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.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
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.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
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.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for July 2nd, 2019
Opinion
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
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.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for June 28th, 2019
Opinion
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for June 27th, 2019
ABCDEP&L. PG&E has filed their restructuring plan which includes a rebrand. The Golden State Power Light & Gas Company, or GSPL&G Corp. Some of the restructuring would yield a fund for wildfire liabilities from 2017 and 2018 fires which the Governor is echoing with his ask on a liquidity fund. I have been told that some pre-bankruptcy payables have gone unpaid which means some solar farms have unpaid bills from their off taker, likely to not trigger debt covenants but could create some issues for asset owners if this drags out.
AC At The North Pole. As homeowners across the Globe are installing air conditioners to deal with the summer heat, the electric load follows. Growing up in Hamburg in northern Germany, I used to get a ‘heat’ day if the temperature was over 75 degrees at 9am and it almost never happened. That rule and that normal is long gone as my family installs air conditioning at the same latitude as Alaska.
Debate Night 1. Democrats debated for the first time last night where 10 candidates took the stage. Climate change came up both as questions and as answers. Jay Inslee made the point that the clean energy economy can create 8 million jobs while Beto O’Rourke said climate change was the biggest threat to the US. Solar didn’t come up on its own but this was a lot of people in a short period of time, more to come I am sure.
Quite The Transition. A prominent peaker plant in Oakland CA is going to become energy storage in a deal between Vistra and the East Bay Community Energy (a CCA). Vistra is becoming a leader in this exercise with several projects in backlog.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for June 26th, 2019
Back for more solar news tomorrow! Have a great day!
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for June 25th, 2019
Is It Progressive? The headlines about the democratic primary is that the climate discussion is pushing the field to the left. I think that is entirely missing the point given that we’ve been trying to solve energy issues for decades and that many States passed 20% RPS policies more than a decade ago. This isn’t a political shift to the left, this is solving a massive climate crisis through policy because when it comes to highly regulated markets, only government can do that. Putting seat belts in cars and eliminating smoking in airplanes wasn’t a shift to the left, it was common sense.
Is It Denial? Take a look at the other side of the spectrum, Duke Energy’s IRP in Indiana is a good example. Coal plants that stay open for decades even though that increases the cost to consumers (even when Pence thinks that clean coal is the future) and new gas plants when they aren’t the cheapest option (Duke should ask NextEra about that). There should be a harder look, not only at the monopoly business model, but the decisions that are made counter to the best interests of the consumers.
The Gas Tax Cost Shift. This is true. EVs don’t pay for the typical gas tax that is included in the cost of fuel which pays for roads, highways etc. There will undoubtedly have to be an equivalent fee on the electricity used to charge electric vehicles once they’ve crossed the chasm in adoption. BUT, at the same time, EV owners including operators of charging stations will have to renegotiate their negative cost shift since they are heavy electricity users and pay for a higher portion of the grid cost than the non EV owners.
China Grows Roots. China’s Silk Road Fund is buying 49% of ACWA, the Saudi renewable energy development company that is active across the African continent and Middle East.
Nominations Ahead. I always enjoy seeing nominations and winners in the Cleantech space because it introduces me and the market to people I haven’t met yet. Now is your chance to put forth your names.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for June 24th, 2019
Call Your Representative. Don’t forget to call your member of Congress and ask them to fight for the ITC to be included in the tax extenders bill. This is a crucial time to fight for your industry especially in residential, the credits will disappear before you know. Click here to find your Congresswoman or call (202) 224-3121 to have the operator connect you.
The New Energy Outlook. Bloomberg has released the annual energy outlook which is a forward looking view on the global energy markets. You can see the highlights here and catch the analyst talking about it in the link below.
Schletter US Factory Auction. I didn’t realize this happened but Schletter auctioned off its factory in Shelby, NC. The reality is that in-house manufacturing requires tremendous volume and backlog, something that is difficult to achieve with utility scale and C&I racking systems especially with a competitive market. Maybe the idea is to rebuild the company with an outsourced model.
New York Times Gets This Wrong. The New York Times tested “EVs” by driving roundtrip from LA to Las Vegas. The 8 hours of driving took 5 hours of charging. Of course this ‘test drive’ wasn’t done in a Tesla, it was done in a Chevy Bolt which naturally skews the entire test. This shows the fight that’s ahead for us in solar as well, imagine if someone did a test on how much energy you can offset on a house and used 10% efficient modules instead of the market leading technology.
Job Postings. If you want to have your job openings posted on SolarWakeup, just email me the link to the actual job. I’ll be changing them every day or so. If you want to have it stay on the newsletter you can sponsor that now, email me to inquire.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann