By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Even the most experienced tax advisers may not know how to navigate the complex matter of solar tax incentives and credits. That's why it's important to have solar-specific experts weigh in on projects. In particular, with the investment tax credits starting to phase out, understanding tax incentives becomes all the more critical. Oh, if only there were a guide of some sort that people could use to figure it out. Enter the Solar Energy Industries Association, which has been putting together various versions of a guide for the last 20 years. Now they've released Version 9.0, the first comprehensive update of the SEIA Solar Tax Manual since 2016. Among several updates, the new guide incorporates the commence construction guidance issued by the IRS earlier this year and includes the effects of the "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act" enacted at the end of 2017. "Given all of the recent changes, the demand for this resource has never been greater," said Abigail Ross Hopper, SEIA's president and CEO. "This comprehensive document provides SEIA members a leg up, as it explains and fully outlines the potential tax benefits and deal structures for solar projects." Developed with the help of Keith Martin at Norton Rose Fullbright US LLP, the SEIA Solar Tax Manual covers tax credits for both commercial and residential solar projects, tax credit bonds, loan guarantees, low-interest loans and grants, state tax considerations, and more. "The SEIA Tax Manual is a valuable SEIA member benefit," said Lee Peterson, Senior Tax Manager for CohnReznick's National Renewable Energy Practice. "It is incredibly valuable because it collects in one place the primary federal tax rules and concepts that drive the industry, while being easy for non-tax specialists to read and use." The SEIA Solar Tax Manual is a SEIA members-only benefit. To view the executive summary and learn more about becoming a SEIA member, go here.

Climate Change Shift. Climate change isn’t a topic that is too exciting to write about because it has been politicized as a topic. While I don’t understand how anyone can ignore it, I understand why political parties have taken the sides that they have. This week there was a shift however, IPCC started off with a dire warning and the President amplified it by not saying very much about it. At the same time, Hurricane Matthew ravaged the Florida panhandle. Matthew was originally expected to be a Tropical Storm but grew to a category 4 in the same waters that strengthened Hurricane Katrina. I see a society today that no longer wants to debate climate change, but maybe discuss what can be done about it. Spinning it to be a problem that is too big is bad, last year The Guardian wrote about the 100 companies that cause 70% of the global emissions. That type of viewpoint downplays the value of a 10kW home solar system or changing a single LED lightbulb. Both of this things are incredibly important and valuable to the energy economy.

17 F-22s. According to Lara Seligman of Foreign Policy, as many as 17 F-22 fighter jets may have been damaged or destroyed at Tyndall AFB in Florida. Each F-22 costs north of $300million and a single storm may have reduced the US inventory of F-22s by almost 10% at a cost of $5billion in addition to the cost of national security. This is a single line item in the cost of climate change, global warming and changing environmental landscapes. I did reach out to Coronal Energy, which operates a solar farm at Eglin AFB in Florida and they report a functioning solar farm on site with little to no damage.

Rubio Is Wrong. The IPCC report was big news on the Sunday shows and Marco Marco Rubio was asked about climate change and what he plans to do about it. “we’re going to have to do something about the impact on low-level coast areas...but I’m also not going to destroy our economy.” That is where Rubio gets it wrong because he is only hearing from the Koch side of the table. I hope that the folks at NextEra reading this make the call to Rubio to advise him on the financial benefits of solar and energy storage. Tell him where the future is for your billion dollar company, is it in coal, gas or renewables? This also shows the exact messaging we need to adapt for republican politicians. If we can’t argue the science or warnings, we need to argue the financial upside. The opportunity for bankers, lawyers, hedge fund managers and everyone else in the economy to make money saving the planet one solar panel at a time.

Orsted Joins Club. The Danish firm has been on a buying spree and taking its lessons learned across the globe. Being a clean energy major was originally coined by former Sunedison CEO, Ahmad Chatila, and GTM is bringing it back for their story on Orsted. They may be right, most of the other oil firms have dabbled but have yet to embrace the opportunity of the renewable future. It is more than a hedge on the core business units, its a full on replacement.

Coming Up. Thank you to everyone that joined me at the CALSSA dinner, it was a pleasure to see so many of you there. If you raised your hand to help raise money for the trade association that keeps the California market moving, thank you again! Next week I hope to see many of you at Vote Solar’s Equinox DC. As usual, if you spend more than $2,000 in tickets or sponsorships, you get to send me a paragraph to publish on this platform. Two weeks later, a big group of you has already registered to attend SolarWakeup Live! in Jersey City. The agenda is outstanding and the market is moving at breakneck speeds right now with new dockets starting almost every week. Solar is going to transition in NJ and if you want to learn how to make the appropriate changes, come and meet with us!

