This is your SolarWakeup for July 19th, 2019
Friday Rundown. Have a great weekend!
CleanCapital Grows. Doing big deals and growing larger which each one.
Florida Consumers. Want more solar and are writing letters to the editor.
A NY GND. Cuomo signs an offshore wind deal and enacts major climate legislation.
Power Plants You Can’t See. Sunrun wins another virtual deal with a local CCA in the East Bay. This space will get big fast.
Vote Solar Pod. My interview with Vote Solar’s Nathan Phelps is live, check it out and review it!
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for July 18th, 2019
We Are Powerful. In less than a week, 1,000 companies signed a letter to Congress. Don’t underestimate what that means to politicians. Those 1,000 companies could send tens of thousands of emails to employees creating action and members recognize that. Give yourself a pat on the back and be ready to do it again, again and again. Send a tweet or Linkedin post that includes #SolarWakeup #DefendTheITC and spread the word!
The Next Steps. If my statement above is correct, I hope to see some action from Congress next week including potentially some legislation. Watch this space…
Fort Lauderdale’s Finest. Ben Geman of Axios looks at the late Chief Justice’s climate record. Justice Stevens and I shared a home town as he spent time in Fort Lauderdale. It was always intriguing to get your ice tea as a former Chief Justice is sitting at a table nearby at the golf course.
GE Bows Out. Selling 80% of the company formerly known as GE Solar to Blackrock means that GE is basically done with solar. The company has been renamed and will focus on distributed solar.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for July 17th, 2019
Great ITC News. Last week I asked for your help and you came through. Almost 1,000 solar companies signed on to an important letter showing that we, as an industry, support the ITC. Here is the complete list in case you are interested. More importantly, this is sending a huge message to members of Congress and our advocates will be able to leverage this. Get your marketing teams to send out a message to your representative and on your social media using the #DefendtheITC hashtag.
More Info On 201. Yesterday I spoke with SEIA about the letter I described about the meeting at with the Deputy US Trade Representative. The next event in the 201 process was a mid term review of the original tariff where the parties come together to lobby for changes, reductions or eliminations of the original impact. Trump has broad authority during this process to make other changes as well, which could include changes to exclusions. 201 is a seldom used trade tool and not all processes are clear to the participants but the common thought is that the mid term review sets up the next lobbying effort.
A Pod On SMART Solar. In this episode I speak with Michael Judge of the MA DOER about the SMART implementation. We talk about the issues that the program needs to resolve and where there have been successes. If you are active in the MA market, don’t miss this episode and while you are at it, leave a 5 star review!
Road Less Traveled, Won’t Travel. LADWP is on its way to get off coal. By 2025, the municipal power department will close the only remaining coal plant which sits in Utah and buy the output of a newly built natural gas plant. Not only is that a ridiculous financial move, I know for a fact that solar with storage would be faster and cheaper to replace this generation within existing LADWP transmission. For a City that touts the need for climate progress, the utility department still moves to the beat of the 1990’s.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for July 16th, 2019
201 Plaintiffs Strike Again. On June 21st, executives from First Solar, Suniva and Q-Cells met with the Deputy Trade Representative to fight back against the 201 tariff exclusion for bi-facial modules. The fact that Suniva is still actively undermining the solar industry is incredibly frustrating. First Solar has a great product with Series 6 and should let its product do its talking instead of trying for a regulatory band aid. The claim is that wall street’s bullish outlook on the exclusion shows that this is an undue advantage for bi-facial manufacturers, a technology that none of the three plaintiffs are showing on their product websites. If you have more information on this, go ahead and send it to me confidentially by hitting reply.
Impact If Successful. This impacts utility-scale solar since that is where the bi-facial market is largely focused. Companies like NEXTracker have been hyping the benefits of bi-facial on trackers for over a year and the exclusion gave some lift to the more expensive technology. The meeting was held to ask for the exclusion to be rescinded or place a 500MW quote on the exclusion. If either of those is granted, it will likely depress the market once more creating greater urgency on extending the ITC. What is clear is that the plaintiffs have no regard to the crisis caused by climate change, this is pure financial motive.
Bill Gates’s Nuclear Concerns. Bill Gates is concerned that an advanced nuclear technology that he is invested in will not find a home for its demonstration project. Originally slated for China, Gates hopes that this technology will be given a chance in the US. Gates is outspoken about the need for advanced nuclear research and development to create a carbon-free future and in this case, is putting his money where his mouth is.
Sunnova’s Raise. The initial offering hopes to sell north of 17million shares between $16 and $18 with the upper range providing $365million in the raise. I think this is a good time to go out with installers giving a very positive outlook to the residential market and Sunrun (similar but different) doing well in the public markets.
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Yann
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