Energy Storage On Pace To Double Its Installed Capacity By The End Of The Year, CEO Says
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent As you might imagine, the word on everyone’s lips at Intersolar North America – in addition to solar – is storage. Specifically, the question is how much storage can the United States expect to have installed and how quickly it can come. Fortunately, Kelly Speakes-Backman, CEO of the Energy Storage Association, was attending the show to answer exactly those kinds of questions. Speakes-Backman informed the audience at the insanely broadly titled “The Future of PV” session that the United States installed 1 GW of storage last year and is on pace to double that this … Read More
Beyond Baseload: California Solar Advocate Says Grid Needs Flexibility Instead Of Baseload Power
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent One of the many things I learned from a former colleague of mine (he knows who he is) is the importance of baseload power. Or, as he would say, the absolute non-importance of baseload power. Basically, distributed resources like solar and wind make traditional electricity producers crazy. So crazy, in fact, that they say things like, “What happens if the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing? We need baseload power supplies so we can keep the lights on 24/7.” To which Angelina M. Galiteva, founder and board chair of Renewables 100 Policy Institute, … Read More
This is your SolarWakeup for July 11th, 2018
Short summaries today given that Intersolar is winning the battle. On another note, who will be at Solar Battle of the Bands tonight?
100% Renewables, I’m In. A few years ago I sat on a panel with Tony Seba and we debate, with passion, the virtue of extending the ITC for solar. This time, we didn’t share a stage but we did share an opinion. It may not become rule but it could become inevitable that we enter a 100% renewable environment.
More Tariffs? Are You Kidding Me? Trump readies another round of tariffs, $200billion this time. We don’t know the details yet and SEIA is looking into it but at this point, short of having a different President, we have to go along with this since the legislators are not doing much. Let’s just hope we can end this trade fight soon, rather than later.
Bailout Blackmail. Another nuclear plant is threatening closure. I’d like legislators to say, go ahead and spend the money to close it, then take the site and interconnection and drop a bunch of batteries on the spot and build a ton of DG solar to make up the generation.
Presented by ENGIE. ENGIE (formerly SoCore Energy) is a market leader in commercial, industrial, and distributed solar and storage portfolio development with installations across some 25 states. ENGIE offers commercial and industrial companies, electric cooperatives, and communities solar and storage solutions that provide energy cost savings, increased resiliency and carbon reduction opportunities.
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Yann
Could Solar Generate 100% Of U.S. Energy In 12 Years? Tony Seba Thinks It Could
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Tony Seba set the Intersolar North America crowd on fire at his opening session, saying that if the trend in battery prices continue their downward plunge, solar + storage could supply 100% of the U.S. electricity supply by 2030. “That’s not too bad for an industry in crisis, is it?” Seba told the crowd to hearty laughter. “But as the country becomes ever-more electrified, it’s going to happen.” [wds id=”3″] Seba predicted that as battery prices continue to plunge, solar + storage will be lower than transmission costs, making solar the only logical choice for … Read More
This is your SolarWakeup for July 10th, 2018
Welcome To Intersolar. Good morning San Francisco! Now that I am a local, I’ll be at the show all week mostly in and around the Quick Mount lounge on level 3. Come to say hello!
The Solar Foundation Releases Its Solar Workforce Development Toolkit. We can all agree that the solar industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States, right? Heck, The Solar Foundation tells us so every year with its National Solar Jobs Census (well, except for this year, because tariffs, but for the past decade or so it’s been on a huge growth trajectory – and we believe will shortly be again). But how can you find workers for this specialized industry and bring them into this well-paying career? Well, the trick is workforce development, and now The Solar Foundation has released a 94-page Solar Workforce Development Toolkit designed to help solar companies develop their workforces with a series proved strategies that every business can implement in their day-to-day business practices. Here is the post
Breaking Down The Arizona Breakdown. Can anyone understand what is going on in Arizona? How can a regulatory employee have a spouse be working for a regulated entity? The whole thing goes beyond a family trying to make a living, especially if it is hidden from the public’s knowledge.
Direct Energy Gets Total Capital. The total has made a $1.4billion (euro) investment to acquire 73% of Direct Energie. This is an additive investment to the SunPower investment made many years ago. Direct owns the solar developer Neoen as well as some traditional power generation. Note that this is different than Direct Energy, which is owned by Centrica.
Presented by Sunrun. Sunrun is the largest residential solar, storage and energy services company in the United States with a mission to create a planet run by the sun. Since establishing the solar as a service model in 2007, Sunrun continues to lead the industry in providing clean energy to homeowners with little to no upfront cost and at savings to traditional electricity. Sunrun is excited to expand its solar offerings to Illinois residents.
