I wrote an article about 3 years ago when I bought my first electric car which used 10kWh per day. While my solar install reduced my energy purchase by about 25kWh per day on average, I was still a net loss in energy for my utility (a regulated monopoly). Things have now changed. I have now transitioned to a full electric car which will use about 30kWh per day with my normal commute. I may be an outlier, but not much considering I am owner #101,111, but my solar is now completely neglected by my additional energy consumption. So here is my tip to utility execs (that may or may not have the ability to look ahead by more than a quarter), forget solar. It’s a minor blip in your growth in electric vehicles. Invest in the infrastructure that increases the amount of energy used in transportation so that you can compete with BP, Chevron, Exxon, et al for the first time in history.
Yann
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Yann
There always seems to be some sort of hype in solar. Wall street has hit the solar stocks pretty hard recently causing some unnecessary commotion. Ask yourself what has changed in the last few months, has anything changed? Not really. Solar is trying to compete with trillion dollar fossil markets, utilities that have a guaranteed return on capital in the double digits (thank you anti-competitive market regulations); both of which have access to capital at below mortgage rates. Solar still pays double/triple that. So when you read about layoffs at SUNE, don’t buy the hype. They have bought several companies and surely there are duplicative roles; the headlines are lip service to day traders.
Yann
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Yann
These are the top 10 most read solar articles by your peers this week!
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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.
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Yann
Earlier this week, 6 of the world’s largest banks called for strong climate change policies on the same day that the Governor of the Bank of England had a similar speech about the risk climate change poses on the banking system. As Hurricane Joaquin barrels down on the East Coast (and hopefully will miss and not become Superstorm Joaquin), 10 of the largest food companies are calling for climate change policies. Writing a press release is nice, even cute, but if they really want to do something about it, spend money and lobbyists. The ITC extension and net metering battles mean the difference between a cute solar market and a market that is allowed to compete in a free market. Allocate 0.1% of profits for a single year and the impact would be tremendous. If they don’t know where to put the money, there are plenty of solar advocacy groups that would be happy to steer them in the right direction.
Yann
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Yann