By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: GOP Senators from solar states like North Carolina have suddenly discovered that President Trump's tariffs on solar modules are a bad idea (who knew? Everyone. Everyone knew.).

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: GOP Senators from solar states like North Carolina have suddenly discovered that President Trump's tariffs on solar modules are a bad idea (who knew? Everyone. Everyone knew.).

Bloomberg reports, "The group of eight senators led by North Carolina’s Thom Tillis urged the administration to waive duties on 72-cell, 1,500-volt panels that are ideal for large ground-mounted “utility-scale” projects."

If they really want to fix this, they should introduce companion legislation to that currently in the House that would remove the tariffs entirely and retroactively pay for the ones already paid.

SolarWakeup’s View:  It's amazing how quickly the GOP gets on board with solar when jobs in their own states are threatened. Bloomberg reports 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." Well, isn't that just swell? Of course, 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. If these GOP Senators really want to fix the tariff problem, they could follow the lead of their colleagues in the House and introduce a bill that would eliminate the tariffs entirely, thus protecting their utility-scale projects while also saving jobs in the rest of the industry, too. But that solution would make far too much sense, so I wouldn't hold my breath for such common sense to reign. More: GOP Senators Want to Exempt Giant Solar-Farm Panels From Tariffs Bipartisan Tariff Repeal Bill Introduced In Congress – Any Chance It Passes?

Join me in Chicago on June 21st. This event builds on the success of previous SolarWakeup Live! events and expands to a full day. In addition, we are hosting a matchmaking series where developers and investors will be strategically matched with conference room space available for the right kind of business development. Get your tickets at solarwakeuplive.com.

Buying Solar The Right Way. When FMPA, which is the buying organization for much of the Florida municipal entities, announced the 225MW solar project with NextEra I was a bit taken aback. I’ve got several concerns but my first one was how NextEra won a competitive RFP. Come to find out that FMPA didn’t solicit the procurement widely, quite the opposite, it went small. Three of the bidders were the Florida IOUs and the others are listed in the article, SolarWakeup is the first to publish this list. My other concern is the technical issue of FMPA having to work with FPL on joint power plant ownership and other regulator transactions. It was also a longstanding understanding in Florida that NextEra would not do business in Florida. All the backroom dealing is not unexpected but my biggest concern is that solar isn’t showing its best foot here. The price could have been exponentially better, Florida is one of the cheapest solar states to build in and a real RFP would have benefitted FMPA customers in a really big way. Maybe folks should file protests with the members.

Just Tell Me The Rules. Amy Harder has interesting reporting about the administrations many deregulation efforts, this week the CAFE standards being in the spotlight. While industry is mostly in favor of less regulation, they also understand that their investment horizon is longer than the Trump White House expected lease in DC. What most in industry are looking for is a regulatory system that is more of a straight road than a yo-yo. Everyone also understands that pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered so eliminating regulations may be good for the bottom line today, it may crush you later.

Can’t Take Utility Out Of Utility Regulator. At some point, can we talk about the value generated by distributed generation instead of only the bad stuff. Does it lower demand on the grid? Yes, it does. Does it require less investment by the grid operator for future upgrades on the system? Yes, it does. So why do we only worry about the by passable charges?

Buying Anti-Solar Support. In this case, it was a power plant hearing where a utility hired a PR firm which in turn hired actors or paid protestors, whichever way you want to look at it. This is the stark contrast where solar has rallies where we may not have the paid for political influence but we have the numbers. Look at CT as an example. Who, besides the utility, wanted net metering to be killed? In MA, the same utility (Eversource), is seeking fixed charges for distributed generation. Solar pros are hosting a protest to show the regulators that this is not what the regulation intended when SMART was put into effect. The rally details are here.

Rooftop Solar Mandates. It was titled the solar battle of our times but I don’t see that much controversy in the California mandate for rooftop solar on new homes. Even at today’s rates the numbers work based on the cost of mortgage financing. On the other hand the homebuilders are good at building with volume pricing and no customer acquisition costs it should all get much better to the upside.

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Have a great day!
Yann

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: The Florida Municipal Power Agency (FMPA) recently completed a bid on a 223.5 MW project for its member municipal utilities that sources tell SolarWakeup did not arrive at the lowest possible price.

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: The Florida Municipal Power Agency (FMPA) recently completed a bid on a 223.5 MW project for its member municipal utilities that sources tell SolarWakeup did not arrive at the lowest possible price.

Published reports peg the price at less than 4 cents per kWh, and sources familiar with the bidding process say there was at least one bid that came in lower.

The decision came at the end of what can at least be called an odd, byzantine bidding process where a closed set of companies were chosen to submit bids.

[caption id="attachment_9863" align="aligncenter" width="1280"] Interestingly, Miami-based developers with solar experience in Florida were not chosen to bid on the FMPA project.[/caption] SolarWakeup’s View:  When you join a buying cooperative, you should get the lowest price on whatever you're buying, right? Otherwise, what's the point in joining forces to make purchases? So what to do with the Florida Municipal Power Agency (FMPA), a collaboration of 12 municipal electrical agencies that recently awarded a 223.5 MW project group to NextEra Energy in the form of three 74.5-megawatt sites? A closed group of seven companies (listed below) bid on the project, and the price came in at less than 4 cents per kilowatt-hour. But at least one source close to the project said their bid had come in lower - so should the municipal utilities that make up the FPMA be upset? The answer is a definite maybe. FPMA reports they called and requested bids from the following seven companies:

NextEra

Duke Energy Florida (DEF) (unregulated solar affiliate)

Tampa Electric Company (TECO) (unregulated solar affiliate)

GroSolar (Global Resource Options, Inc.) an EDF Renewable Energy Company

Invenergy Solar Development North America (Invenergy)

Eagle Solar Group, LLC in conjunction with Holloway Solar Farm LLC

Soltage, LLC in conjunction with ESA Renewables

FMPA says it negotiated with the top two bidders Invenergy and NextEra, and NextEra won the bid. Except....that's not the story we are hearing. And we also find it curious that Origis, which has done multiple large-scale solar projects of almost exactly this size, was not included, nor was sPower, whose former majority shareholder was based in Miami. In short, the odd way the bidding occurred, combined with the reports that it wasn't the lowest price, should inspire FMPA members to at least ask questions. It sure seems like a strange use of the co-op power to us. More: Orlando, Winter Park, other cities plug solar project as one of nation's biggest

Help A SolarWakeup Reader. A longtime Wakeup reader is looking for a tax equity partner to his 1MW project. If you are deploying or looking for a way to get rid of your gains, let me know so I can connect you. This is too small for most funds so the power of the network will get this deal done.

Make Solar Great Again. Before the content of the request, note that developers got 8 GOP senators from 5 States to sign the letter. The letter asks Trump to exempt 72 cell, 1500V modules from the 201 tariff. 72 cell module exemption was floated during the 201 discussions when a deal was possible. There was some pushback from distributed generation folks in the room and it gave the feeling of a ‘look out for yourself’ brawl. While business is very much a ‘to each his own’, and I don’t have a problem with it, it does put SEIA in an odd spot. I would have preferred the exemption to be 72 cell more broadly which gives the utility-scale entities what they want without precluding residential to also use 72 cell modules. It makes one wonder who was in the room to push for DG to be pushed aside in a very specific, technical manner.

TVA And More. Frank gives you the most recent coverage about TVA’s fixed charge shenanigans. This is more about the general trend that is hurting the solar industry from those that wish to slow us down. After a loss in CT that was hard to imagine, it is time to put the gloves back on and get into the ring. It is also important to turn CT around and show the politicians that voted against solar that doing so is a bad political calculus.

Headline Gets It Wrong. Utilities don’t have to act on electric vehicles, they do not have to worry about losing to electric vehicles. More importantly, they have to worry about oil changing the speed of adoption because this is a fuel versus electricity fight, a fight of its kind since we started becoming more industrial. At the end of the day, utilities will see their fortunes in electric vehicle turn demand in the right direction. The question is why utilities don’t use this opportunity to eliminate all range anxiety and increase EV adoption in the short term. To be further discussed going forward.

Free The Market. I’ve been saying this for many years. Solar should not and can’t give up the incentives it benefits from until all energy sources do the same. If nuclear is benefitting from a revival of government support then an ITC extension and passive liability rules should be in play as well.

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Have a great day!
Yann