Suncommon’s Expansion Plans Get Boost From New Credit Facility

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent As the solar industry has continued to grow, it’s easy to forget that Burlington, Vermont, was the first city in the United States to go 100% solar. The Green Mountain State has quietly grown its solar industry somewhat below the radar, but there are signs that it’s beginning to mature as a market. One such indication is that Vermont-based Suncommon, a residential solar installer, just recently received a credit facility to fund its expansion into the Hudson Valley from Citizens Bank. Earlier this year, Suncommon acquired New York-based Hudson Solar and plans to use the … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for June 29th, 2018

I hope you have a great weekend. I am headed back to the East Coast for a week and will be back in San Francisco for Intersolar. Are you coming?
Protecting Consumers. SEIA is out with a revised consumer protections document meant to give homeowners information and questions to use during a home buying process. It would make sense for ‘good’ contractors that use quality products and stand behind their work to attach the document to their proposals with their answers to the list of questions. If you provide the homeowner with the document with answers, they are likely to use the document with your competitors that may not hold themselves to the same standards.
Time For Power Companies To Go Private. When you look at the IPP marketplace in the US it’s no longer surprising to me that the most innovative (for large corporations) are the foreign IPPs with largely European shareholders. Companies like NRG and Sempra have faced activist investors that push for a quarterly focus on traditional power and monetization of any renewable facilities. That being said, the global IPPs may be too big to make the real innovative change that can be game changing. One of the activist influenced IPPs should consider going public and going the other way. Instead of quarterly focus, they can partner with long term yield investors to create the future we think possible.
Supreme Court Impact On Environment. What does it mean for the environmental policies when Justice Kennedy retires and is replaced this summer. An interesting, albeit sometimes small, issue that could result in a change of view on the current policies and rules. Aside from this retirement, Commission Powelson of FERC is retiring after just a year. He may be the swing vote on the coal and nuclear emergency bailout issue. More on this to come.
Divesting Political Campaign Funds. Politics continue to play a role in the energy space, which should come to no surprise to any of you. After the NY-14 primary upset and a primary of his own, Governor Cuomo is signing the No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge. If you recall, the Democratic primary in Virginia put the donations of the utility at issue but without the result of the eventual nominee to stop taking the money. It seems like the issue is evolving and we will end up with all candidates taking the position of not taking money from oil, gas, and utilities.
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

SEIA Updates Residential Guide To Solar, Emphasizing Consumer Protection (As It Should)

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent It’s easy to talk consumer protection, but it’s another thing to actually do something about it. The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has taken it upon itself to be the most vocal advocate for consumer protection in the solar industry – and now they’ve got a residential consumer guide to match the rhetoric. The national solar organization has updated its SEIA Residential Consumer Guide to Solar Power to reflect a focus on creating a positive buying experience for residential solar consumers with a one-stop guide to the ins and outs of purchasing residential solar, including … Read More →

Open Energy Creates Competition With Its Commercial Financing Exchange

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Commercial solar is the most challenging segment of the solar industry in which to find low-cost financing. Open Energy, a commercial financing provider, is trying to fix that problem by creating the first lending exchange for commercial scale solar developers and installers. Called The Open Energy Finance Exchange, it allows more than 60 lenders to compete to fund a project, driving down costs and improving terms for project developers. The exchange reportedly will provide access to $5 billion in capital. [wds id=”3″] The key to the exchange is the loan quote tool, which helps project … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for June 28th, 2018

Palmetto State Showdown. I’m starting to realize that the legislature in SC may be playing dirty with the solar industry. For the second time, last second rules have stopped the net metering cap from being increase and the cap is rapidly approaching. This is going to cause the halt of the market and potential loss of jobs for South Carolinians. Hopefully this can be turned around next year in earnest.
Electrify Everything Says SMUD. The Sacramento utility is looking ahead for homes in their service area and realizes that a fully electric home may be the best way forward. The rebates, up to $13k on existing homes, serve to ready homes for a future without more gas infrastructure. This is the first of this concept that have typically pushed for water heaters, stoves etc to go gas and reduce electricity usage. The skeptic may look at this and see a utility that wants to have more customer base but it doesn’t appear to be true in this case.
LG Comes To Alabama. Another 500MW assembly plant has been announced, this time by LG. The plant is an add on to the existing campus LG has in the State of Alabama. Now, I have nothing against Alabama but why not North Carolina? We know it all centers around the cost of labor but for once it would be great if the manufacturer thought about the market dynamics a bit. Tease the State with the plant in return for a market perhaps? Now that we are well passed the 2GW of exclusion for cell imports, how will the US assemblers deal with this?
Remember SB 100. I covered the 100% RPS in California last year when it looked like it could pass the California legislature. This year that looks like an even better possibility. So remember the bill, SB 100, because I’m starting to increase my confidence that this could become reality. Over the past year, legislators have had the chance to see costs plummet on solar and storage and the pushback on the ability to do this is basically gone. Let’s put California, one of the largest economies in the world, on track to 100% by passing SB 100.
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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Yann

South Carolina Derails Its Clean Energy Future With Last Minute Legislative Shenanigans

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent The utilities showed their muscle again in South Carolina, “persuading” legislators to remove two pro-solar provisions from the state’s budget bill and scuttling the chances of fomenting solar growth during this legislative session. Removing the state’st net metering caps and encouraging more purchases of solar electricity from independent power producers (IPPs) had been in the bill until the last moment, when they were removed because they allegedly didn’t meet the standards for being part of the budget process. [wds id=”3″] The move was reminiscent of a similar maneuver earlier this year when the net-metering provision … Read More →

New York Maps Out Energy Storage Future – 1,500 MW By 2025

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Energy storage is the next front in the solar revolution, and states across the country are starting to grapple with how to incorporate it into the future of their electricity-generation plans. California, Arizona and New Mexico have already mandated that their utilities incorporate storage into their long-term planning. And now New York has announced its plans to incorporate 1,500 MW of energy storage into it electricity generation by 2025. [wds id=”3″] Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the aggressive plans last week, touting that it would create $2 billion in consumer benefits and 30,000 jobs. He also … Read More →

While Washington Dithers About Coal Plants, Wyoming Prepares To Move On With Solar

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondentthey The news today about the fight over saving failing coal and nuclear plants is that Energy Secretary Rick Perry won’t take into account the importance of low electricity prices in favor of creating mythical “energy security” based on the outdated concept of baseload power. It’s a frivolous, short-sighted idea, fueled by coal barons and fossil-fuel interests. And yet, in a state as far removed from Washington as one can imagine, officials are preparing to build the state’s largest utility-scale solar plant in a tacit admission that the future of coal is dim. [wds id=”3″] Wyoming … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for June 27th, 2018

More Solar For Low Income Consumers. It is not news to anyone in the solar industry that low income families spend a much larger portion of their income on electricity that their higher earning fellow ratepayers. California recognizes that low solar prices with no fuel volatility should be available to all families. This was also a topic covered in detail at SolarWakeup Live! Chicago last week which has a nice summary in the top post today.
Privatizing Puerto Rico’s PREPA. Last week, the Governor of Puerto Rico signed a bill to partially privatize PREPA and at least one solar developer is concerned about what this means to their offtake agreement. The challenge is that PREPA should roll that contract forward and continue satisfying the agreement. PREPA says that the privatization has to decide the fate of the agreement. More to come about this.
More PACE On C&I Solar. The good folks at CleanFund have outlined their vision for how solar can be installed on more C&I buildings. With the SolarPACE calculator and their partners program, the ability for more people to access capital is becoming reality. If you are coming into town for Intersolar, make sure to say hello and learn about where PACE is today. While it was an exotic capital tool a few years ago, the cost and availability has gone into solar’s favor in a big way.
South Carolina Solar Setback. Yesterday, South Carolina state senate members of the budget conference committee decided that raising the net metering cap through a budget proviso would violate Senate procedural rules and decided to remove the proviso from the budget bill. Vote Solar’s Thad Culley says “It is deeply disappointing that clean energy progress in South Carolina will be delayed another year, putting at risk 3,000 local jobs in the state’s once-thriving solar industry and limiting South Carolinians only true alternatives to monopoly utilities.”
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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Yann

CleanFund Partners With SunPower On SolarPACE Commercial Financing Program

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondentthey CleanFund, a national property assessed clean energy (PACE) purveyor, announced they will be partnering with SunPower to extend the reach of its commercial SolarPACE programs. Commercial companies looking to finance solar improvements or other clean energy and energy efficiency upgrades without any upfront costs can now access CleanFund’s tools through SunPower’s network of solar installers. [wds id=”3″] The announcement heralds at least three significant developments within the solar industry: 1) It broadens the reach of commercial PACE programs, an increasingly attractive option for companies that want to add solar to their businesses but balk at … Read More →