The Energy Show: Real World Solar Economics with Tom Beach

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The Energy Show: By Barry Cinnamon Great solar policy is just as important as great solar technology. Obviously we need the technologies for these products — but we also need the policies so that solar products can be cost-effectively installed. And I’m not just talking about incentives…policies related to net metering, interconnection and permitting are just as important. Getting good solar policy requires effective political lobbying. I hate to let you down, but these great energy policies did not magically spring from the brains of inspired politicians When I look back at the successes our industry has had over the … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for August 23rd, 2018

No column today, more solar news coming your way tomorrow. Have a great day!

News

Have a great day!
Yann

New York Joins Powering Past Coal Alliance To Protest EPA Policies

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, long an outspoken champion of solar and other renewable energies, took one look at the Environmental Protection Agency’s new plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and screamed, “Get my Press Spokesman on the phone right now!” And just like that, Cuomo announced that New York had joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance, a group of 17 nations and Washington D.C. that are committed to eliminating coal from their electricity-generation and putting a moratorium on new coal plants that don’t have carbon-capture technology on them. New York is the first U.S. … Read More →

A Tale Of Two Business Models: Could European Utilities Offer Path Forward For U.S. Counterparts?

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Two separate pieces today by Bloomberg New Energy Finance illustrate the ever-increasing gap between how utilities in Europe and the United States view distributed generation. In Europe, research suggests that utilities have come to the realization that distributed generation like solar and wind are becoming what electricity consumers want and, if they expect to thrive into the future, are what utilities will have to provide. In the United States, on the other hand, utilities continue to invest in centralized distribution and can’t figure out why those investments aren’t allowing them to make the money they … Read More →

Community Solar Spread Slowed By Outrageous Contract Terms

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Community solar is a hot topic right now in the industry. It’s potential to expand solar’s reach to non-traditional solar customers – renters and people whose homes are not suited to individual solar arrays – is enormous, and as more states become solar friendly, community solar is one of the most frequent focuses of policymakers as they try to navigate a new solar world (see Illinois, for example). And according to a new report from Ellen Emma Foehringer Merchant of Greentech Media, the way of doing business for community solar providers is finally changing to … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for August 22nd, 2018

Solar Inverter Wars. Frank goes inside some of the behind the scenes that are causing a long-awaited product release by Huawei to be delayed. Huawei has largely avoided the public image place on ZTE by Trump but it hasn’t been able to avoid the impacts caused by tariffs. Other residential inverter companies have had to adjust their supply chain as well but the release of the Huawei line has been talked about for years at this point. It would be interesting to have transparency on the other business moves that have had to adjust due to tariffs of various nature.
Screw Solar, Go Clean Coal. Yesterday was quite the news day and dropping to the bottom of the media’s list was the fact that the administration proposed a coal policy that would kill 1,400 people. This isn’t a study by a think tank or advocacy group, this comes straight from the EPA. That’s not 1,400 total, that 1,400 per year by 2030. Over a 10 year period that’s 14,000 Americans dying for no good reason whatsoever. If we can’t make the case against this, we’re less prepared to fight than anticipated.
A Clean Energy Vision. GTM’s Julia Pyper has a great interview out with Senator Heinrich about his vision for 100% renewable energy. I won’t steal the thunder but I do want to point out that when Senator Wyden, also a democrat, was at the US ITC arguing for tariffs on behalf of SolarWorld, Senator Heinrich spoke right after to argue solar’s case. He gets the vision of our industry and I applaud him for seeking out the industry media to make his case for a vision we agree with.
Going Inside Tesla. I have a newfound respect for folks that operate manufacturing plants and I love to get an inside look at how others are doing it. Obviously, Elon is a particular level of special, love him or hate him, (I’m a fan) and you have to respect that ability to roll out products that wow the consumer. I’m sure this will drive the typical love/hate emails that usually accompany Tesla comments from me, but put it aside and enjoy this interview. It’s pretty cool.

News

Have a great day!
Yann

Ancillary Tariffs Could Screw Up Huawei Product Launch

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent The law of unintended consequences keeps traipsing through the solar industry. As broader tariffs begin to kick in on products ranging from solar modules to electronics equipment, the real-world consequences are beginning to interfere with product launches like Huawei’s launch of a low-cost residential solar inverter. Huawei had been predicting its inverter would knock $100 to $200 off the typical price of a residential inverter, allowing it to compete with more well-known inverter companies. Instead, a 25% tariff on Chinese electronic equipment is going to completely wipe out that advantage and is already interfering in … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for August 21st, 2018

Given my updated schedule for work and my continued desire to provide value to you on a daily basis, there will be days that I’ll write one extended paragraph instead of the multiple topics. I don’t mean to cheat you out of good content but until every single reader is a customer of Quick Mount PV (not sure why that hasn’t happened yet), I will be pounding the pavement to get you to switch. Hope you’re all on board with this message and I appreciate the understanding. For the other (one person) that thinks the content has gotten to spammy since I joined Quick Mount, thanks for playing along!
Future Of Energy Savings. If you play out the game plan and use New Mexico’s demand charge as a sample, you can see a tricky future for the ‘rate design’ 3.0 era, especially in markets where solar doesn’t gain enough strength to thwart any of these attempts. Storage is going to drop costs much like solar dropped from $2.50 to $0.75 per watt perhaps even faster. With storage becoming a standard part of solar, cheap solar, any utility costs may become an added savings to the solar install. That would leave the utilities to move from solar NEM fees and demand charges to minimum bills and increasing those to make up for the lost revenues. However, if the system is completely isolated, what would the argument be? With net metering, the argument is that the solar generator has access and is using the grid during overproduction. In non-export systems, it would simply be a lost revenue argument where the fight would be that some customers don’t have access to solar or that the grid was built for all customers and they must pay for what was built in the past. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

News

Have a great day!
Yann

Could EVs Eliminate The Need For Stand-Alone Batteries? Berkeley Says Yes

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Recently, President Donald J. Trump yet again riffed on how much wind power kills birds and opined that if the wind doesn’t blow (for wind power) or the sun doesn’t shine (for solar power), “we have a problem.” Well, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, EVs could be the way to solve renewable energy’s intermittency problems at a fraction of the cost of what widespread stationary battery use would cost. That’s what a report by two writers at the National Resources Defense Council discuss in a fascinating article at the Microgrid Knowledge website. As … Read More →

New Mexico Commission Could Eliminate Stand-by Fees On Solar Customers

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent An ongoing controversy in New Mexico over stand-by fees on solar customers may finally becoming to an end, according to an article in the Santa Fe New Mexican. A hearing officer recently recommended that regulators make Southwestern Public Service Co. stop collecting a “standby fee” from customers with solar systems, saying a study the utility used to justify the fees is “riddled with errors and unreliable.” Color me shocked (not shocked): A utility is using flawed materials to justify treating solar customers like separate-class citizens. Sounds an awful lot like the “cost shift zombie myth” … Read More →