SEIA Board Meeting. The solar industry is looking to turn a corner after 2017 filled with tax reform, trade cases and projects pulled into 2016 because of the ITC cliff. SEIA, fresh off a leadership change, is trying to do the same. Without the ability to define itself during the trade case, the board convened last week to do just that. We covered some of the highlights of the vision, here.
Your Top Story. 5 hours after the daily newsletter goes out to the solar industry, we have a great view of what you consider the most important story of the day. There is no science to knowing the top story, it can come from anywhere in the rundown but it is the daily solar choice award. At noon eastern, we will take the top story and review the news for you and give you a better understanding of this article and for those of you that missed it, give you that link once again. This type of data is only available on SolarWakeup, no other place in solar curates the top news in solar as we have done for the past 6 years. I hope you enjoy this new feature. Friday’s top story was about a conservative that advocates for solar, Debbie Dooley.
Steel And Aluminum Tariff. Hard to know what’s really going on here but assuming what Trump said is going to happen, steel and aluminum will be getting taxed 25% and 10% respectively. Having seen skilled workers taking raw aluminum last week and create finished products, I am shocked at the short sightedness of this. Creating more jobs in making the commodity fails to think of the exponentially more jobs that take a commodity and makes finished goods like cars, buildings and solar racking systems. I hope that this gets walked back as some sort of negotiation tactic because it’s not good.
NEM Representation. Net metering continues to be under attack in the States you know and those you don’t think about. The problem is that if we want new markets to develop, rules like interconnection and net metering have to exist in order to get them off the ground. Of course, this means that markets where no-one benefits from the rules yet, has to be covered by advocates. That is exactly what Vote Solar does and they need your money to do more of it. Applause and retweets only go so far to putting people into State Capitols. On March 22nd, join Vote Solar for their fundraiser, Equinox, in San Francisco.
Wakeup San Francisco. Less than 40 days until SolarWakeup Live! on April 10th in San Francisco. Join me and your solar colleagues in a lively discussion on the important topics that drive our industry. Tickets available here and sponsorships available by hitting reply.
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Yann
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: This story isn’t so much a “what” as much as it is a “who.”The New York Times uncovered someone you’ve never heard of (if you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade): Debbie Dooley, a Tea Party founder who believes utility monopolies are stifling rooftop solar across the United States. Her stance on solar, which she says is completely consistent with both her free-market principles and her commitment to save the world “God created,” appears to puzzle The New York Times reporter who wrote the profile on her.
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: This story isn’t so much a “what” as much as it is a “who.”The New York Times uncovered someone you’ve never heard of (if you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade): Debbie Dooley, a Tea Party founder who believes utility monopolies are stifling rooftop solar across the United States. Her stance on solar, which she says is completely consistent with both her free-market principles and her commitment to save the world “God created,” appears to puzzle The New York Times reporter who wrote the profile on her.
SolarWakeup’s View: Sometimes you get the feeling that the reporters and columnists at The New York Times don’t get out of their offices much. That, or they think of themselves as sociologists who venture out to discover new tribes of people no one else has ever seen before. How else do you explain their seemingly incredulous profile today on Debbie Dooley, a Tea Party founder who supports solar energy? To anyone who has been awake for the past decade and pays attention to solar policy fights,
Debbie is not an unknown quality. I actually did a series of two podcasts for SolarWakeup before joining the team with Debbie, in which we discussed at length the battle over solar in Florida. That was a rough and tumble battle in which Dooley found herself squarely in the middle and, thanks in large part to the mobilization of conservatives she led, pro-solar policies prevailed.
What was decidedly odd about the Times piece was their seeming consternation and confusion about the very idea that conservatives could support solar, even though Barry Goldwater Jr. (scion of an early founder of the modern conservative movement) has been doing it for years.
If you can see past the childlike “wonderment and awe” tone of the reporting, however, the Times’ piece does serve an important purpose: It puts the idea out into the world
that conservatives can support solar without sacrificing their conservative bona fides - and that’s important, especially in today’s toxic political atmosphere.
The solar revolution is coming, but it’s going to need as much support as it can get from everyone, including conservatives. And while solar warriors like Debbie and Barry have waged the fight for years, more must be done to build these coalitions in all 50 states - and that effort has to start with you.
More: A Gun-Owning Trump Fan’s New Crusade: Clean Energy (NY Times)
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA)rolled out an aggressive four-point plan to broaden its base and launch a new era within the association. Their plans, according the website, include:
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA)rolled out an aggressive four-point plan to broaden its base and launch a new era within the association. Their plans, according the website, include:
- Ensure that existing solar markets remain open and robust, while opening new ones;
- Reform electricity markets to better enable solar use at highest values;
- Represent solar nationally, including as the voice of and market research center for the industry; and
- Ensure SEIA continually evolves to offer value to its members and grow revenue to support its activities.
solar industry, working for the small companies as well as the large? It has been a particular issue as SEIA was in growth mode, but some people were still asking the question after Abigail Ross Hopper took the reins a little more than a year ago.
It appears, however, that SEIA has been like a duck - calm on the surface but furiously paddling underneath.
This new vision is SEIA’s attempt to start with a clean slate, and I, at least, am willing to give them a chance to execute on it. If they do, then a new day could be dawning at SEIA, and the solar industry will be better for it.
More: SEIA's Strategic Vision (SEIA)
Your Top Stories, Daily. Every day, SolarWakeup will be giving you a new view that no other platform in solar can give you. Our new senior correspondent, Frank Andorka, will tell you our viewpoint about the article that SolarWakeup most engaged in that morning. Yesterday, the story is about Enphase having to fight off the 201 tariff after getting stuck inside the tariff by accident. Look for this coverage every afternoon from now on. Here is your SolarWakeup View.
Blockchain in Energy. Does blockchain help your business? Keep in mind the definition of the technology as an agent or distributed ledger. I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.
Green Tea Party. It has been 8 years since the recent version of the tea party gained mainstream popularity. The point of the Green Tea Party is that conservatives should be aligned with solar energy. This isn’t about red or blue but green, meaning money. So as a follow up to the thoughts about educating your congressman, I ask that you invite your congressman to your company’s offices, especially if you make stuff. If you have folks sitting in front of machinery, driving a forklift or operating equipment, you have to bring your elected officials to your office.
Energy Dichotomy. NRG recently announced the sale of its renewables unit which was previously announced. That being said the latest quarter included a $1.2billion write down for a nuclear plant in Texas that makes no money. So a couple of thoughts. If a solar company had an equivalent write down, they would be bankrupt. Imagine the era where solar plants can get the type of investment that results in playing the market in a way where the entire asset is being viewed as a loss.
Weekend. We are heading into the weekend so here are some things to put on your radar. First, you need to buy your ticket to SolarWakeup Live! through this weekend you can get 20% off using code WAKEUP20 which expires on Sunday evening. Second, come see me at COSEIA’s Conference in a few weeks. Third, buy your tickets to Vote Solar’s Equinox. If you buy $1,000 worth of tickets you get to write in this space.
March Madness. Everyone’s dream is to write these words, I know. Now you have two different chances to do that. SolarWakeup is having the 1st annual March Madness bracket challenge and it’s free. Go to ESPN Tournament Challenge and search for SolarWakeup group. The password is GoSolar. The more folks we have, the more fun we will have. The winner gets to write the opening paragraph and promote their agenda, company or cause.
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Yann