This is your SolarWakeup for July 23rd, 2019
Another DG Deal. Days after a major DG acquisition, AltaGas is selling its 313MW portfolio to TerraForm. TerraForm is buying the diverse portfolio for $720million from the Canadian firm. The surprise for me was AltaGas having amassed that large of a C&I portfolio and I can’t recall them being active in development market. This goes to show that there is still quite a disconnect between potential owners/investors in C&I projects and those that are trying to put those deals together.
Texas Solar Growth. 8minute Solar is in the market with the sale of a 200MW project in Texas. Texas is quickly becoming the lowest cost of solar market for utility scale project and as long as the interconnection process continues while allowing synthetic energy products to be written by traders, development and investment will occur. Let’s hope that the ITC extension will keep that edge market going.
A Market Statement. Over the past few years, NextEra’s conference calls have been the canary in the coal mine when it comes to the view of the ‘market’. It started with coal will have a hard time competing with gas and solar with storage will make it hard for gas to find a home. Now the statement of 50% renewables by 2030 makes quite the splash because that is in line with some of the Green New Deal goals.
The NY Storage Market Starts. Different technology and the same fight. Who should own energy resources and while many utilities keep showing that they only care about the return to their shareholders by investing as much as possible, the market should reject this notion and let the competitive markets do their jobs. New Yorkers should embrace the ability of developers, property owners and energy users to make their own decisions. More on this topic is a podcast interview with the CCO of Engie Storage which drops today at 10am Pacific. Make sure you are subscribed to hear it first.
Asking FERC. Amy Harder spoke with all four commissioners at FERC. Some of the feedback is telling and some of it may be for the audience at 1600 Penn.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for July 22nd, 2019
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Yann
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