The Energy Show: The Commercial Solar Opportunity

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The Energy Show: By Barry Cinnamon There are there are three market segment for solar in the U.S.: residential, utility and commercial. Based on some rough math, in 2018 we expect to install 5 to 7 million solar panels on homes in the U.S. In areas with high residential electric rates, paybacks are usually in the range of 4-8 years. But the utility solar segment is much larger: about 20 million solar panels will be installed by utilities in 2018. Utilities realize that it is cheaper to generate power with solar compared to coal or nuclear generation. Moreover, the combination … Read More →

Proterra Electric Buses Get Enormous Boost From Daimler Investment Of $155 Million

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Yesterday will be remembered as a day when the United States got serious about transforming its aging fleet of buses from diesel-using dinosaurs into sleek new electric vehicles. That’s when Proterra, a heavy duty electric transportation provider for the North American mass transit market, announced that it has closed a $155 million investment round co-led by Daimler, the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles. In conjunction with the investment, Proterra and Daimler have entered into an agreement to explore the electrification of select Daimler heavy-duty vehicles, the first of which will be Damiler’s Thomas Built … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for September 20th, 2018

SEIA Growing Support Through Diversity. Yesterday, SEIA announced an MOU with the HBCU action coalition to work to increase diversity in the solar industry. Solar does a good job of measuring its workforce statistics and this is a great way to acknowledge the need to improve on diversity. The broader piece is that solar is sometimes put into a rich suburban bucket and through community solar and low-income goals, SEIA is working to garner more support across the spectrum and that helps us all.
California Universities Go Solar. On the university topic, you may want to go back and see the story from Frank that the UC system is going all in on renewables. This isn’t a long-term goal either, this is 100% by 2025. You may recall my interview with UCLA great, Bill Walton, and our message to the PAC 12 attendees that universities should go all in on solar and do so quickly. Maybe they listened to us after all!
Argentina, Here’s The Thing. This doesn’t surprise me given that I had to deal with some projects in Brazil just a few years ago. In some markets, you have to make your investment decision based on the length of time that the current government is in power. Anything that overlaps multiple governments or has a longer-term payback, then you must be ready to gamble on stability in routinely unstable settings. That being said, when things don’t work, it’s a great time to take a jab and wait it out just like it happened in Brazil.
The Kids. Kids in Illinois get it. Solar is the future.
Hurricane Tested. We don’t have all the data yet but some installations are starting to look like they were engineered to withstand storms like Hurricane Florence. Having been involved in the installation of projects in North Carolina, I tend to be more worried about the flooding that is currently happening than the wind during the storm. While the storm water management plans for solar were difficult and thorough, the pictures I’ve seen may end up being worse than the code planned for. The Quartz report does highlight residential projects looking good after the storm.
Tickets. Have you gotten your ticket to SolarWakeup Live! yet? We are adding Thom Byrne, CEO of CleanCapital, to the agenda. This type of insight and learning can only be found at SolarWakeup events so get your ticket now at solarwakeuplive.com

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Have a great day!
Yann

(Stephen) Moore’s “Law” Fails When Facts Are Fake

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent If you have followed conservative political thought at all over the past 30 years, you’re familiar with Stephen Moore. Currently a senior fellow at the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, Moore has been around since he was the president of the anti-tax group Club For Growth (which is not, as it is often mistaken for, a hair replacement club). Now at the Heritage Foundation, his voice resonates with far greater reach and allows him to land his particular free market gospel at places like Creators.com, which is where I found his most recent screed, … Read More →

SEIA, HBCU To Partner With Aim Of Diversifying Solar Workforce

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent On the year anniversary of releasing its first-ever diversity report, the solar industry’s largest association – the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) – announced it is partnering with the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Community Development Action Coalition (HBCU-CDAC) to improve the industry’s recruitment efforts in minority communities. During Solar Power International last year, SEIA and The Solar Foundation released the findings from its diversity survey, a hard and honest look at where the industry stood in terms of reaching non-traditional solar audiences like blacks, Hispanics and other minority communities. It also looked at how … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for September 19th, 2018

Quick take on the tariff issue before taking the day off for some atonement. See you Thursday and let’s make sure to say hello at SPI. I’ll be tied up peddling the best mounts in solar but you should check out the private preview room by reaching out to your Quick Mount reps. I will be at several nighttime events and hope to see you at some of them to say hello.
SunPower Gets Relief. I know people will view this from a market standpoint and I understand if you stand on either fair/not fair side of the aisle. I do think it’s important that the Government saw the different in the IBC technology but would have liked to see it get relief across the board. SunPower markets itself in the trade case as the Apple of solar, doing R&D and corporate HQ in the US while manufacturing across the globe. The side effect of SunPower not being subject to the 201 tariff is what happens to the SolarWorld USA factory in Oregon. The transaction is not closed yet and no indication that it won’t close. It could also anger the Trump administration or Senator Wyden if SunPower didn’t proceed with the plant acquisition so I don’t expect any last second changes.
SolarWakeuplive.com. Register now, register often and share the event with your friends and colleagues. Then get your company to sponsor the event as well!

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Have a great day!
Yann

No Bridge Necessary: Solar+Storage Cheaper Than Natural Gas In Southwest

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent According to a report from Bloomberg, natural gas is going to run into significant price competition from solar+storage in the coming years – perhaps even eliminating the need for new natural gas plants in parts of the American Southwest. The report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance advances a story SolarWakeup has been telling you about for months, which is that new natural gas-fired plants are increasingly being seen as unnecessary as the costs of solar+storage, especially at the utility-scale level, continue to come down. Prices are so low, in fact, that Bloomberg predicts solar+storage will … Read More →

California Universities Set Aggressive Renewables Path: 100% By 2025

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent The state university system of California just took the aggressive renewable energy goals set at the state level and turned them up to 11. The University of California system is committed to reaching its own goal of being powered 100% by renewable energy by 2025 – 20 years before the entire state’s deadline of 2045. The announcement is in parallel with the system’s intent to become carbon neutral the same year. According to the release, the California universities’ system has already saved $220 million with its energy efficiency programs, and continues to leverage the benefits … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for September 18th, 2018

In Jersey We Grow. Policy certainty, policy guidance and willing market participants means a growing market. That’s what we have in New Jersey and why we picked it as the next SolarWakeup Live! event. Check out the growing agenda at solarwakeuplive.com and reach out if you want to be a sponsor.

EV You Missed It. It happened late last week and the coverage was weak. The final version of SB 1014, a California legislation by Senator Skinner, may not be as strong as the original version but it shows the path forward. The legislation pushes ridesharing companies to move towards electric vehicles. Ubers and Lyfts (and others) have a much higher utilization than personal cars so if we electrify those, you are electrifying more vehicle miles than you could imagine. This is the TPS (Transportation Portfolio Standard) where we measure the total vehicle miles driven by non-fossil powered motors. Merge a 100% RPS with a 100 TPS and you have an interesting future.

East Coast Storage Punch. Both of Frank’s stories yesterday are about energy storage, one story out of MA about big storage and another from New York about the continued push by Governor Cuomo. I think there is a reality in storage that people understand whereas solar seemed somewhat magical. I am keen to see real energy storage business models develop, this is one of many topics I will be discussing with Gabe Phillips of GP Renewables at our Jersey event.

Solar On Your Side. Sol Systems made a big portfolio purchase with their capital fund partnership with Nationwide. This is a transfer of assets from Cypress Creek and Sol Systems, two companies many in solar know well and have seen grow over the years.

Certainty In Pricing. What makes the community solar market in Minnesota bigger than other markets? I put the difference on the certainty in pricing from the regulator instead of the utility. While having a regulator in the process creates some risk, it makes the customer very clearly understand what their savings would be from a reliable source without having to read a complicated tariff schedule.

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Have a great day!
Yann

New York Prepares To Go Full Speed Ahead With Energy Storage Goals

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent The New York Public Service Commission (NYPSC) has taken the next step toward reaching its energy storage goals when it accepted the environmental review report connected to the state’s Energy Storage Roadmap. The roadmap, announced with great fanfare by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, envisions 1.5 GW of storage installed in the state over the next seven years. The NYPSC has undertaken steps to make that goal a reality in the most effective, environmentally friendly way possible. According to a release announcing its acceptance of the environmental review, the NYPSC says the goal means that … Read More →