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The Solar Foundation Releases Its Solar Workforce Development Toolkit
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent We can all agree that the solar industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States, right? Heck, The Solar Foundation tells us so every year with its National Solar Jobs Census (well, except for this year, because tariffs, but for the past decade or so it’s been on a huge growth trajectory – and we believe will shortly be again). But how can you find workers for this specialized industry and bring them into this well-paying career? Well, the trick is workforce development, and now The Solar Foundation has released a 94-page … Read More
Intersolar North America Is Officially Here – What To Expect From SolarWakeup
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent My Intersolar North America sojourn started yesterday, standing in the 90-degree heat looking at a new testing facility for bifacial solar modules. Run by Soltec but informed by input from some of the industry’s leading manufacturers and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), The Bifacial Tracker Evaluation Center (BiTEC) will perform rigorous assessment of installation and control parameter influences on bifacial tracker performance compared to other PV applications. [wds id=”3″] One of the key challenges holding back the widespread use of bifacial modules is a lack of real-world data on how they perform in the field, … Read More
Leading Solar Energy Provider Soltage Provides 3.2 MW of Solar Power for Three California Schools
Soltage, a nationwide renewable-energy provider, today announced the completion of three solar projects for the Grossmont Union High School District, totaling 3.2 MW. The three systems together will produce nearly 5 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy per year. These projects were developed utilizing a combination of car-port and ground mounted solar arrays and worked within the dense construction footprint of Southern California to maximize the size of the solar arrays which serve the Granite Hills High School, Steele Canyon High School and the Helix Charter High School. Each of the solar arrays provides enough electricity to offset 95% of each … Read More
ACC Insider Dealing Throws Shade on Arizona Solar Market
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent The invaluable Ryan Randazzo at AZCentral.com revealed today that the executive director of the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC), which oversees public utilities in the state, has had to resign because his wife worked for the lobbying firm that represents – wait for it – the state’s largest utility, Arizona Public Service. Although there is no evidence of direct influence, the scent of conflicted interests surrounding Executive Director Tom Vogt was so strong that he resigned ahead of an emergency meeting the commissioners had called to discuss whether he had in fact violated state law by … Read More
This is your SolarWakeup for July 9th, 2018
Intersolar Happenings. If there was a doubt about attendance at ISNA, the schedule definitely doesn’t show a slowdown. Multiple events each evening and lots of people looking to figure out how to move their business forward with some dealmaking. I like the that the conference has been brought into Moscone, colocated with solar and storage into a single venue. If you are in town for the show, let me know how it goes for you.
Exciting Resi Times. All the noise doesn’t seem to really come down to the local installer level. Maybe it’s because you don’t find the time to devote worry to things you can’t control. I talk to a dozen installers a week, at minimum, and without fail your biggest concern is delivering installs to your customers faster and keeping more of your loan proceeds by lowering the dealer fees. I’d love to see more happening on the training side because installers need qualified labor to install solar, which is becoming one of the biggest constrictions to growth right now.
The Trump Trade War Starts. The mainstream media is all over the official start of the Trump trade war, and I’d love to see more solar in the news showing that this is the 4th or 5th level of consumer taxes in the solar industry. Module prices are dropping right now and developers are jumping at the opportunity to buy compliant inventory at lower costs. Reality remains that the uncertainty is paralyzing larger businesses that don’t buy product on a daily basis and need to get 6 months of certainty that allow for projects to be started, financed and built under a solid set of assumptions.
Lithium. EVs. China. VW’s announcement brings up the topic that I’ve warned about before, especially to legislators that read SolarWakeup. If the US wants to be in the game of manufacturing LiOn batteries, it needs to do so right now. The boat hasn’t left the harbor but it’s getting close. My operating assumption that this is likely a lost battle for the US but we will remain the global leader in executive platforms and dealmaking much like solar. The problem with that divergence is that the future probably mimics the trade fights unless the auto OEMs and utilities get together and make sure that politically that doesn’t happen.
Presented by Pfister Energy – Pfister Energy is a turnkey design-build renewable energy provider for commercial, industrial, utility, and community projects with an emphasis on energy efficiency and energy management. We possess 25 years of project experience with over 120 MW of solar installed on rooftops, carports and on unused land nationally. Clean energy is not limited to solar and as part of our smart building-integrated energy plan, we provide holistic solutions by stacking solar, LED lighting, wind, daylighting and other energy efficiency systems combined with storage. Visit www.pfisterenergy.com for more information.
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