Freedom Forever Doubles 2017 Revenues And Expects Banner 2019

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Freedom Forever, one of America’s fastest growing solar power companies, announced today that the company has doubled its revenues in 2018 from $55 million to $110 million. Freedom Forever has established itself as one of the home solar industry’s most dynamic forces – and is poised for continued growth and expansion in 2019 and beyond. “At the core of Freedom Forever’s business model is the fundamental belief that our customers come first. Our ongoing success is a direct result of the consumer-driven, service-oriented approach we follow, which is designed to make renewable energy an attractive … Read More →

New Window For North Carolina Solar Rebates Opens January 2

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent As North Carolina climbed the list of best solar states in the country, the growth was often attributed to utility-scale solar installations. But Duke Energy wants to remind you that it’s also provides nearly $6 million in solar rebates to 1,300 residential and commercial distributed generation customers, too. And the new window for getting solar rebates for next year opens on January 2. The Duke Energy solar rebate program is one of many customer programs the company is implementing as part of the Competitive Energy Solutions for North Carolina law passed in 2017. The rebates … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for December 18th, 2018

Selling The Green New Deal. A recent poll about he Green New Deal revealed that almost nobody knows about the bill or what is in it. When the surveyor provided some of the details, 100% renewable energy in 10 years, clean energy job training and money for energy efficiency and renewable energy, the respondent came out in favor of the Green New Deal. This included 75% of moderate republicans and 57% of conservative members of the GOP. This is one step off from Fox News running a trailer for the inconvenient truth! The takeaway is simple, don’t sell the issue, sell the solutions. But make sure to sell it nonetheless, explain what is in it for the voter and they’ll be in favor!
All About New York. Governor Cuomo had a big day when it comes to big goals. The NY PSC rolled out the goal to reach 3GW of energy storage by 2030 (it will be higher). During the Governor’s speech on his 2019 legislative priorities, Cuomo outlined the goal to get to 100% renewable energy by 2040, 5 years before the goal set by California. This is a big goal for one of the largest energy users in the Country but more important is that the State needs to move to execution. Time for talk is over and the Governor needs to enable the execution of the development that will allow the work to start.
Offshore Wind Farming. 3 developers bid into a Department of Interior auction to lease Federal lands. The bids were for $135million PER ENTITY and they were to build offshore wind. One person that would know about this is Abby Hopper, who before joining SEIA was the Director of BOEM, the government entity in charge of the auction that enabled $405million in leasing fees to be paid for the ability to generate this electricity. 
Get Your Podcast Conversations. Three new podcast recordings have been released in the past week, NJ BPU President Fiordaliso, SEIA CEO Abby Hopper, and Gabe Philips of GP Energy Management. Please share the podcast with your friends and colleagues and help spread the word about them. A lot of work goes into recording and editing them so it would be appreciated to get the listen count up. Stay tuned for more coming up, make sure to subscribe to the podcast to stay in the loop on everything SolarWakeup Live!

News

Have a great day!
Yann

Q&A: Why Is Community Solar So Hot And The Keys To Getting Deals Done

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent As community solar continues to streak across the solar sky as the hottest segment in the industry, the questions are twofold: Why is it the hottest segment, and what are the keys to getting deals done. Scott Wiater, president and CEO of Standard Solar, a national solar company that has recently done community solar deals in New York and Colorado, agreed to answer those questions – and offer advice to anyone trying to launch community solar programs in new areas. SolarWakeup: Why is community solar one of the fastest-growing segments of the solar industry? Scott … Read More →

New York Pledges 3 GW Of Energy Storage By 2030

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent When New York announces clean energy goals, they do it in the only way the Empire State knows how to do anything: They do it big. So it was when Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his latest bid to reclaim New York’s leadership in the clean energy push that’s sweeping through the Northeast, calling for 3 GW of energy storage to be added to the state’s grid by 2030. “As the federal government continues to ignore the real and imminent dangers of climate change, New York is aggressively pursuing clean energy alternatives to protect our environment … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for December 17th, 2018

Creating Known Unknowns. In the latest SolarWakeup Live! conversation I speak with Gabe Philips, a college classmate of mine and an experienced energy trader. In fact, he traded electricity generated from a solar farm I developed and built in the past. We hear about power markets with corporate offtake all the time and deals in PJM, ERCOT and CAISO are announced all the time. There is a lot to these transactions and that is what Gabe and I spoke about in this Live! conversation.
 The Electric Fleet Mobilized. California is taking the solar home mandate and passed the similar version of this for transit buses. 25% of buses purchased in 2023 will have to be zero emissions and 100% of those purchased after 2029 will have to follow suit. This means that within about 20 years, all transit buses will be electric. I like when mandates are slower than what the market will do. Much like solar, electrification of fleets isn’t just something that users want, it also means a deployment of capital. Much like selling solar PPAs to schools, you’ll see companies like Proterra offering electric fleet as a service contracts to school districts across the Country. All of that load will have to be serviced and generation will have to be available, more solar will have to be built. 
Cheeeeap Solar. Texas will be the first State to drop PPAs under 2 cents in a big way. First, because storage is harder to pencil with no capacity market and second because it’s so damn cheap to build there. Land is flat and abundant while permitting will be much simpler than other areas. 
Consumers Matter. Long Island’s utility (LIPA) is taking up a similar consumer protection policy as the State oversight board. This follows many other States that have also done this. The problem with the policy isn’t that solar can’t meet it, it’s that nobody is paying attention to actually making solar companies follow the rules. I continue to be amazed at some of the junk that is put on people’s roofs and buildings just hoping that a problem 3 or 5 years from now is someone else’s mess to deal with. There are still many homes that have racking installed with no desire to meet roofing best practices or even code compliance, taking advantage of the local inspectors lack of solar knowledge. The industry must do more to protect homeowners and keep bad solar from hurting the industry. 

