Thank You! You are all too kind and I promise I will respond to everyone. Day 1 in the books and I can feel that (solar) energy already. Lots of coffee plans in the future and of course you are all welcome to visit me in Walnut Creek, especially given the co-located Calicraft Brewery at the office.
Build More Solar. Some good questions today for you to ponder. What would be a better way to get industry, solar in our case, to grow domestically, especially in manufacturing, without imposing the tariffs that try to do one size fits all. One way would be for the Government to do more purchasing and understand where the products come from. This would also save the Government money aside from creating volume for the domestic manufacturers, lawyers, and developers that house the jobs in the industry. Question for the crowd, how much solar would it take to offset the Government’s usage?
Good Question. If Congress is looking into the question of what energy storage policy should look like, then I ask myself that same question. Storage is a bit more complicated, for behind the meter for example, who should have the ability to dispatch the batteries. If a third party, what is the compensation and what are the parameters for operating the system? For central storage, is there an RPS that can take advantage of federal policy? Should the storage industry push for an ITC as well, adding ‘and energy storage’ to the solar tax credit or create its own PTC version.
US Assembly. The auto industry could be an interesting partner for the solar industry. They have campuses around the Country, mainly in the Southeast, assembling cars with parts that come from across the world. Shipping is an enormous cost in supply chain and shipping parts often gives an advantage to suppliers that are more local. Look at the Ontario parts manufacturing sector that services Detroit as an example. With VW announcing EV assembly in Tennessee, do the motor manufacturers start retraining workforce to build or assembly battery packs? The important takeaway is that the final assembly and ecosystem is a big part of the process. Tariffs hurt all of the supply chain and cause less of the final product to be made which results in job losses in the places you least hope to impact.
APS Continues, Learns Limited Lessons. This is incredibly similar to the anti-solar campaign in Florida. APS is spending, $11million thus far, to stop the RPS increase ballot initiative that Tom Steyer is backing. Honestly, it eludes me that the utility companies don’t take advantage of these circumstances. Instead of blocking the RPS, push for giant rate base initiatives, billions in EV infrastructure, colocating storage at the edge, substation and neighborhood levels amongst a few ideas. I get that being the APS CEO is tough when you only operate on 3-month increments but maybe there is a better way to run APS and Pinnacle West should let someone else try.
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SolarWakeup Is Now Pacific Time. Yesterday I took the one way flight to SF to be here full time. I appreciate the many notes of welcome and look forward to being within the hub of the solar industry. I’ll start most mornings right here in Walnut Creek at the Quick Mount manufacturing facility to serve the residential solar market. These are exciting times and I’m glad to play my part in this role. I look forward to working with many readers and hopefully do some business together along the way.
Political Reality Of Corporate America. Much has been written and said about Elon Musk’s political donations. Most of the comments I’ve received come from outside the solar industry but even within the industry, people are whispering. Yes, Elon gives to the republican party including PACs. The numbers released are in the 10’s of thousands, hardly a dent for a billionaire that has two companies, both of which require legislative action and funding. Just with SpaceX you can imagine the tens of millions that the Government pays to shuttle satellites on top of the access to locations like Cape Canaveral. This is a long way to say that donating to politicians is part of the game and one that even Elon has no choice in participating in. The solar industry isn’t immune, from hiring former republican Senators to lobby or handing out solar champion awards to GOP congressmen.
Blockchain Docket In Arizona. Transactive energy, seems like a fancy way to say that net metering or its equivalent can be handled by a blockchain protocol similar to our discussion with LO3 Energy during SolarWakeup Live! New York. I’m interested to see how the providers engage this discussion and if a pilot program is implemented.
Undermining Net Metering. There is going to be an urgency to change net metering programs across the Country. Infrastructure investments by utilities have a way of stacking on top of each other in a way that the value of solar and solar plus storage increased over time. More solar means less infrastructure spending needed which results in bigger and bigger savings to all energy consumers. The cost shift argument is a talking point, I haven’t heard of utilities trying to ban LED lightbulbs or more efficient refrigerators. Net metering is simple and it gives consumers comfort to make investments, the simplicity is what opponents want to disrupt.
Presented by ENGIE. ENGIE (formerly SoCore Energy) is a market leader in commercial, industrial, and distributed solar and storage portfolio development with installations across some 25 states. ENGIE offers commercial and industrial companies, electric cooperatives, and communities solar and storage solutions that provide energy cost savings, increased resiliency and carbon reduction opportunities.
