This is your SolarWakeup for May 7th, 2019
Tariff Details Coming Today. Lighthizer announced yesterday that the new tariff list will go on the federal register later this morning and will go into effect first thing on Friday. Once the register is populated then the analysis can start whether this has an impact on the solar industry. Don’t discount the impact this has on domestic supply chains and the local costs.
Big Quarter At SolarEdge. The public inverter company had a massive quarter and growing both year over year and quarter over quarter. This is the benefit of being a global company so you can flatten the solar coaster’s seasonality. New revenues from non-inverter business units is starting to impact the company as well.
Senator Wyden Tax Fix. Senator Wyden, who was on the wrong side of the 201 trade fight, is on the right side of clean energy tax incentives. His plan calls for the rebalancing of tax incentives for energy generators and includes PTC and ITC aspects. For solar it calls for the permanent 30% ITC and pays for the policy with the removal of the fossil fuel subsidies.
Climate Change On Campus. Part of the election discussion around climate change is a generational one. Axios goes onto the college campus to talk about the need for climate change policy with the next generation.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for May 6th, 2019
More Tariff Trouble. My day was going fine, enjoying a nice weekend in Florida visiting my new nephew, when Trump comes across the Twitter and lets America know that he’s raising tariffs on more imported goods. This is potentially a big deal for solar if it actually goes into effect and gets worse. Remember, the negotiations were close to complete according to reports when he sent the tweet. Now China is thinking about calling off the talks altogether. We all know he likely sent the tweet with a wink, playing foreign policy chicken with American jobs. The reality is that American factories rely on robust supply chains that include on and offshore suppliers. Less offshore supply increases the price on domestic supply and therefore slows factory operations. Let’s hope this doesn’t drag solar down more, this may be tariff number 5 or 6 on our industry.
Inslee Goes 100. A big release by the Governor Inslee presidential campaign. His plan is called 100% Clean Energy For America and it knocks the roof off every State 100% RPS plan that’s been passed. I want you to read the highlights yourself by clicking here, but here is a teaser. No more coal pollution by 2030, 100% clean electricity by 2035 and a focus on front line and low income Americans impacted by climate change. This is the type of plan that we’ve been talking about in back rooms that we said we needed. We wanted the campaign that elevated climate change to the Presidential debate stage and make it an issue. We are there now and we need to grab the opportunity by the horns and turn it into action.
Tesla’s Vision To Standardize Solar. There is some out of the box thinking coming out of Tesla these days. Most of us that live solar every day would argue that it’s very difficult to standardize solar given that every house is different. Tesla seems to be saying that that want homeowners to buy solar in prepackaged quantities so that the logistics of the trucks and costs are repetitive in nature. You can go through the sales cycle on their website which gets millions of hits per month and may be a great sales funnel if they can figure out how to get those visitors to transact.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for May 3rd, 2019
Spruce Comes Back. After having been taken over by their senior lender and stopping the loan business, Spruce is back in the market with a bit of a twist. Spruce will be buying solar portfolios based on the knowledge that the company has in operating the assets. I wouldn’t be surprised if this leads to also managing portfolios for institutional capital when the solar market grows to beyond 1million new homes going solar per year.
South Carolina Dealmaking. Legislators and the utility are closer to a deal that would uncap the net metering rule for a period of 2 years. The ‘cost’ is that PURPA projects that need contracts over 10 years would have to create some sort of guarantee that the rate stays below the avoided cost. Hard to read the fine print on that and think that the contract isn’t really a contract but I will speak to some developers and try to understand what it means. Good news for residential though and I’m sure homeowners will be making sure their roof warranty stay intact by asking for Quick Mount.
A Climate Emergency. The UK parliament has agreed on Brexit, just not from the EU but instead from carbon emissions. The parliament wants the UK to be net-zero by 2050 and urged the Committee on Climate Change to adopt a resolution stating that fact.
Down To $5.3Billion. The oil companies have had a tough quarter, Shell’s profits were down year over year and only achieved $5.3billion for the quarter. The others were down as well and the total profits barely surpassed $10billion for the quarter in total. Hard to imagine that the consolidation between solar/EVs/storage and the oil majors doesn’t continue into the next decade.
Presented By RayTray. RayTray is a solar wire management system. Designed for commercial ballasted flat or standing seam roof projects. It was created by commercial solar installers for commercial installers. It is a great, cost-effective solution for managing home runs, quicker and easier to install than conduit. RayTray is listed to conform to UL Standard 870. It is highly customizable with no grounding needed and no roof attachment. It can hold up to thirty 10 gauge wires per tray. RayTray also simplifies O&M, giving quick access to wires, all at a cost of less than a penny per watt.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for May 2nd, 2019
More updates tomorrow as I am on the road and out of time!
Presented By RayTray. RayTray is a solar wire management system. Designed for commercial ballasted flat or standing seam roof projects. It was created by commercial solar installers for commercial installers. It is a great, cost-effective solution for managing home runs, quicker and easier to install than conduit. RayTray is listed to conform to UL Standard 870. It is highly customizable with no grounding needed and no roof attachment. It can hold up to thirty 10 gage wires per tray. RayTray also simplifies O&M, giving quick access to wires, all at a cost of less than a penny per watt.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for May 1st, 2019
This Is Mainstream. Imagine if I told you last year, let alone 5 years ago, that a national poll would rank climate change as the most important issue for primary voters. That happened in the latest CNN poll, where 96% of respondents said it was very important. Climate change beat out healthcare and gun control in this poll. See the detail below and you can see the entire poll here.
The Counter Point. If climate change were the top issue, why is Governor Jay Inslee, who only talks about climate change, only polling at 1%? Is it purely a name ID issue and that he needs more people to hear him say the words?
The Counter Counter Point. The day before the poll went out, which was released prior to today on embargo (which means the press got it earlier), Beto O’Rourke released his $5trillion climate plan. While this is one poll, candidates are taking it seriously enough to lead with the issue.
Who’s Advising The Teams? I don’t know anyone in solar embedded with the teams and that worries me. There should be industry insight going into the campaigns and at the very least data being fed to the campaigns so they know our talking points. An example would be when President Obama used the Solar Market Insight data in the State of the Union speech.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for April 30th, 2019
New York Incentive For Storage. NYSERDA is making things going forward and with these incentive levels, expect a lithium rush to the Empire State. ‘Retail’ projects will start with incentives of $350/kWh and larger projects will start at $110/kWh. Both create a major catalyst for the market to expand and with the pool of available capital, it should be able to last for sometime. I actually worry that the incentive is too high as battery costs are declining rapidly. In the meantime, let’s see with integrators are best positioned to serve the developer markets. My interview with Engie Storage CCO is coming soon to the podcast and catch my interview from last year with FlexGen CEO, Josh Prueher on the topic.
But We Need More. With reporting from down under, it shows that energy storage is a vital part of where we need to go. That is why you’ve seen CalSEIA and COSeia change their names to include storage, CALSSA and COSSA respectively now. The next decade will decide what the technologies of storage with be, including pumped hydro when possible. With California and New York going big on incentives to drive the markets, expect the storage sector to develop robust pipelines and drive the price down alongside the auto OEMs.
Beto Takes On Climate. The former Congressman from Texas that took the nation by storm last year during his race against Ted Cruz has outlined the first policy for his Presidential campaign. The policy is a $5 trillion climate plan that gets us to reach ‘net-zero’ by 2050. In some ways this is the ‘I have my own plan so I don’t need the green new deal, plan.’ Beto has been quiet but with 20 candidates in the primary, it’s going to take some work to stick out. In other climate news, Congressman Seth Moulton is calling for a moonshot to develop nuclear fusion technology to solve climate change.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for April 29th, 2019
Weekend Rundown. Many great stories today with thoughts from me, keeping it brief but make sure to catch the stories that hit your notes. Don’t forget to subscribe to the SolarWakeup Podcast on Apple Podcast to keep up to date on the latest happenings.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for April 26th, 2019
Opinion
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for April 25th, 2019
Earnings Season. Tesla earnings are always interesting because they kick off the residential solar data flow that I am currently personally interested in with my day job given that I run a racking company. Tesla, without really trying, installed 47MW of solar on down from 73MW last quarter. Sunrun and Vivint Solar will be following with Q1 data shortly to see how it plays out. It has been raining in California and Q1 is historically the worst in terms of builds and backlog growth. I am also listening for input on impact from tariffs especially on racking supply given that Sunrun and Tesla both have a big investment in their own racking systems through their (long ago) acquisitions of SnapNrack and Zep accordingly. Their growth also means the growth of the overall solar market which is a market positive and enables other companies to reinvest into their own businesses. Q1 in the books and we’re rolling on Q2, let’s go!
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for April 24th, 2019
Showdown In Sacramento. The saga continues but let us back up for a minute. The dramatic increases in return on equity may not actually mean that is what they are looking for. Ask for a 50% increase and get 25% and the shareholders still get what they wanted. My opinion is that the reward should go to the party that takes the most risk so you cannot possibly ask for the ROE increase while also asking for indemnity. The Governor also opined yesterday, saying that “Not gonna get it . It’s jaw droppingly wrong.”
Growing Energy Load. Utilities do better when energy load increases and that is why solar has been viewed as a threat to utilities in the past. Electric vehicles are now growing like crazy and they need to be charged and as I’ve said in the past, represent the first time that utilities are in the same market as oil companies. It also provides a great factor for growth. None of this is news really but it’s no longer a future situation.
Hopkins Goes Solar. My alma mater is going bigger in solar striking a deal with Constellation Energy and a solar farm in Virginia. This will get Hopkins to two thirds of their energy consumption. I hope the other third will come through solar generated in Maryland.
More Info On VDERs. The changes in New York were a hard fought victory by many solar trade associations and there is more coverage on the issues that will grow that market. I look forward to seeing New York fulfill the future that they’ve been trying to achieve.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann