This is your SolarWakeup for November 8th, 2018

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The Wins. Solar was on the ballot in a couple of ways on Tuesday so I wanted to give you my initial thoughts. On the plus side, clean energy executive was a career that was embraced. Several candidates ran on their clean energy experience and a few won which means that there will be members of Congress that understand our work and provide some insight to our trade groups. The biggest win may have been the ballot question in Nevada which was a direct question of more solar for corporations. The voters supported the motion and will have to do so once more at a future election. Another notable plus is the number of Governors that won while supporting a 100% clean energy future, the list includes CO, OR, MI, WI, CA, IL, and ME.
The Losses. First, you have to note that the RPS in Arizona was overwhelmingly defeated and the eulogy on carbon tax may have been written in Washington State. Notable is the $23million spent by NextGen to push for the RPS in Arizona and I can only imagine the policy that could have enabled the market if solar advocates were given $23million into their advocacy platforms. I’ve said it before, solar advocates are some of the most effective advocates in the process and are largely hampered from being able to fight more fights by financial resources. The candidate for NC-9, Dan McCready, was as solar as a candidate that was running across the Country and he almost won his race, losing by less than 2,000 votes.
The Trends. Solar as a political issue continues to be non-existent, these political times mean that secondary issues get little focus. However, with the solar favorability index, it is important to let all legislators know the political reality of supporting or opposing the issues important to us. More trend discovery by GreenBiz in the rundown.
GE Sells Current. GE has sold their esco/lighting/sometimes solar business to an investment firm. The notable solar transaction was for Home Depot. Best of luck to the team.

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Yann

Vivint Solar Crosses 1 GW Threshold in Residential Installations

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent In the hoopla surrounding Tesla Home Energy and Sunrun as they battle it out for the top spot in the residential solar installation business, it’s easy to forget about who is in second place – and who is installing solar at an ever-increasing pace as its steady growth continues to show. Vivint Solar announced it has installed 1 gigawatt (GW) of solar energy systems since its launch. The company installed 1 GW in just seven years, making it one of the fastest residential solar providers to reach this significant milestone. Vivint Solar first announced the … Read More →

The Energy Show: Protecting Your Rights to Go Solar with Dave Rosenfeld

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The Energy Show: By Barry Cinnamon We take it for granted that you can install solar on your home or business anytime, just as you can make any other energy saving improvement. Unfortunately, the reality is there are a host of restrictions on solar and battery storage. Many of these restrictions are due to arbitrary regulations (solar panels cannot be visible from the street), as well as rules promulgated by utilities to maximize their profits. Riddle me this, Solarman: why does your local utility encourage you to install an 8 kw EV charger, but makes it extremely complicated (sometimes impossible) … Read More →

Voters Deliver Split Decision On Parallel RPS Ballot Initiatives

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Tom Steyer is waking up this morning to the realization that when you get involved in politics – particularly clean energy politics – sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. In Arizona and Nevada, Steyer had worked tirelessly to support two constitutional amendments, one in each state, that would have cemented the goal of a 50% renewable portfolio standard by 2030 into law. And just like the rest of the country, the results from those initiatives turned out to be a mixed bag. In Nevada, voters decided to pass the amendment with 60% of the … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for November 7th, 2018

Thank you all for showing up at SolarWakeup Live! in Jersey City. It was an amazing crowd of 180 top solar executives and first round of feedback says that the conversations with the speakers had great content. The excitement of the day and the yet to be digested election results means that the column will be back on Thursday.

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Yann

SEIA’s Closing Argument To Nevada: Yes On Question 6

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent By the time you read this, polls will have already opened on the East Coast. It’s your opportunity to shape the country in which you live, so get out today and vote like your life depends on it. In several states – Arizona and Nevada leap immediately to mind – clean energy is on the ballot. In both states, constitutional amendments are on the ballot that would raise the renewable portfolio standards (RPS) to 50% by 2030. Both amendments have been hard fought contests, with progressive billionaire Tom Steyer fighting hard against entrenched utility interests … Read More →

Consumer Reports Finds Consumers Like Renewables, Hate Utilities

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Steve Hanely over at CleanTechnica reports that a new Consumer Reports’ survey reinforces what most of you have known since you joined the solar industry – renewable energy is popular among Americans. In words someone like me can appreciate (because I wish I’d written them first), Hanley writes: The Trump maladministration wants to choke us all with more emissions from coal-fired generating plants, but a survey of 1200 Americans conducted by GfK for Consumer Reports finds the vast majority of Americans want more renewable energy and less power plant pollution. The survey also reveals that … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for November 5th, 2018

