill of Rights is driven by the Solar Rights Alliance and I speak with their executive director about the bill and the focus of the SRA. The SRA needs you to think about how you can be helpful in this as well, please subscribe, rate and review on your favorite podcast app. This episode is presented by UtilityAPI
Solar Tariff Fallout. Take a moment to read this article by Bloomberg on the topic of the steel and aluminum tariffs. In many ways, the factories (including the one at Quick Mount PV) are exactly the jobs that Trump seems to focus on. Many of the racking companies in solar use 3rd party contract manufacturers and many of those are in the US. With the tariffs in place, domestic commodity pricing has increased and importing parts and pieces has become more expensive than procuring finished products abroad according to the reporting. This means that the local jobs that depend on competitive commodity pricing are hurt by the tariffs causing the result to be the opposite of the intended effect of the policy in the first place.
Developing In Florida. Disney is going solar with a 50MW project through their coop utility. There has been some quiet development out of the team from Origis like this project and the one in Tallahassee which was first discussed in 2008. Nice to see things happening in my former home state given the decade I spent joking that the only solar jobs were at the airport for those of us flying out of State. Now Florida is the second largest jobs employer and has their own “SPI”. I must have missed the phone call from the show producers :).
Missed TVA Opportunity. During the Obama years, the solar industry should have absolutely packed the team at the TVA and at the TVA board. This is also true for the regulatory bodies across the Country, the NJ BPU President was recruiting for staff at the last SolarWakeup Live! event. We need solar advocates to be working in the regulatory bodies, maybe a Federalist club version of solar where we provide internships and fellowships to folks that want to work in regulatory bodies.
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