This is your SolarWakeup for July 15th, 2019
Cypress Turnaround Continues. The new leadership team at Cypress Creek, with a positive reputation in the market, is making more changes to the business model. One of those changes is eliminating the in-house EPC division so that the development can contract with external EPC partners. EPC is one of those internal cost centers that has benefits on multiple fronts including financial structuring ones. The core expertise at Cypress will remain with the early development, knowing how to take a piece of land and get it to NTP.
The Storage Market. Yes, private equity firms and infrastructure investors are keen to get into the storage market and deploy capital. The same is true for integrators, companies that take the parts and pieces and make a system, and storage OEMs, which are focused on longevity and warranty bankability. It is hard to build one of these companies which is making it a ripe market for acquisitions as well as a less obvious reason, talent. Talent that really knows and understands storage is still incredibly fragmented.
Needs Some Markets. The storage sector also is lacking what has taken solar more than a decade to get, markets. Look at the aches and pains that it has taken SMART to get off the ground and even how slow storage has been to take off in California. That’s why trade reports like the one about DERs in New Jersey is particularly important for the continued growth of the up and coming markets.
Energy Choice Fight. There isn’t much detail here and the number isn’t big enough to fight against the IOUs but Florida is going to gear up for a discussion about energy choice. The proposed constitutional amendment wants to open up energy retail choice for consumers and the fight got $3million to get it started. I’ll be keeping a close eye on this one!
New Pod. Go to your podcast apps and check out the latest pod with Michael Judge of the DOER to talk about SMART, if it’s helpful to your business then share it with your friends online, make sure to tag #solarwakeup!
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for July 12th, 2019
PG&E Bailout. It’s coming and ready to be signed, what did solar get?
Speaking Of Solar. PG&E is still warning its customers that power outages may be coming and they should think about backup generators. Generators, not solar and storage, (only in the fine print) because solar plus storage would be too permanent.
Judge Isn’t Happy. The WSJ is out with some in-depth reporting about PG&E and the Judge wants a paragraph by paragraph response.
New Pod. Over the next few weeks you will get the recordings of SolarWakeup Live! Boston starting with my conversation about opportunity zone funding for solar projects. Subscribe to the podcast and leave a rating!
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for July 11th, 2019
Important ITC, Don’t Miss This. We need to double down on the great success of yesterday. SEIA is working with members of Congress to prove that the solar industry supports the ITC. I need you to sign on to this letter, right now, to show Congress that the ITC is important to you. It takes 10 seconds. Take an extra minute and ask your LinkedIn network to do the same thing. This is time sensitive, please don’t postpone clicking on it until later. Sign On Now!
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for July 10th, 2019
ITC. Important Action. Let’s go! The solar industry needs you to click this link, RIGHT NOW! There is real traction to drive the ITC extension into a tax package which even exists as a stand alone bill right now. Congress wants to know that the industry stands with SEIA and other advocates saying that this is important. Especially for residential installers, you have to take 30 seconds and sign your company on to this letter. If you have questions about this, please hit reply and shoot me a note. Otherwise, sign on now and send it out on your twitter/facebook/linkedin accounts. We need as many solar companies to sign on as we can.
Inverter Consolidation Continues. ABB is out of the inverter business based on a company announcement early yesterday. This is going to cause the company to write down over $400million dollars and take one more technology company off the market. Power-One, which was bought by ABB, was one of the first string level inverters that went after the larger scale market in Europe and had some traction in the US. Solaredge and Enphase have caused the market to turn upside down with module level electronics. Both of those companies may be looking for some of the ABB talent now to double down on their growth plans.
Institutionalizing C&I. Sol Systems and Capital Dynamics are partnering on distributed asset investments. A market that has long been considered too fragmented and hard to portfolio is getting real infra capital. I’m a big fan of both companies and see a strong future for them. Now go faster!
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for July 9th, 2019
Trump Gets Into Climate. Surprising most of us including energy reporters, Trump gave a speech focused on the environment but didn’t say the words climate change. This was followed by a call with reporters that made it across my twitter feed, here’s a sample of the line of questioning.
The Voter’s Impact. Don’t be fooled, Trump’s campaign is testing the waters on environmental issues with the voters to see if there is traction. The DNC is clearly getting attention (read media time) on the topic and the campaign wants to get some of the tv time. Polling is clear that voters care of the environment, clean air and clean water amongst other things. Whether this reflects on the issues that drive who voters will vote for is yet to be determined and has been the source of most of the political skepticism when it comes to climate policy.
