Holy Shit, Suniva. Last week I told you I liked many of the folks at Suniva. So to my friends still at the company. GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE! Suniva made a bad business decision in opening a factory in Michigan at the wrong time. Keep in mind that Suniva has long been arguing that SolarWorld’s trade cases have impacted their module assembly in Asia. Now the company owned by Shunfeng, which also owns Suntech wants to destroy the US solar industry. In reality, Suniva just handed the Trump administration the perfect way to do just that. The Koch Brothers are popping champagne bottles right now, a ‘China is playing unfair’, talking point will be the populist agenda covering up the desire to hurt US energy consumers across the Country. Suniva should be ashamed of itself instead of this ridiculous attempt to take everyone else down with them.
Storage keeps moving. California is moving forward with energy storage. The State will lead once again as the customers transition to NEM 2.0 and most customers go to time of use with demand charge schedules. I will have some announcements about my work in this space soon. If you are involved in developing storage projects, let me know so I can let you know personally about the work I will be involved in.
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My comments from yesterday. I feel pretty strongly about what I said yesterday. If you missed it, I said that BNEF should not have invited Rick Perry to speak at their summit. I heard from many of you, both agreeing and disagreeing with me. My point is simple, Perry had the solar delegation in his office a few weeks ago. This was a one-way conversation and not a pitch on what renewable energy can do for America. So why put him in a room that would groan and shake their heads at his comments. If we want to impact change, let’s get away from the politicians and focus on the people. That’s who we should be pitching and educating. People fire Congressman, not trade associations or conference participants. People have the power.
Make sure you listen to the latest episodes of EnergyWakeup. Hear from solar entrepreneur, John Gurski, the founder of Energy Toolbase, a cloud based energy bill analytics and proposal tool. I also speak with Tony Clifford from Standard Solar about being acquired by Gaz Metro and his work at SEIA.
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Yann
Old Data, New Coverage. We’ve seen the DOE Energy Employment Report already, the data is positive and friendly to the energy sector. That being said, the New York Times is doing a nice infographic on the data given the President’s focus on the energy sector. It also needs to be repeated because the quantity of solar jobs doesn’t appear to really hit home with all politicians quite yet, many of them still consider solar jobs subsidized and temporary.
Flip it and reverse it. I can’t even, I don’t know, I mean, oops. I know Rick Perry is the Secretary of Energy but he has no business getting an audience at a conference like BNEF. It does nothing more than incite uncertainty and fear as opposed to real policy discussions. Renewables driving more coal? Nuclear weapons depend on new nuclear power plants? Give me a break. BNEF is better than this, and if they insist on having him speak, should counter program the speech with people that can rebut the nonsense immediately. ERCOT is showing the the Country how competitive RTOs drive the cost down and provide consumers with choice on source and price.
Help support SolarWakeup. If you are looking for investors or buyers of your projects, hit reply to this email and let us help you. Our expansive network is always looking to partner with you and helps us pay the bills to keep the newsletter free to you, as it has been for the past 4 years.
Lowering soft costs. What is the real soft cost of solar power? How much are you putting it into your estimates for non-hardware and non-labor costs? As we transition to time of use, energy storage and more complicated analysis, I am concerned to hear that most of the industry is still relying on excel files for rate analysis and production analysis. I heard this in my conversation with Energy Toolbase CEO and many of the CEOs at the asset management summit. Excel files are costing you money and projects, time to transition to software solutions and get more efficient.
Make sure you listen to the latest episodes of EnergyWakeup. Hear from solar entrepreneur, John Gurski, the founder of Energy Toolbase, a cloud based energy bill analytics and proposal tool. I also speak with Tony Clifford from Standard Solar about being acquired by Gaz Metro and his work at SEIA.
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Using Data For Policy. One of the topics of conversation with John Gurski, the founder and CEO of Energy Toolbase, was policy. Given the database of utility rates and the ability to model savings based on a example demand structure, Energy Toolbase can and has shown what the potential impact on solar consumers is if a proposed rate design structure is implemented. This kind of simple, results oriented data point speaks to people in a way that rate design proceedings often misses. If you are involved in a policy debate, use the value of solar’s popularity by showing the results of policy.
Coal’s exes live in Texas. The City of Houston has signed a PPA to buy the energy from a 50MW solar farm in Texas. Let the reality of the oil capital going solar sink in and realize that this is purely an economic transaction. Engie, the developer, has its US headquarters there and used to be a large IPP in the US as well. Now, Engie has sold its assets and is focused on a diverse set of cleantech investments and retail energy. Competition works, and you can compare Florida and Texas as two ways to achieve that, one with an open market and one with monopolies.
Help support SolarWakeup. If you are looking for investors or buyers of your projects, hit reply to this email and let us help you. Our expansive network is always looking to partner with you and helps us pay the bills to keep the newsletter free to you, as it has been for the past 4 years.
No Comment from me, I want yours. I read the Bloomberg article about SEIA’s comments at BNEF with intrigue. I have some thoughts but I want to hear yours. Hit reply and let me know what you think.
Make sure you listen to the latest episodes of EnergyWakeup. Hear from solar entrepreneur, John Gurski, the founder of Energy Toolbase, a cloud based energy bill analytics and proposal tool. I also speak with Tony Clifford from Standard Solar about being acquired by Gaz Metro and his work at SEIA.
Opinion
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Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann