Going inside tax equity. In this EnergyWakeup episode we speak with Conor McKenna, Managing Director at CohnReznick Capital Market Securities. Conor advised a $78 million tax equity investment for the Crescent Dunes Solar Project by SolarReserve. The innovation here is that the Crescent Dunes solar project uses molten salt energy storage technology from the SolarReserve concentrating solar tower site. We couldn’t leave the interview without asking Conor about his thoughts on tax reform and how it could impact the markets.
The easiest way. When it comes to energy, not all things are created equal. Regulators are still failing to compare the power sources correctly, leaving out the usage of water or other societal costs. Also, the healthcare cost shouldered by taxpayers from the pollution of fossil fuel plants. That is why a flat carbon tax makes sense, it achieves what the market regulators are failing on. Pollution also doesn’t stop at State borders and doing it on a national or continental level can and should work.
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Yann
This could work. Assuming you could get the executives on board (hardest part of any merger), bringing Sunpower and First Solar together would make a lot of sense. Both companies are rooted in manufacturing and have products that offer a strong value proposition. First Solar does really well in the utility scale segment with modules close or better than 72 cell poly panels. On the other hand Sunpower is leaving the utility scale and focusing on distributed, mostly residential. The companies already share 8point3, the publicly traded yieldco. With the public markets down on solar, now would be a great time for a buyout of all three public companies. First Solar has a solid balance sheet but is entering a difficult time as they skip the Series 5 and go straight to Series 6 panels. If a PE firm is interested in this idea, give me a call!
A 5 billion dollar profit for taxpayers? It didn’t do what it was supposed to do, lose money. Get rid of it, total loser. Sad!
Solar farms in Florida. The biggest disappointment in solar over the past 10 years has been the market in Florida. One of the largest users of energy, sunny (Sunshine State after all) and plenty of land. Good to see some of Sunedison’s legacy projects getting to the finish line.
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Does the White House care? I think that SEIA with about 1,000 solar supporters should go to the lawn of the White House. The White House may not care about solar according to the America Has a Stupid Energy Policy so it is up to us to make the job growth political. The Koch’s are doing a great job politicizing 400 coal mining jobs when States like Florida added 1,700 solar jobs last year. We have to bring the message to the White House and the national media will cover it. The twice as many as coal, more than other fossil combined messages just don’t work.
Take it a step further. If you really want to make an impact and we should, then we should work with like-minded people. Your suppliers, lawyers, bankers, etc. do you know where they stand? Are they okay with the approach this administration is taking regarding solar? You get to choose the people you work with and if they aren’t looking out for your best interests, maybe you should go elsewhere. Best way to do that is look at their personal twitter accounts, tough to hide your views on that platform.
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Jobs matter. Spare me the, Mr. President look at the jobs in the solar industry article, because money matters to the now 260,000 solar professionals. Solar Foundation’s National Solar Job Census is out this morning with staggering growth numbers. 44 out of 50 States had solar job growth and the industry grew over 25% once again. The best part is that over half of the jobs are installation jobs, these are hyperlocal and impact the economies that understand that solar cannot be outsourced and quality matters. This isn’t a race to the bottom where it counts and local officials should take notice. Take a look at the report highlights by visiting SolarJobsCensus.org.
Terminating the EPA. Imagine spending years in the Florida legislature riding your dad’s coattails. In Tallahassee, it gets decided pretty quickly if you make it to leadership and if you don’t and let’s just say Congressman Gaetz wasn’t picked first on the playground. He has a history of saying things to make headlines, once trying to accelerate death penalty implementation to hurry the meeting with god. As a freshman in DC, what better way to make waves with the Koch Brothers and be invited to lunch with Scott Pruitt than proposing a stupid bill. This is a PR effort, it’s working but it will not go anywhere.
The ‘e’ word? David Crane comes out wondering about the ‘e’ word. An oil embargo to be exact. What if? What if the response to the blunt speak from the oval office is to decrease the amount of oil being supplied to the US? What impact would it have? 40 years after the Carter embargo, we are in a different era. We produce A LOT of domestic fuel, our natural gas output is exponentially higher than the 70s and our electric grid has removed essentially all oil from the grid. Consumers would be I think, prices would ratchet up rather badly hurting the discretionary spending that fuels our economy.
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Yann