Have a great day!

News

 

Have a great day!
Yann

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

In the wake of a Minnesota Public Utilities Commission decision to add an incentive to attract residential customers to the state's booming community solar program, neither side - the utility or solar advocates - were particularly happy. On the one hand, the utility argued the incentive was too generous, shifting costs (there's that mythical cost-shift argument raising its ugly head again) to non-community solar customers. On the other hand, solar advocates argued the incentive wasn't generous enough, saying it won't be enough to encourage more residential customers to subscribe to what are called in Minnesota "solar gardens." Traditionally, Minnesota has had one of the most successful community solar programs in the country. But according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the program is having trouble attracting residential customers because the compensation rates for credits on the customers' bills are lower than the retail rate. Previously, solar was net-metered at the retail rate, but under a successor Value of Solar rate, the compensation rate is lower than it had been. This has had the effect, at least according to one installer, of making community solar less attractive to residential customers.

"Without a residential [incentive] we'll just have to sell it all to commercial," [the installer said].

The same installer also argued the the 1.5-cent current incentive wasn't enough (advocates had asked the PUC to institute at 2.5-cent incentive):

"My fear is that it's not going to be enough to move the needle in driving the market toward more residential," Ross Abbey, of solar garden developer U.S. Solar, said after the vote. "It's disappointing."

As usual, the utility in question was trying to divide solar from non-solar customers, using the zombie lie that solar users don't pay their fair share of costs for grid upkeep and the like (i.e. the "cost shift," which doesn't happen until a state reaches 10% or higher solar penetration rate and even then only accounts for fractions of a penny per kilowatt-hour). It's not clear that the PUC has done the right thing, even though both sides aren't happy with the outcome. Only time will tell. More: Incentive approved for residential customers who choose solar gardens for energy

We are entering the end of the year quarter and while we shoot to hit our numbers, we have to worry about what is coming up next. Based on seeing the first responses of the Solar Sentiment Survey makes me think that while you are optimistic, you need to be looking at what’s next. New Jersey is on track to replace the SREC program with something new while adding energy storage, innovating PJM markets and piloting community solar. That’s why we are heading the Jersey City next for SolarWakeup Live! the most influential event in solar. If you haven’t been to one yet, the event is a day of 1 on 1 interviews with the folks that drive the market. I do all of the interviews and get to the bottom of the issues that are important to your business. Head to SolarWakeuplive.com to get your ticket. Today only, you can get 20% off using code SWL20.

CALSSA Annual Dinner. See you there tonight! Make sure to place your bids for the auction products!

SolarEdge Buys Batteries, I Hate It. Yesterday, SolarEdge has acquired a high tech battery company called Kokam for about $88million. The premise I presume is that batteries will become as normal on a solar installation as the inverter meaning that another box will sit near the inverter with energy storage normalized into the system. That premise however creates a commodity out of the energy storage system which makes owning the battery manufacturing a bad place in my opinion. SolarEdge should have focused on acquiring a system integration and playing the commodity of the battery market to ride the cost curve down. We are in the very early stages of energy storage and I’m betting on the price declines of battery cells being very steep.

SRA > NRA. This isn’t a political post. This is a post about the funding mechanism for the NRA and the perception of the power that the NRA uses in political arenas. Everytime someone buys a gun, they join the NRA. They get a sticker and then they are on the NRA mailing list to continue supporting the association. In solar we don’t currently have a similar mechanism where every solar installation has a built in funding mechanism, until now (once you participate of course). The Solar Rights Alliance is looking to join every solar customer into an alliance and activate them during moments of advocacy across the Country. Check out the great program by seeing more about the information released in the CleanTechnica post.

NY Is In A Rush. Another $40 million from the New York State Government to spur C&I solar and storage in the State. While the money is appreciated, it would be great to see the VDER program fixed so that solar can work without the peaks and valleys created by incentive programs. VDER is too complicated today and doesn’t fully stack the value generated by generation. Moreover, the simplicity of a community solar type program could go a big way within the VDER framework. There are some signs that programs are getting more renewables in place, my friend Katie Ullman just went to work at Drift which works on the market side of greening consumers’ energy needs.

Have a great day!

News

 

Have a great day!
Yann