Greetings from 37,000 feet. I am on my way to New Jersey for SolarWakeup Live! in Jersey City. Big thanks to the sponsors and the attendees that have registered. I look forward to a week of meetings in New York following the biggest Wakeup event to date. 
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Incentives Not Taxes. Over time, the headlines go away and reality sets in. Shortly have the solar 201 tariff was implemented, a few factories were announced. Factories that would open in the US and caused the public to show support for the assessment. However, as the year has gone by, more tariffs on Chinese imports have been implemented and the overall support for doing manufacturing appears to have left the solar game. 
Build A Community, Part 2. A month ago Facebook announced a solar farm for their data center in New Mexico, this month the data center is in Alabama and so is the solar farm. Alabama doesn’t have policies that enable Facebook users to go solar with limited or no access to net metering and high fees by some utilities. 
Is Florida Really? Just south of the Alabama border is Florida, a State that is very similar politically. The headlines last week spoke clearly about the market growth which was largely talking about the recent utility owned solar farms that were approved. So in short, Florida is growing massively and has a ton of upside. Most importantly, Florida has strong building departments that will fight against some of the dodgy solar engineering that happens across the Country. You can’t just build things in Florida that look pretty but don’t meet the building code. 
Election Week, Climate Change Edition. This week I hope everyone heads to the polls. A lot of the issues on the ballot are centered around what is happening in States. Regardless of your political persuasion, solar is still not a defining issue on the ballot for politicians which means you still have the ability to choose elected officials that are very much different on the issue. One will support net metering, one will not. One will fight for solar interconnection streamlining, one will not. 
Standing Up In Congress. Over the past 2 years, as climate change becomes a more important topic politically, members of Congress have joined the climate change caucus. The caucus sounds good but it has failed to adequately provide political cover mostly because climate change issue hasn’t come to the forefront yet. Don’t be surprised if that changes soon though. 

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Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for November 2nd, 2018

Have a wonderful Friday. Monday’s SolarWakeup will be coming to you from the air as I fly to New Jersey for the 5th SolarWakeup Live! event. Most of the previous interviews are available online at solarwakeup.com. Join us on Tuesday in Jersey City and make sure you vote!
Making Resi Storage Pencil. Sunnova announced yesterday the addition of their solar plus storage offering to the Texas market. This continues the market trend of giving consumers a choice to have storage with CleanChoice making an offer for storage in the Maryland market. What is driving the consumer’s demand for storage given that storage still needs to drive price down? 
Can California Grow More? California is 50% of the US market and it will have to work hard to keep that number steady, not because California is declining but because other States are growing nicely. That being said, companies are investing big in the growth here. In this case, Vivint Solar, is announcing a 20 year fixed price offering to consumers which locks in a rate for electricity and could cause consumers to jump into the deal. Will be interested to see how it does. 
Coal? PJM CEO spoke about the coal bailout needs yesterday as covered by Utility Dive. The bailout, he says is unnecessary, would choose generation mix by fuel choice instead of pricing the service that is most desired. With GTM reporting that more than 30GW of coal is ready to be retired in the next few years, it is imperative that the policies are future proof. I.e. if the goal is to have backup power from offshore wind and solar energy, than price the value of keeping electrons standing by instead of marking a price to how much coal is sitting in the backyard. 
NIMBY Partners. The Department of Interior approved a massive three square mile project near Joshua Tree and now solar is fighting against the Sierra Club. Understanding the fight is straightforward, this is about wildlife preservation and habitat conservation while the solar development is about adding more renewable energy to the grid. I don’t want to argue the right and wrong about the complaint by Sierra Club but this is a valuable time to point out to donors that Sierra Club and solar industry advocacy groups are different. Sierra Club can’t go to donors and tout their desire to expand solar (taking tens of millions of funds that donors think go to solar advocacy) when those donors really should be looking at solar focused advocacy. I’m not knocking environmental groups and the mission, which I support. I am pointing out that fundraising for solar is made harder by the grab for the dollars that want to support solar. 

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Have a great day!
Yann

Texas Is Next State To Get Sunnova Solar + Storage

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Texas is one of the sleeping giants of the solar industry. With it high isolation rates, it’s been predicted that given its way, solar from Texas could actually power the entire country. In other words, it’s a powerhouse waiting to happen. And now homeowners in the state have the opportunity to put solar + storage at their homes thanks to an expansion by a homegrown solar company that is slowly expanding its national footprint. Sunnova Energy Corporation announced today the expansion of its Sunnova SunSafe solar plus battery storage service offering to homeowners in the … Read More →