The Energy Show: Solar Monitoring – the Most Common Solar Problem

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The Energy Show: By Barry Cinnamon This week’s Energy Show is for solar power customers, contractors and inverter manufacturers who appreciate the need for reliable solar power systems. Surprising as it may seem, most solar monitoring systems are simply not up to the reliability standards of the panels and inverters they support. The good news is that solar monitoring problems almost never affect system performance. Monitoring failures may indicate an inverter problem, but the panels and inverters are almost always working properly. In reality, the problem is with the communications somewhere along the chain – including the inverter, inverter gateway, … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for September 6th, 2018

Political Solar Irony, Plus 100. An early morning press release from SEIA highlighted one of the great results of the solar industry we’ve all created. SEIA visited the representatives of the top 100 solar congressional districts which in itself is a great achievement and they did so without great pomp and circumstance. There is a great story in the top 2, the congressional district with the most solar jobs is Nancy Pelosi while the district with the most solar capacity is Kevin McCarthy. So here you have the House Majority and Minority Leaders with something as great as solar in common.
Interesting Acquisition. Centrica, the giant multi-national company with $28 billion in revenue, is buying the Bay Area installer Vista Solar. Vista Solar is well known in the local community but not beyond that give that it has installed 40MW for 160 customers over the past 10 years. Centrica does own Direct Energy which means that it could be making a play to aggregate top-tier regional commercial installers instead of making a single national acquisition.
A SC Deal In The Works. Solar advocates have reached a deal with Duke Energy in South Carolina to temporarily reinstate the net metering rules until the spring in the hopes that it will spur a long-term deal. Given where the legislative session ended, with a victory for Duke but sentiment on solar’s side, it may appear to Duke that a negotiated settlement is the best path forward.
Get Your Ticket, Early Bird. Thanks for the great support from those of you that have already bought their ticket, over 100 of you have already done so. Early bird will only go on for a few more days so get yours now. www.solarwakeuplive.com

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Have a great day!
Yann

Pelosi, McCarthy Top Solar Representatives As SEIA Brings Its Summer Advocacy Blitz To A Close

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent If there’s one thing Republicans and Democrats can agree on, it’s the increasing political power of solar energy. Just ask the more than 100 representatives the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) visited this summer during what it called its Summer Advocacy Blitz. And solar is a bipartisan power source. After all, the representative with the most solar jobs in her district is none other than Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. And the representative with the most actual installed solar capacity in his district is Republican House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Those two don’t agree … Read More →

C-PACE Financing Comes To Delaware, Opening New Financing Option For Commercial Clean Energy

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing is one of the most successful mechanisms for funding clean energy improvements in commercial properties. It allows businesses and other commercial enterprises to make energy efficiency and renewable energy projects to their properties with no money up front. Instead, they pay off those investments through their property taxes. Currently 35 states have C-PACE enabling legislation, and 20 have full-blown functioning programs. What’s that? (Holds hand to ear.) I’m being told that number is now 36, after Delaware Governor John Carney signed Senate Bill 113 into law, enabling C-PACE … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for September 5th, 2018

Reminder. Make sure to add @solarwakeup.com to your safe email list. Every now and then the email gets flagged due to the amount of emails that flow every month (it’s gotten much bigger than the original 37 recipients). If you haven’t received the email then make sure to check the safe list! While you’re at it, make sure to get your colleagues to take the leap and subscribe!
Memo To Utilities. Time to move past the net metering is a subsidy argument. Especially when reports show the value of distributed generation during congestion and high demand times. The argument should revolve around the impact that solar has on shareholder investment opportunities and the future of the grid when solar plus storage bring a ton of demand response value to the operations. All is not lost, focus the future on electric vehicles and the ability to manage the grid as a lines company.
Introducing Clearway. When NRG decided to sell NRG Renewables, which I think in retrospect is something that the NRG CEO will regret in the long run, I expected more of a household name to come after the assets. It appears now that GIP was looking at a platform to deploy capital, likely a virtually unlimited amount of LP money. GIP closed the transaction and created Clearway, quickly adding a massive SunPower portfolio to its assets. Make sure to familiarize yourself with the name.
Ohio’s Solar Potential. Ohio was on the way to being a great midwest solar market well before Illinois ever tried. But the politics of America’s swing state took the market into the gutter but it could have been great. Now a report by Repowering Ohio shows the potential for 2.2GW of renewables for Ohio and so many local jobs. It’s a great political strategy in my opinion for folks to show that renewables can work for everyone, whether you work on a roof, a factory or in an office tower.  
Inside The Deals. We need more corporations to talk publicly about how they did their renewables procurement. Large companies have the internal expertise and time to figure it out, what the market really needs is large scale procurement by small and mid-sized companies that have to copy the format of those large entities. So enjoy this inside the deal article about Mars PPAs.  
New Jersey Solar. Join me on November 6th and get your ticket now please! I’d appreciate the support. If you have topic recommendations, now is the time as the invitations are going out, these are 1 on 1 interviews where the audience actually gets to dig into a topic. Abby Hopper, SEIA’s CEO, will be joining us at SolarWakeup Live! Jersey City as the first announced speaker.