My Florida Story. Read my thoughts and some behind the scenes views on why Quick Mount PV entered the Florida market ahead of the historic run that 2019 has been for the State. I’m hoping that this gives some insight on the decision making we are trying to use to get closer to the installers across the Country. If you have ideas on how we can do more, please do let me know.
Brazil’s Turnaround. Trying to selling 50MW or so in Brazil a few years ago was nearly impossible, I tried. Now that pipeline of solar assets is getting gobbled up. Timing, is everything.
Support CALSSA. Go ahead and check out Solar Battle of the Bands if you are in the SF area tonight. It’s an important source of funds for CALSSA.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for July 8th, 2019
World Champions! The US Women’s National team continues their reign as World Cup champion and it was great to see their decisive victory. Given solar’s diversity study just a few months ago, I thought it would be an interesting question to ask how pay for women in solar stacks up to that in soccer. The USWMT gets 25% of their male counterparts for winning the World Cup, I’m hoping women in solar are much closer to the 100% mark.
A Set Of Questions. Let’s make a prediction. The DNC will host a climate debate in the near future. So the next step is deciding who the moderators should be and what questions they should ask. The moderators are going to bother us ‘in the biz’ because they will be the ones with a platform not ones that actually know the topic. Second, I can see that that questions focus on the political reality as opposed to the goal. The best hope would be to talk about what needs to be done and where we should go, leave the politics to the post election governance.
Both Sidesisms. Looking at the news from New Hampshire where the Governor keeps vetoing solar policies passed by the legislature, both net metering and RPS related. This isn’t an accident, republican politicians largely continue to be anti-solar and I’m a bit jaded by political advisors making noise about what republicans need to do to get into the climate conversation. When it comes to climate change topics, bipartisan approaches are no longer functioning in this political environment.
Rolling Eyes. Florida is too cloudy for solar was a talking point ten years ago, we’re beyond that now. While there are solar politics in play in Florida around C&I and utility scale access, Florida is leaving the market access quite open for residential customers and growing that market. The New York Times should cover solar with less concern of being detailed and complicated. Readers can understand more than the high level and the NYT owes them detailed view into our markets.
Market Driven. A great look at what is driving the market in Germany and how renewables are competing with the coal market. It’s beyond the control of the government at this point.
Reality Check. This was bound to happen, someone drove their Tesla from LA to Vegas and countered the EV story from a few weeks ago.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for July 3rd, 2019
Have a patriotic 4th of July holiday and I look forward to writing to you again on Monday!
The IPO Filing. Here is Sunnova Energy’s S-1, IPO filing. Of course if you want the cliff notes, that’s today’s top story.
Policy Breakdowns. Good things are happening and special congratulations to the advocates in Oregon. Almost a decade after one of the most successful starts to the solar industry, the policies are coming back to get solar access back to many.
Cheap Solar and Storage. LADWP has signed a PPA for solar plus storage with 8 Minute Solar. More detail needs to come out on the contract terms to give real insight on the valuation and return of such a project but the headline numbers are impressive.
Coal Insurance Lost. Chub is out on coal owners, the first US insurer to follow the European trend. This is on the heels of another coal company filing bankruptcy in West Virginia. It’s not the responsibility of solar to replace some of those jobs but it surely would be nice to be helpful.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for July 2nd, 2019
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for July 1st, 2019
More trades and signings in the NBA yesterday than on the second day of the Infodcast conference, welcome to the short week starting Q2.
The Asia Play. Another major Wall Street infra fund is making a play for Asian solar assets. These deals are complex with currency and regulatory risk which drives up the yield. They are also much cheaper to build and operate which could generate much nicer cash flows.
A Debate On Debates. With only 15 minutes of climate discussion during 4 hours of debates, the DNC is getting pushback on not having a climate debate. Now the board will vote on the issue during a meeting in August.
Big Solar. One plant in the UAE with a single phase capacity of over 1GW has been commissioned.
More RPS. Maine is on the board, with a carbon reduction and renewable portfolio increase. 80% by 2030 and 100% by 2050, quite the goal in my opinion.
IPOs? Should Cleantech companies go for an IPO? If the company has a cash flowing business and can show the upside on future investments, then yes. If the company is investing in sustainable assets then probably not. There is nothing wrong with being a private company that creates risk adjusted yield for long term investors without feeling the need to go public. Going public when you shouldn’t be, that’s bad for everyone.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for June 28th, 2019
Have A Great Weekend!
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Yann