This is your SolarWakeup for September 25th, 2018
Go Deeper. The permit topic, aka SolarAPP, will be a continuing topic here for a few reasons. First, don’t underestimate how much better we can be doing with quality in solar. Creating a uniform path that expects code compliance will make sure that installers are doing it the right way and you won’t be put into a position bidding against those that cut corners. Second, consumer protection rules will have to be enforced and reviewed by those with knowledge of solar, the overlap of electrical, output, financial and other aspects of solar require industry specific knowledge. This is the early stage in this process and I will keep you updated on the topic.
More Utility In Solar. EDF is entering into another partnership in the C&I space with EnterSolar. It is becoming clear to me that utilities are playing the long game and focusing on the relationship with energy users.
Vogtle Debacle. It seemed like the last nuclear plant under construction almost died yesterday but may see another day. Interestingly, after a letter from DOE saying it would go after the loan guarantee payments if the plant was canceled, the utilities may have had additional motive to not formally cancel the project.
Suck The CO2. What would happen if a technology could ‘suck’ CO2 out of the atmosphere? That would be something really great for the planet but who would pay for it? If nobody is apparent in answering that question, then why would anyone work on this big problem?
Tesla Roof, Less Sketpical. Count me in as less skeptical than I have been in the past. As time passes, I see a market for Tesla roof to make some inroads, not large scale yet but who knows what the future holds.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for September 24th, 2018
Headed To SPI. Here’s to day 1 in Anaheim for SPI 2018. At SolarWakeup we won’t bore you with the stream of press releases but we’ll look for the storylines that matter to your business. If you have any tips or info that should see the light of day, you can always hit reply on this email and send it over. Enjoy the show and we’ll be talking throughout the week. This is a good time to tell your industry friends that they should be subscribed to SolarWakeup as well. We are about to graduate from an auditorium filled with people to an arena and that’s a great place for solar to be headed. On Friday, SolarWakeup celebrates its 6th birthday, so we look forward to celebrating that with you.
The SolarAPP Permit. Later today at SPI, SEIA, The Solar Foundation and others will be working on the SolarAPP, the ’instant’ permit process that could open many doors for your installation business. Imagine only having to wait a few days from the contract signing to start the project, that’s a future we should all look forward to. I am excited to see how the process will play out and if you have ideas on the implementation of this, send them this way.
Resiliency In Solar. Bringing this back to the top because the post-hurricane Florence solar results are coming in. Solar did incredibly well which speaks to the engineering standards of the solar construction space and how we work with the code writers to do what is best.
Midwest Solar Utilities. First Indiana and over the weekend Kentucky and Ohio also came out with strong solar moves from the utilities. We’ve more news out of coal utilities in the past few months than before and this trend is sticking around in my opinion. Let’s keep watching this space.
Fixing Friday. I wrote that AEP was working on helping Indiana move in the right direction but was wrong about the utilities. It is NIPSCO and not AEP. AEP filed similar plans in Ohio. My apologies.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for September 21st, 2018
I hope you have a great weekend and safe travels to Anaheim. I will be there and should be at most of the nighttime activities. Please make sure to say hello. If you’re interested in meeting my Quick Mount team, you can reach out to them here.
Wheels On The Bus, Are Electric. Daimler and others are going all in on electrification of fleet vehicles. Frank has the breakdown but this story was important to me months ago when we interviewed Proterra CEO, Ryan Popple, on the SolarWakeup podcast. I remain sceptical that America wants to drive, ride or fly in Chinese transportation and that makes Proterra a vital part of the future of electric fleets in the US.
Your State Rundowns.
Remember Hurricane Maria. Puerto Rico has come a long way and started to rebuild. Now the special interest groups are going to try and keep the island from a renewable future but I hope that won’t happen.
California. You’ll hear plenty of talk about NEM 3.0 and CALSSA needs your help to build an archest. Come to the Annual Dinner on October 12th, sponsor a few tables and bring your chequebook for the auction.
Massachusetts. Time for Baker to step in and get SMART done. The utilities have been allowed to drag this out long enough.
New York. The interesting value proposition for solar on Long Island, read the Bloomberg reporting.
Florida. See some of your friends interviewed by the Florida Channel about the Florida solar market. Good things are happening.
Indiana. AEP is out with an IRP to kill coal within 10 years, in Indiana. They must have failed to notify the Vice President of this.
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Yann
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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Yann
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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Yann
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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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for September 17th, 2018
States Will Lead. As we saw last week with Governor Brown signing SB100, the States are continuing to move their policies into our direction. The reasons are clear, the policies create local jobs and improve local air quality as coal plants close across the Country. This trend should continue to drive into the distributed sector to remove diesel generators and replace them with renewable charged energy storage. As States make the decisions that determine the speed of growth in solar, I remind you of the importance of the Governor’s mansions especially in places where the Governor appoints the public service commissioners.
The EEI Playbook. Do you remember the leaked EEI memo from a few years ago that tried to rename utility owned solar, community solar? This similar rhetoric testing is ongoing and the memo was leaked to David Roberts of Vox. Interestingly, even when EEI poll takers tried to ‘push’ folks into their thought process, it didn’t work. Americans want more renewables even though EEI says it it is not technically feasible. Americans want more renewables until its 100% renewables and they want it basically without regard to cost. This is the problem with the overlap of EEI and the solar industry and EEI member companies with solar trade organizations. Just read the highlights of the EEI memo, EEI is shocked that their customers are so ready to move to renewables which utilities view as their competition.
