Small Coops Go Big On Solar. This is going to happen more often going forward, this being the coop that you’ve never heard of signing a PPA with what seems to be an extra 0. This is also true for markets that you may not be focused on, and it creates the goal for me to host a SolarWakeup Live! in every State across the Country even though Boston keeps me coming back. We added a great speaker yesterday, Marc Roper from ENGIE Storage, to talk about how the SMART program and ISO-NE rules enable energy storage to have a great revenue upside.
Tigers Know Better. Trump is creating a new climate change panel and it’s obvious pick for the chair is a climate science denier. I’ve known many impressive Princeton grads in my time and aside from their lousy lacrosse skills, they tend to be thoughtful and willing to look at the data before making up their mind. Every now and then comes along a Physics professor that believes more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is good for the earth and in this case that professor will lead the US Government in discussing climate change. Do better Tigers!
PG&E Creates Microgrid Future. The articles about microgrids are increasing in depth and occurrence and much of that comes from people trying to understand how micrograms can help provide more resilience to the grid when transmission lines need to be pulled back for safety. The important question for regulators and legislators is why the speed of implementation of distributed generation should be held back at all and what they can do to enable the speed of development to increase capacity of renewables within the network. More discussion on this soon.
Sleep Easy Bramble Cay Melomy. A tiny rat that inhabited a vegetated cay near the Great Barrier Reef is now officially extinct due to impact of climate change. The cay had been inundated several times over the past few decades and maybe this doesn’t matter to humans given what and where this is happening. So here is the quote from Aldous Huxley that drives the point home, "That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.”
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Yann
Community Solar Goes Big Time. New Mexico passes policy in the house and brings it to the Senate. Florida files a bill and Pennsylvania is expected to be right behind it. That’s what was in my inbox today, all about community solar. This is an interesting twist on policy as I did not expect the market to lean in on community solar but I understand why it is the perfect blend for legislators. It is also a great topic to solve financing for solar in an era where capital may not trust utility contracts for the next 20 years given the PG&E bankruptcy. Part of the unknown is how to execute on the projects and that is why I am interviewing two leaders in the space at SolarWakeup Live! in Boston. Check out the agenda and get your tickets right now!
Solar Consumers Go To The Capitol. This is primarily a California story but it could come to a State near you soon. The Solar Rights Alliance is working to make consumers the central advocates for solar policy and they have unveiled the Solar Bill of Rights in Sacramento yesterday. Instead of solar pros in yellow shirts, it was everyday consumers advocating for their right to go solar. As we all learned a long time ago, you’ve got to fight, for your right, to go solar.
FERC Wants Last Say. In a court filing in bankruptcy court, FERC lawyers made the case that they will seek to have the last say to approve any changes to PPAs signed by PG&E after PG&E has convinced the bankruptcy courts that they should be allowed to cancel them. Solar will be watching this closely.
Harder Line On Shell. In a related note from my writeup yesterday, Amy Harder from Axios is looking at Shell from the other angle. A view from the companies future decisions about policy advocacy, trade associations and how it behaves in an era where it looks to be involved in a hybrid world of clean tech and oil. Becoming a tradition industrial for the 21st century may take a wide view and could require advocacy decisions that choose next decade over next year.
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Yann
Shell Buys Sonnen. Shell is on a buying spree and they’re now getting into the home with the acquisition of Sonnen, the behind the meter energy storage company. This comes just a few weeks after buying Greenlots the EV charging company and less than a year since investing in Sonnen. Sonnen had raised about $180million in venture funding which makes the exit price all the more interesting. Can this part of the value chain attract the investments and exits that make the circular momentum gain traction? I see how this may very well be the case, especially on the heels of Sunrun’s victory in the ISO-NE capacity auction which creates additional revenue upside for our market that we have long been touting. Congrats to the Sonnen team, very happy for their success and look forward to seeing what’s next in their development.
SolarWorld Price Revealed. In the annual filing from SunPower, their purchase price for SolarWorld assets were revealed. The consideration was $26million plus some contingencies. Not a bad deal for what once was worth north of a billion dollars. To put this in context, the sale of SunPower’s microinverter assets and IP to Enphase brought in $25million in cash plus 7.5million shares of the ENPH stock. Read it for yourself here, on page 4.
Renewable Energy Gets Political. This is a pivotal moment in national politics. Now that the resolution for the Green New Deal has been released, the Senate Majority Leader wants to use it in attack politics. McConnell is looking to bring the bill to the floor and tie the Democrats to the bill by making them put their votes where their talking points have been. I think it’s a strong move by the Kentuckian except that I believe that it will backfire. Democrats are likely to vote for it and make their case to the people that more renewable energy is better than less. That working on rooftops installing solar is better than being in a coal mine and that taxpayer subsidies shouldn’t be used to extract oil and gas out of the ground. Yes, it is an ambitious goal but the American people seem to be for the bill when asked about the individual items in it. I’d venture to guess that some Republican Senators like Senator Gardner from Colorado may think about voting for it as well. This is where polling may intersect with politics.
Big Money For Big EVs. Rivian, the seductive SUV and pickup truck company, has raised $700million for their vehicles. You can reserve one online, as they’ve adopted the Musk deposit capital raise plan as well. Interestingly, Amazon was a lead investor in the round which means that part of the pitch deck was a interchangeable delivery cab on the EV chassis.
Tariffs Kill Manufacturing. REC Silicon, much like Hemlock before it, is telling the market that the multiple levels of tariffs make manufacturing silicon in the US difficult. The company is planning a 2 month ‘temporary shutdown’ of its Washington State plant at Moses Lake. Manufacturing in the US is hard enough, and when you put tariffs on top of that it becomes very difficult for companies to execute a business plan. I’m looking forward to seeing the market work itself out of this temporary problem, and I use temporary as a hopeful addition.
NFL plus Solar. With consumer support of solar through the roof, especially when it’s on their roof, you will see companies doing major marketing deals with the largest consumer brands like the NFL. Powerhouse Solar is barnstorming the mid-atlantic and the midwest with their NFL partnerships as well as their amazing commercials, I’m a big fan of them! This marketing tactic is a bit out of the NRG playbook which may have mistimed the market’s ability to deliver mainstream solar to more homeowners than is possible today.
Boston. Don’t forget. Get your tickets and join me at SolarWakeup Live! Boston on March 26th. You can also sponsor and support this free newsletter.
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Yann
Boston. solarwakeuplive.com get your tickets now, the agenda is starting to be really interesting and I’m looking forward to seeing many of you.
What I’m Reading. Going into this long weekend I am interested to read the details of the changes that SunPower is undertaking while getting deeper into residential. Within some tweet storms, Trump pushed TVA to double down on coal and this appears to have been ignored and PG&E is fighting for their restructuring across many battle fronts. With wildfire season ahead (albeit the rainy season we’ve had), something will have to planned for in the next few months.
Have a great weekend!
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Yann