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Have a great day!
Yann

Utilities Are Catching On To The Energy Storage Revolution (At Least If Growth Is An Indication)

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent It’s easy to lose sight in today’s electricity market that energy storage isn’t only happening on an individual homeowner level. In fact, a recent study showed that utilities increased their battery storage capacity 68% to 1.3 GWh in 2017. That number comes from a utility survey conducted by the Smart Electric Power Alliance, an utility-focused trade organization. The survey itself is behind a paywall, but pv magazine has the goods. For example: [wds id=”3″] The use of longer-duration batteries, able to discharge for several hours, has enabled balancing of solar with widespread storage, as in … Read More →

Proposed Kansas Demand Fees Could Bring Solar Installations To A Screeching Halt

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Solar observers in Kansas are watching closely as two demand-charge proposals wend their way through the Kansas Corporation Commission. A decision on whether the fees will go into effect is expected on September 27. It’s always interesting to watch lesser solar states work out their solar policies, despite the fact they often fall into some of the same traps earlier states have. Kansas appears to be no exception. The state’s two largest utilities – Westar Energy and Kansas City Power & Light – currently have proposals before commission, which solar advocates say could bring the … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for September 4th, 2018

Welcome Back. Big news recap from this Labor Day Weekend. SolarWakeup Live! Jersey City is now live, we’ve got some great conversations on tap and as always a big focus on dealmaking. NJ has a bold solar agenda ahead and this is where you will want to be on November 6th. Get your tickets at solarwakeuplive.com as well as information on sponsorships.
Europe Moves Forward. The European version of the solar tariff was in the form of a minimum price. After several years of the counterintuitive tax, the EU is pulling the MIP. The UK took a brunt of the tax as it was the market that was the hottest during the time, but now many of the markets will be able to tackle unsubsidized solar within the global market dynamics.
Moniz Issues Approval. Since the CA Legislature sent SB100 to the Governor, much has been said about the pros and cons of the bill that would have California at zero carbon for 100% of its energy consumptions. The Governor has yet to sign the legislature but is widely to do so ahead of the Global Climate Action Summit happening in San Francisco. The former Secretary of Energy has chimed in, telling Axios’ Amy Harder that this is a ‘very big deal’.
Consumers Pay For Fire Damage. There was some sentiment that the California fires would cause the utilities to use shareholder money to pay for the damages, potentially causing a bankruptcy of an IOU. Given the system that we are in, where regulated monopolies have to take very little risk, I am not surprised that consumers will have to pay the tab. Whether it is fires in California or hurricanes in Florida, the regulated monopoly model is outdated and no longer works for consumers in my opinion. The shareholders and consumers need to be aligned in benefits of new investments and aligned with the regulations that both parties have to operate under.
Ain’t First, You’re Last. Many co-operative utilities (co-ops) are part of larger generating entities. This gives them some bulk buying power which was essential in larger power plant operations. Some of the entities have places caps on the co-ops regarding how much solar they could contract with individually which has angered many co-op boards that are run by the ratepayers. Some co-ops are now leaving the larger entities and finding their energy in the open market with a lot of renewable energy attached to it.
Thank Your Neighbor. If they have solar on their roofs, they save you a lot of money. This latest report shows how much solar saved the system within ISO-NE during a recent heat wave.

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Have a great day!
Yann

Paying A Price: Wholesalers Face Defections If They Move Too Slowly On Renewables

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent One Colorado co-op has set the stage to defect from one wholesaler because they don’t believe it’s moving fast enough to incorporate renewables into its portfolio – and the long-term implications are potentially startling. As Western Energy News reports: The Delta-Montrose Electric Association will vote in October on rule changes that would allow another power supplier to help finance its exit from a contract with Tri-State Generation and Transmission. The association is among Tri-State’s largest customers, and its defection could heighten the risk of a mass exodus as others are forced to cover a larger … Read More →

European Union Removes Trade Sanctions On Chinese Solar Modules

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent While the United States seems hellbent on starting new trade wars with countries around the world, the European Union (EU) has determined that its own sanctions on Chinese solar modules should come to an end, according to reporting by Reuters. As Reuters reports: The EU first imposed anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures for Chinese solar panels, wafers and cells in 2013 and extended them by 18 months in March 2017, signaling that they should then end. Chinese manufacturers have been allowed to sell solar products in Europe free of duties if they do so at or … Read More →