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A Bridge To Prosperity. Natural gas was the political bridge that let politicians take money from the rich gas industry while advocating for a renewable energy future by ending coal with natural gas. The last 10 years were basically about that trend, utilities across the Country rate based the end of coal power generation in favor of the gas plants. If anything, the natural gas bridge to a renewable future cost utility consumers 100’s of millions of dollars in new generation. The bridge has essentially reached the other side of the transition because solar plus storage is competitive in almost every market.
Exhibit A. Using demand response, the CPUC is showing utilities how they can avoid building new generation. The interesting aspect of this is that it shows how the natural gas bridge ends and more importantly why our sector is important. Oil, auto and utility companies are buying companies that focus on the distributed space, not just because of their business model but because the intersection of DERs, EVs and generation will need teams that build that distributed ecosystem.
Exhibit B. Here is more NV solar for you, this time a whopping 690MW project. The most obvious omission from this announcement is the size of the storage associated with the project which would likely be the world’s largest announced after last week’s 1.2GWh project from Vistra. Storage will absolutely be built on this plant, not just an option as it is outline to have. This is a big project but we’ll need many of them to make up for the fossil power plants that will be replaced by this type of generation.
More Solar Manufacturing. JA Solar is adding more manufacturing in Vietnam. For $68million, the company will add 1.5GW of wafer capacity for shipment of products not made in China. The plant will start to operate this year and deliver 500MW in 2018.
Presented by Sunrun. Sunrun is the largest residential solar, storage and energy services company in the United States with a mission to create a planet run by the sun. Since establishing the solar as a service model in 2007, Sunrun continues to lead the industry in providing clean energy to homeowners with little to no upfront cost and at a savings to traditional electricity. Sunrun is excited to expand its solar offerings to Illinois residents.
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Duke Wants Acclaim For Ending Solar. “Duke Energy Carolinas achieved a major milestone last week in its support of solar energy, as more than 5,000 of the company’s South Carolina customers have installed solar panels on their homes and businesses, reaching a legislative goal for customer-owned solar capacity.” Those are the words from the Duke South Carolina President, morphing the net metering cap into a legislative goal. The ‘goal’ was put their by the utility so that they can control the solar market and cause thousands of jobs to go away for South Carolinians because putting solar on homes isn’t a job that can be outsourced. South Carolina deserves better than being pitched this kind of PR, legislators should quickly make sure that they aren’t blamed for this ‘success’.
Reversing Ontario’s Solar Market. As the politics in Ontario change to the conservatives, the end of the Green Energy Act is getting a new official end date. One that may have already past. The government announced last week that some 750 projects were being cancelled including many solar projects. The original years of the GEA had feed in tariffs at some pretty high rates, but I’m sure there are better ways, conservative ways, to keep solar in business in Ontario. It used to be the most vibrant place to work in solar, I spent many weeks there myself. I hope that the market can find a future and maybe even see the rest of Canada catch up.
Too Much Solar? The Vistra Energy CEO was on Jim Cramer’s Mad Money show last week. If you remember from a few weeks ago, Vistra, which is a traditional IPP, won an RFP for a 1.2GWh battery to be installed at Moss Landing after announcing a 42MWh battery in Texas with our friends from FlexGen. So here is the CEO of Vistra making the quiet case for why there is a need for more energy storage, too much solar. IPP shareholders probably agree with that but as we all know, as power plants in places like California reach their end of life, more generation will be needed, especially at those sub $30/MWh rates.
Startup Solar Nation. Now that I am actively living in the Bay area, I am really interested in helping more startups get traction in the sector. Some founders have found how excited I get about the ecosystem and I want to do more including helping those companies spread their news like new funding. More on this in the near future.
Presented by Pfister Energy – Pfister Energy is a turnkey design-build renewable energy provider for commercial, industrial, utility, and community projects with an emphasis on energy efficiency and energy management. We possess 25 years of project experience with over 120 MW of solar installed on rooftops, carports and on unused land nationally. Clean energy is not limited to solar and as part of our smart building-integrated energy plan, we provide holistic solutions by stacking solar, LED lighting, wind, daylighting and other energy efficiency systems combined with storage. Visit www.pfisterenergy.com for more information.
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