This Is Why We Do It. I have renewed my sense of activism this week after sitting in the ITC hearing room. This video shows why we must become more powerful and scary to legislators. Voting against solar should carry repercussions, it doesn’t matter what party you come from.
What Will Lion Capital Say. Suniva needs more money and on Friday they’ll be in front of the judge asking for it. With SQN steering the ship as 75% DIP lender, it will be interesting to see how Lion Capital reacts to the request for additional money since they hold 25% of the DIP. Lion Capital has about $60million invested in Canadian Solar which means they’re tied to the US market in a big way.
Carbon Regulations Are Inevitable. Utilities Know It. As the administration eliminates the clean power plan, you will find every investment deck and request for regulator approval continue to discuss carbon regulations. Nobody will invest in a 30 year asset with a 50 year interconnection if they know that the plant has to sustain 4 to 5 different Presidential administrations. You can shape regulatory oversight and laws but over time the arc of renewable energy will bend towards carbon free generation.
Notice Of Coal Rulemaking. In the meantime, FERC has issued its notice of proposed rulemaking with an effective date of December 11th of this year. ISOs and RTOs will have to file compliance in time for Christmas. So the whole idea of getting coal for Christmas may be what Rick Perry is shooting for. My hope is that the rule will cause ISOs to create pricing signals that actually drive value towards energy storage, but that is yet to be seen. Read the Notice Here
Will Energy Ever Be A Free Market? Funny how Rick Perry is no longer a free market guy, especially now that solar is competing in the Texas market, which lets the market drive pricing signals based on buyers and sellers. I think that someone should file with FERC and say that pricing for resiliency is a great idea, more frequency regulation, and grid stability would be a great value play for solar and storage.
The US Mandates All Cars To Be EVs. Over/under, when will the US Congress pass a law to ban the sale of internal combustion engine vehicles? I’ll go with never. You?
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The Scott Pruitt Hypocrisy. You should chuckle at the audacity that Scott Pruitt has. On one hand, the cabinet is pushing for subsidies for old, inefficient power plants and nuclear power is getting bailouts all over the place and on the other hand, Pruitt wants wind and solar to compete without subsidies. Solar has been clear for several years, get rid of ALL energy subsidies, including exploration credits and solar & wind with storage will rule the day.
America Without Clean Power Plan. The bad guys had a good day yesterday as the clean power plan dismantling makes some advances. CPP was always a market adder as opposed to a market maker but most of all, it made States get rid of the dirtiest power plants, which was good for everyone. History will view these people accordingly.
Make It Political. It seems like the punches are coming stronger and more often doesn’t it? We have done a bad job of making the arguments political. For example, my county commissioner voted against a resolution opposing the IOUs anti-solar bill. Now he is running for State House and that vote should cost him the election in a district that is 25% independent.
Why Solar Fails At Politics? In a $25billion solar market, which is twice the size of the gun market in the US, why isn’t solar more powerful? The answer is in our trade group budgets. Combined, the numbers are paltry and our opponents are very powerful and well capitalized. What if one of the solar trade groups had a $50million budget? What if they had an email list with 5million active solar supporters that would pick up the phone and call their legislators or activate against a bill? What if needs to become reality.
First Solar Stays Out Of Mud. It is no secret that First Solar, by being excluded in the 201 petition, benefits from a tariff. Utilities would be forced to work with First Solar solely on the cost comparison. Based on the louder pushback from utility developers, it seems clear that there is some undercurrent of disagreement here.
Presented By EnterSolar. EnterSolar is a leading provider of solar photovoltaic solutions to the commercial marketplace that is ranked the #1 solar developer in New York State and in the top 10 nationally.
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SolarWakeup Live! Boston tickets are still available and early bird pricing of only $50 per ticket is ending soon. Get yours now and spread the word please.
Doing Good or Doing Well in Puerto Rico? Elon and Governor of Puerto Rico spoke after a Twitter conversation about rebuilding the grid in PR. The technical challenge in PR is imminently solvable. We should be having this conversation but the focus should be on doing good things to rebuild Puerto Rico, not get some free press. Outside of a few pilot projects and FEMA dollars, there is likely little work for the solar industry directly because there aren’t any paying customers.
Debt Is The Real Problem. Solving the technical problems will stay on the drawing board short of solving the PREPA credit issue. PREPA has no access to capital and its primary customer, the Puerto Rican government, doesn’t have much credit either. With bonds trading at under 40 cents on the dollar, the debt will have to be fixed in order to bring new capital to the island. Solar has been sitting on PPAs for years with almost no takers, most PPAs well above 10 cents per kWh too.
Run An Auction. My first obvious choice was for NextEra to take over PREPA. At further thought, it should be a competition and given the political risk and language barrier, it probably wouldn’t be NEE. On the other hand, some other operator should still follow the game plan, someone with access to debt. Engie makes sense amongst some others, so let’s run an auction to see who’s interested. Package the process with debt write downs and loan guarantees to attract the right people.
Cities and Corporates Want Solar. Franchise agreements between municipalities and IOUs come up for renewable every 10 years normally. The same way that Facebook wants solar for its data centers, Cities want options for their buildings and the businesses in their jurisdiction. When the IOUs don’t give customers what they want, they will get it themselves. Also cities are incentivized to enter into long term PPAs at low costs, no ratebase, no incentive to grow demand, the interests of provider and consumer are aligned. Watch this space…
SEIA Takes Argument To The People. The point was made at the ITC hearing by O’Sullivan of NextEra. Any remedy imposed on the solar industry will be paid by the people across America. Consumers will pay more and get the same exact product. They’ll pay more on energy contracts, they’ll pay more when people lose their jobs and aren’t paying taxes and they’ll pay more by making less with greater competition in the job market. SEIA is rightfully taking the argument to the American people.
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Facebook Cleans Dominion. Data centers are big money for States and utilities love the long term capacity need. Facebook went to Virginia to invest a billion and in return got Dominion to provide a clean energy tariff. Works well for Dominion because they’ve been a leading buyer in VA and NC recently.
Solar For Choice and Freedom. Heritage, R Street and the National Retail Federation are saying no to 201 petition. These groups swing big in DC. I didn’t see this reported earlier but 55 members of the House of Representatives wrote a letter to the ITC asking for the board to protect the solar industry.
The California AG Market. They saved solar during the tax credit fight and now in the ITC for 201. The California Poultry, Fresh Fruit and Citrus Associations have filed a letter with the commission. Saving money for farming operations is the leading driver which means higher module prices are bad for America’s farming community.
No More Press Releases On PR, Please. A lot of people want to help in Puerto Rico. A lot of companies are also planning on helping. If you are doing either, great. I am supportive of our sector helping in PR. Keep the press releases to yourselves please. Instead do the work, then take videos and pictures and publish those. Puerto Rico isn’t your backdrop for telling the sector that you know how to build solar and storage.
The Exclusion Battle On 201. A commissioner of the trade commission brought it up and First Solar was exempt from the start. Individual companies are coming up and asking for the commission to be excluded. Once a full list is available, I will send that along.
Interview With Abby Hopper. Two interviews, 10 minutes each, for you to listen to. Both were recorded at the ITC hearing, before and after the solar industry’s session. This gives you some color on the atmosphere in the hearing room.
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