By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
A hundred million here, a hundred million there, and suddenly you're talking real money. And that's the kind of real money that Energy Impact Partners, a utility-backed investment fund, has raised to invest in clean tech. $681 million, to be exact. Bloomberg reports that Energy Impact Partners, backed by such utility giants as Southern Company and National Grid, are looking to invest the money in startups that are doing clean tech research, looking for the next big breakthrough. This is in addition to the the $200 million the fund has already invested in companies like Advanced Microgrid Solutions and includes $150 million from U.S. Small Business Administration loans.Utilities are trying to capture future industry growth amid stagnant electricity demand and a rise in technologies that give customers more control over their energy use. Utilities disclosed about $6.8 billion in venture capital, private equity and merger and acquisition deals in 2017.And as Energy Impact Partners' CEO Hans Kobler told Bloomberg:
We are helping them future-proof their business. This is a difficult landscape and as utilities prepare for that, they need to look for what’s coming down the pike and we serve as their eyes and ears for them.I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, clean tech startups need the money and aren't going to be too particular where the money comes from to fund their breakthrough technology. On the other hand, it feels a little bit like the original electric car movement, doesn't it? This fund invests in new and exciting clean tech technologies and keeps the utilities informed about what competition they will be facing down the road. This gives them the opportunity to prevent the technology from ever coming to light or to head it off by tangling it in regulations at the state level. Now I know that would never happen because as we all know, utilities are as pure as the driven snow. But just in case this was the case, that kind of conflict of interest seems like a difficult one to navigate for Energy Impact Partners. I'm honestly torn - what do the rest of you think?
The Energy Show: By Barry Cinnamon
The Energy Show: By Barry Cinnamon
This week’s Energy Show is for solar power customers, contractors and inverter manufacturers who appreciate the need for reliable solar power systems. Surprising as it may seem, most solar monitoring systems are simply not up to the reliability standards of the panels and inverters they support. The good news is that solar monitoring problems almost never affect system performance. Monitoring failures may indicate an inverter problem, but the panels and inverters are almost always working properly. In reality, the problem is with the communications somewhere along the chain – including the inverter, inverter gateway, home router, wireless connections (wifi, zigbee, cellular, etc.), internet connection and server-side software. Troubleshooting these monitoring and communications issues is one of the biggest hassles that contractors have — made more difficult by the fact that most installers do not have home networking IT expertise. As a result, many contractors have changed their inverter suppliers because of less than perfect monitoring hardware and software. Going back to 2001 I’ve installed inverter systems from over a dozen companies. Not surprisingly, most of these inverters or communications systems are still running (including Trace, SMA, Fat Spaniel, Xantrex, BP Solar, Sharp, Fronius, SunRun, Enphase, SolarBridge, PowerOne, SolarEdge, JLM, Tigo). Although these inverter companies make great inverters, they are not necessarily software and communications experts. The end result is poor monitoring reliability and customer complaints, even when the inverters continue to operate. To learn more about these solar monitoring issues — as well as my recommendations for long term monitoring reliability— Listen Up to this week’s Energy Show.Political Solar Irony, Plus 100. An early morning press release from SEIA highlighted one of the great results of the solar industry we’ve all created. SEIA visited the representatives of the top 100 solar congressional districts which in itself is a great achievement and they did so without great pomp and circumstance. There is a great story in the top 2, the congressional district with the most solar jobs is Nancy Pelosi while the district with the most solar capacity is Kevin McCarthy. So here you have the House Majority and Minority Leaders with something as great as solar in common.
Interesting Acquisition. Centrica, the giant multi-national company with $28 billion in revenue, is buying the Bay Area installer Vista Solar. Vista Solar is well known in the local community but not beyond that give that it has installed 40MW for 160 customers over the past 10 years. Centrica does own Direct Energy which means that it could be making a play to aggregate top-tier regional commercial installers instead of making a single national acquisition.
A SC Deal In The Works. Solar advocates have reached a deal with Duke Energy in South Carolina to temporarily reinstate the net metering rules until the spring in the hopes that it will spur a long-term deal. Given where the legislative session ended, with a victory for Duke but sentiment on solar’s side, it may appear to Duke that a negotiated settlement is the best path forward.
Get Your Ticket, Early Bird. Thanks for the great support from those of you that have already bought their ticket, over 100 of you have already done so. Early bird will only go on for a few more days so get yours now. www.solarwakeuplive.com
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By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
If there's one thing Republicans and Democrats can agree on, it's the increasing political power of solar energy. Just ask the more than 100 representatives the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) visited this summer during what it called its Summer Advocacy Blitz. And solar is a bipartisan power source. After all, the representative with the most solar jobs in her district is none other than Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. And the representative with the most actual installed solar capacity in his district is Republican House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Those two don't agree on anything - but they'd be hard pressed to disagree about the importance of solar energy in California, where both of their districts reside.Many Members of Congress do not know what a robust solar industry they have in their district, making this advocacy blitz to educate representatives and staff a critical step in continuing our industry’s growth across the country. We have long said that solar is a bipartisan economic engine and visiting the top 100 solar districts this summer was a clear indicator that that is the case.That's why SEIA spent its summer crisscrossing the country and visiting 107 House districts - those with the largest amount of solar in either jobs or installations - to explain to them the industry's importance. The solar industry has long maintained it is a bipartisan issue, and Hopper and her team set out to prove it. Exactly 107 congressional districts rank in the top 50 of one of these categories: total solar capacity, number of solar installations, solar jobs and solar companies. SEIA visited with 101 of these offices to educate members and staff about the robust solar businesses in their districts, and how policymakers can ensure continued job growth and investment. The 107 congressional districts included in SEIA’s advocacy blitz are diverse with Republican (42) and Democratic (65) members. SEIA's blitz was a delightful show of political force from the solar industry's advocacy agency, but they can't do it alone (and it can't be just a summer thing, either). It's up to each of us to make it part of our daily lives to get politically involved and remind our representatives how important solar is to us - and them. Let's keep the momentum going - and then vote like your livelihood depends on it, because it does.