By Yann Brandt; In a stunning November surprise, the Florida Professional Firefighters (FPF) have withdrawn their support for Amendment 1 in Florida. Amendment 1 is the utility backed ballot initiative that could remove net metering altogether. In a press release on Friday, FPF sent out a press release announcing the news to no longer support the amendment.
Firefighters have been featured in TV commercials on a continuous loop. The message is the importance of amendment to protect first responders and properties. There is no message about the existing building and fire codes that already cover this concern through the many different regulations.
These are the top 10 most read solar articles by your peers this week!
News
The Top 10 is ranked by the number of SolarWakeup.com readers that clicked on the news article during the previous week. It is the poll of the most relevant solar news of the week as judged by your colleagues and competitors.
Have a great day!
Yann
Net Metering Appeals. Vote Solar appealed a district court ruling in Nevada. The original lawsuit complaint asked for the reinstatement of net metering to existing customers and provide net metering to all future customers as required by Nevada law. While existing customers got NEM back, new customers did not and Vote Solar is seeking to change that. Our coverage.
Managing the pricing deterioration. As pricing deteriorates market wide, First Solar announced ways to counteract the pure pricing battle. At some point, price of the modules will be taken into consideration with land costs and efficiency of the modules. Wall Street was not comforted by the transparency and the stock traded down 15%.
The Florida saga continues. After filing for relief to the Supreme Court, solar advocates got news today. The Supreme Court will review the ballot question again. The voters are unlikely to see any action prior to Tuesday’s voting day as Floridians have been voting for over a week already.
Total eclipse of the heart. Normally, comments from the CEO of Total about solar would not raise eyebrows but Total is controlling stakeholder in SunPower one of the largest players in the US market. This time the CEO called the coming of a ‘new winter’ with the double threat of over capacity and lower demand. Global forecasts still see growing demand but his reference may be about SunPower focused markets.
The nuclear struggles are real. A 5th nuclear power plant since 2013 has been announced to be closed. This time Fort Calhoun in Nebraska which is owned by Omaha Public Power. The 5 plants have an output roughly equal to the total output of all solar power in the US which means the next iteration of solar needs to make up the difference once again.
Opinion
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
Vote Solar is appealing the district courts ruling that reinstated net metering for existing customers, grandfathering the policy for those customers. The original lawsuit called for net metering to be put back in place for all customers after the PUCN eliminated it. The appeal calls for net metering to be offered by the electric utilities to all customers as required by Nevada law.