News

Have a great day!
Yann

The Energy Show: Manufacturing Solar in the U.S. with Auxin Solar

[

The Energy Show: By Barry Cinnamon Attention U.S. Department of Commerce: your well-intentioned efforts to help the U.S. solar panel manufacturing industry are not working. Even with 30%+ tariffs on imported solar panels and cells, the remaining U.S. manufacturers are struggling to stay competitive. The good news, as one would expect, is that there is strong demand for Made in the U.S.A. solar panels – both from ordinary consumers as well as government purchases. However, structural issues with the supply chain for solar components puts the remaining U.S. manufacturers at a substantial disadvantage. The reasons for these supply chain challenges … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for December 14th, 2018

Tariff Slowdown. Here’s a hot take. A slowdown doesn’t require the market to actually go down in size. The tariffs can have an impact that drags the market in the negative direction while still allowing the market to grow because solar is doing very well. On the other hand if tariffs weren’t in play, AD/CVD tariffs were gone, and the trade war wasn’t happening, solar would be growing much larger and faster. Anytime these things happen, make sure to listen to people that are actually in the market doing things. Punditry is fun and all but being a full time pundit doesn’t help you with your business. Tariffs are causing executives to have to spend time and money on changing manufacturing locations, figure out new supply chain logistics and dealing with new partners in new places. This drags the market in a direction that none of us like. On the upside, this is the first December that I don’t see a cliff on December 31st. No NEM cap, incentive pool or other regulatory barrier ahead that would hurt a big market right now and that is a positive sign for everyone. 
Live! Rewind, Abby Hopper. How much is the right amount of budget for SEIA to do everything they would like to do? Abby answers this and more. Full episode here
Live! Rewind, President Fiordaliso. The New Jersey SREC cap is going to reach the goal sometime in the first quarter of 2019. What does the BPU think is the right approach as the market heads to a brick wall? Fiordaliso answers my question and makes a bold statement. The Conversation Starts Here. 
SMA Job Cuts. SMA continues the corporate restructuring including 100 job cuts in Germany, 300 in foreign locations and the sale of the China business unit to the local team. The consolidation in inverters is real and I worry a bit about the market over consolidating while still sustaining massive price pressures. 
Weekend. We’ll be heading to the aquarium this weekend, I hope you enjoy your weekend as well! Keep calm and solar on!

News

Have a great day!
Yann

Tariffs Squeeze Utility-Scale Solar In Third Quarter Of 2018

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Ah. There it is. After escaping several quarters largely unscathed by the insane Trump tariffs on solar, the Solar Energy Industries Association and Woods Mackenzie report that the third quarter of 2018 saw the 30% tariffs take a bite out of the utility-scale sector. Though not unexpected, the slowdown hurt solar’s overall growth numbers and has Woods Mackenzie analysts predicting that 2018 will finish flat with year on year growth. If most of us are being honest, we consider the solar industry a bit lucky that it hadn’t already felt the bite of the tariffs, … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for December 13th, 2018

Hopper On SolarWakeup Live! Abby Hopper is the CEO of SEIA and she joined me on SolarWakeup Live! to talk about the state of the solar industry. She’s been the CEO for an entire solar year, SPI to SPI, and it all started with tariffs. In this conversation we talk about where we are today, what States will take off and how SEIA negotiates for all members, regardless of the segment they operate in. We also talk about the reality of a split government in DC. Listen to the full interview here and make sure to leave a review on iTunes. 
Message To Federal Regulators. Don’t miss the conversation with New Jersey’s BPU President, Joseph Fiordaliso. He has a strong message for the federal regulators and we discuss the role that PJM plays within the NJ solar market. I ask about the reality of New Jersey leaving the PJM system. Full conversation available here, hit reply to let me know your thoughts and pass it on to your colleagues. 
Elon Continues Charm Offensive. I enjoy Elon on the shows, whether it is Joe Rogan or 60 minutes. He is the right amount of real while staying true to the overarching reasons for his businesses. Every CEO knows that if they fail to execute they will die, even the Walmart CEO keeps a list of the top retailers on his phone (hello Sears!). On the other hand, most CEOs would never tell millions of people that the failure would result in the company failing. 60 minutes is under fire for creative editing to release the full interview, this comes from the fact that Elon drama gets many clicks and views. I did enjoy Jay Leno’s 60 second pitch for supporting Tesla. 
UPS Spends To Lead. This may be the first sponsored post that I rebroadcasting but it is interesting and notable for UPS to spend money to talk about their fleet electrification. Transportation is one of the largest sources of emissions by segment and electrifying fleets across the globe would do great things if solar and wind are there to supply the needed generation. 

News

Have a great day!
Yann