By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Three months after announcing it would completely eliminate coal from its portfolio, Detroit-based utility DTE Energy announced on Friday it, along with partner Consumers Energy, was accelerating plans to increase its clean-energy portfolio to reach a generation target of at least 50% by 2030. The utility's announcement came on the same day President Donald J. Trump tweeted that the United States has 250 years of "clean coal" in its energy mix and touted the fact he ended the mythical "war on coal." DTE Energy's announcement is further proof that the era of coal is rapidly coming to a close whether coal barons like failed Senate candidate Don Blakenship or President Trump want it or to or not, and no amount of regulation or edicts from the federal government will stop it from coming. For example, DTE said it would reach its goal by investing in a goal of at least 25% renewable energy reaching the remainder of its goal through energy efficiency programs. "Our two companies [DTE and Consumers Energy] are overwhelmingly in favor of renewable energy and are focused on bringing additional energy efficiency opportunities to our customers," said DTE Energy Chairman and CEO Gerry Anderson and Consumers Energy CEO Patti Poppe. "We will continue to work within the framework put forward by our legislature and regulators to build on our environmental initiatives to benefit all residents of the state.” The decision to accelerate the clean-energy program is at least in part the result of an agreement with progressive billionaire Tom Steyer's Clean Energy, Healthy Michigan (CEHM) group to place aside a ballot proposal to increase the state’s renewable portfolio standard. The group had gathered enough signatures to put an increase in the RPS on the ballot. Details of the two companies' plans to retire coal plants and increase wind and solar generation will be outlined in their respective Integrated Resource Plans. Trump has routinely touted the benefits of "clean coal" without seeming to understand what that phrase means or that "clean coal" is really just coal, with all the requisite carbon emissions that would result from burning it.

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Tigercomm, a marketing firm with numerous clients in clean energy, released an e-book titled How Clean Energy Companies Can Engage Customer Prospects Faster in an Attention-Scarce World, which it says is designed to help companies market themselves better. As clean energy becomes more commoditized, the e-book argues it's more difficult for one company to stand out from every other company. And with a finite number of legitimate customers, that can be frustrating. "Across clean economy sectors, sales and marketing teams we talk to share a growing frustration: It’s gotten harder to get customer prospects to engage," the authors say. "They’re all too familiar with sending that 7th “touch base” email to a prospect they’ve connected with at the trade show and hearing nothing back." The authors argue this experience has three major components, ones they call the “VAR Phenomenon” (Volume, Attention, Relevance), which they define as the following ● Volume – Customers are exposed to an enormous volume of electronic content – which grows by 50% each year. Americans now spend roughly 10 hours a day in front of computers, smartphones, tablets and other devices. ● Attention – The sheer weight of all that content has drastically shortened attention spans, by at least 20% since the mobile revolution. According to a study by Microsoft, people now have an eight-second attention span, less than a goldfish, which can manage to focus on something for roughly nine seconds. ● Relevance – Shrinking attention spans mean that to attract a sales prospect’s attention, content must be relevant to their needs at the moment they recognize they have that need. The fact that someone searched for and selected a story or website is a strong indicator of relevance. Once they've identified what they see as marketers' top difficulty, the e-book explores numerous ways to capture that short attention span and target customers with the information about clean energy they need to make the decision to cal the companies in question. To read the executive summary, click here.

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Though North Carolina will bear the overwhelming brunt of Cypress Creek Renewables' decision to cancel 1.5 GW of projects in the wake of the Trump Administration's tariff imposition, it isn't the only one. In all, 11 states will feel the sting of what company spokesman Jeff McKay called the "lost investment opportunity" that will result from its pullback. "We're projecting that the tariff will cost into the billions of dollars in lost investments," McKay told SolarWakeup. "It's no secret that the solar industry's record rate of growth will be harmed by the tariff. We aren't the only ones pulling back." The company has been looking at projects since last year to determine whether they are still economically viable under the new tariff regime, McKay said. Then the company acted to reduce the number of marginal projects in its pipeline. The biggest state affected was North Carolina, but there are other states that will see noticeable effects, including:

Colorado

Illinois

Massachusetts

Maryland

North Carolina

New York

Oregon

South Carolina

Texas

Virginia

"We now have some projects due to the price sensitivities around utility-scale solar that no longer have a clear path forward," McKay said. "That means that we a substantial amount of lost investment opportunities. That’s translates into jobs that won’t be created and new tax revenue that communities will not receive." The news comes as Bloomberg reported earlier this week that “Republican senators from five states with big solar farms are asking the Trump administration to exempt the workhorse of industrial solar panels from tariffs imposed earlier this year.” Exempting utility-scale solar modules from the tariffs doesn’t really solve the overall problem, which is that the duties have cost 9,800 downstream installation and other non-manufacturing jobs, as well as having thrown the industry into chaos for the past year and a half. And it bears repeating that the tariffs were imposed on the whims of two companies that, in short order, will no longer exist. But the exemption might be a good step toward fixing this unforced error that is harming the overall U.S. economy. More: Low And Behold, GOP Finds Solar Tariffs To Be A Bad Idea

A lot is happening in solar and things are coming together after a tough year. Markets like Florida and Illinois are poised to be major going forward and we have to fight to maintain the traction we had in CT and MA. Change is hard for many, we’ll highlight some of that in today’s Wakeup. Remember, if there are stories that need to be covered in your neighborhood, send them this way. Together we make solar stronger. Have a great weekend!
Learn About Illinois. Don’t forget to mark your calendars and book your trip to Chicago. On June 21st the leaders behind the energy policy in this hot market will be giving the insight. If you are an investor looking to make your splash here, we have some great sponsorship opportunities that match you with developers in the market. You can register at solarwakeuplive.com
Corporate Solar America. Frank covers the reports from Deloitte on the attitude coming out of corporate board rooms. With the polled corporations saying that 70% of their customers expect them to drive action on the clean tech issues. That’s why I get excited when a corporate sustainability professional subscribes to SolarWakeup, it shows a level of dedication to solar.
2 Years Of SEIA, 20 Years of SEIA PAC. Let’s put one state’s utility lobbying spend in perspective. In Florida, the investor owned utilities spent $43 million in the past two election cycles. That is an understated amount considering the money that went to lobbyists, internal and external, plus the PR firms to shape the messaging. In comparison, SEIA would have funded more than years of operations and likely over a decade in SEIA PAC spending based on historical numbers. We will never outspend the incumbent market participants but we will outlive and outvote them. Half of the Florida spending went to a ballot initiative that failed due to the grassroots support for the solar industry.
Well Regulated Monopoly. John Grisham is going to move to South Carolina and write a thriller about backroom deals the utility. The plot will include a $9billion blunder and an attempt to hide the information from regulators who oversee the utility in return for double digit returns and a monopoly. Seriously though, how in the world can a regulator do the best for consumers if the corporation it is supposed to oversee refuses to comply with the oversight.
Thou Shall Not? Arizona solar numbers are on the uptick and large scale solar plus storage are coming online at amazing numbers. With the new APS RFP, it seems like APS may be stepping back in time against the sentiments of the corporation commission.

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Have a great day!
Yann