Cities Take Action. If 57% of Cities are taking action on climate change, how are you getting involved in shaping that action? This is part of the year-long talk about the 10/10/10 plan from this platform. You should be taking 10 hours a year for yourself and each person in your company to advocate for the policies that will grow your market. Don’t think about policy as an obtuse concept, instead use the word market growth.
Big Solar, Big Market. Utility scale solar is cheap and available. Corporations are fighting with utilities to buy the output of solar farms across the Country as long as the regulatory framework allows the bilateral arrangement. We are entering the era of sub 2 cents per kWh solar energy and will soon enter sub 5 cents per kWh dispatchable solar with energy storage.
Live From Jersey City. November 6th, solarwakeuplive.com. Thanks to the sponsors that have signed up already, Aten Solar and Pfister Energy.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for September 14th, 2018
Solar Markets’ Insights. The second quarter solar market insight by SEIA is out. A total of 2.3GW was installed and California continues to lead. However, there are some new States in the top 10 including Texas and Florida which are due to surprise many in the industry. Residential didn’t slip year after year, signifying a return to growth for the market in my opinion, with many markets becoming more stable.
Nevada and Arizona NEM. It is no secret that Arizona and Nevada went through long battles around net metering which got worse before they got better. Part of those processes was the elimination of a cliff caused by a NEM cap instead replacing it with a reduction of net metering credit, now called an export tariff. Call it a FIT, a VOS or otherwise, this is NEM 2.0 becoming NEM 3.0.
Deloitte Chimes In. Deloitte is out with their renewable energy outlook which backs some data on announcements that are confirmed during the Global Climate Action Summit. Just yesterday, 21 corporations and many mayors came together for big goals on an integration of renewables and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. I think we are all on the same page at this point that renewables are on the upward trend. The regulatory hurdle now is how fast and how profitable the trend is.
Gigasolar Photos. Pretty cool images of the solar project on top of the Gigafactory in Nevada.
SMART But Slow. Many State newspapers are running solar growth stories but MA has to give a hard look at the fact that SMART is yet to get going. The struggle to delay the program is part of the regulatory battle. Delays for solar developers means overhead and costs that aren’t in the plan or budget. Delays are always part of the regulatory goal for those that seek to hurt the solar industry’s ability to grow. Hopefully, the MA solar market can trust that the future holds a fair program that allows solar to prosper and get back to the success it had a few years ago.
Be Seen Here. Jersey City is the 5th event in the SolarWakeup Live! series. As part of the program, we invite sponsors to help defray the costs and provide the best visibility in the industry for events and digital media. You can see the exact details but you’ve seen the sponsors on this email in the past, the visibility is consistent and long duration. Check out the sponsor page for more details and hit reply if you are interested in speaking to me about it.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for September 13th, 2018
Stay Safe Carolinas. Hurricane Florence is bearing down on the Carolinas with fierce wind and rain. Trees will fall on power lines and it will take time to get everyone back up and running. I was there a year ago when I had to miss SPI to evacuate for hurricane Irma. It was then that I realized that I needed to move out to California away from the storms. Interesting outlook on the solar infrastructure in North Carolina from Bloomberg ahead of the storm.
DNV’s Outlook. The Energy Transition Outlook has an interesting takeaway, calling for renewable sources to make up 80% of the electricity generation by 2050. This is only a few points and years off the recent legislative goal set by California’s 100% by 2045 with the clean energy/renewable sources caveat before I get lectured on the detail of the comparison. Frank highlights some of the more important parts of the report.
Obvious Pruitt. He’s going to work for a coal company. Surprised that he didn’t go solar post-EPA.
Aligning Advocacy. Vote Solar announced yesterday that it is supporting the Steyer backed ballot question in Arizona. This comes a day after the ACC sided with the solar argument for the grid access charges. Consumers are expected to be bombarded with millions in anti-clean energy advertising but I would be surprised if the ballot question doesn’t pass.
SolarWakeup Live New Jersey. November 6th, agenda and tickets on solarwakeuplive.com
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for September 12th, 2018
SB700 Makes SB100 Possible. Don’t take it from me, when signing SB100 Governor Jerry Brown said that energy storage is crucial to the success of the goal of 100% clean energy by 2045. This sets the stage for SB700 to be the tool that the Governor backs to move forward. A 5-year plan to lower the cost of energy storage for the distributed market alongside the CAISO decisions to allow distributed assets to participate in a more meaningful way is exactly the type of leadership that California is executing on. The local solar industry is ready to take the baton and enable the market with volume and pricing declines.
Arizona Goes 3-2 For Solar. Some changes in the net metering rate, now called the net export rate, but overall the requests for more fees and anti-solar charges was denied. Vote Solar and Earthjustice have been working against the grid access charge for years and that hard work paid off. This allows the local market in Tucson to continue moving forward and add to the recent growth in the market.
The Unity In Solar. James Redford and Adam Browning bring the unity to talk about how clean energy brings Americans together in a Washington Post op-ed. This comes a week after we saw SEIA visiting the top 100 congressional offices with the top two coming from the Minority and Majority leaders’ offices. Unity also means support and that support is the political leverage that we need to use in political and regulatory outreach. I remind you that an important property tax exemption in Florida was shepherded by a State legislator that is listed as the top politician by ALEC.
Jinko Builds Out. The local paper has the permit data that shows that Jinko Solar is looking to spend $14million in addition to the interior structural buildout that has already started. It looks like Jinko is deep into their process to produce solar modules out of Jacksonville in their 270k sf warehouse.
Topics In NJ. We’ve got some great topics so far lined up in Jersey City on November 6th. What other topics do you want to hear about? The agenda and tickets can be seen here
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Yann