This is your SolarWakeup for June 4th, 2018
Solar In Illinois. The Illinois Power Agency is looking to finalize the adjustable block program which will be key to the distributed and community solar markets in the midwest’s solar market. SolarWakeup Live will start the full day looking into the market with the director of the IPA, which on June 21st will likely have the rules finalized, so that you can get on the ground and moving forward. We have a few more sponsor spots for the event (email me) and tickets are available at solarwakeuplive.com.
Coal Collusion. Looks like coal magnate, Bob Murray, got what he wanted from Trump on the 1-year anniversary of announcing the departure of the Paris agreement. The best response going around about this announcement is from the PJM twitter account. To date, PJM has not been notified by governing agencies to prop up coal plants yet but expect that to happen. The way for the government to really prop up these plants without picking winners would also cause the value of solar generation to increase which then causes the demise of coal to quicken. So here we are, throwing wind to the free market, rules be damned.
Arizona Plea Deals Rejected. This is your reminder that the original sin in fighting solar net metering is still embroiled in a federal grand jury investigation. Now there’s news that a former regulator and lobbyist are rejecting plea deals in the case. When I read this, I can’t help but to think of the many ex parte communications happening every day across the Country and we may be better off when the power isn’t concentrated to the monopolies anymore. Just a thought.
Thoughts On NV Energy. The gigawatt of solar represents the value of solar in high irradiance areas, like Nevada. Also, I’d be amazed if storage isn’t closer to 2GWh than the 400MWh outlined in the proposal. Let’s revisit this in a few years.
Slowing Chinese Solar. New rules from the Chinese government have caused a few people off guard. This is perhaps a sign of the strength of the global markets. Imagine what else would be possible with the trade wars.
Quality Of Resi Solar. Australia has been growing distributed solar in a big way and a lot of it has to do with the ease of installing solar on homes. Little delay between selling and installation means consumers are happy. With the ability to review the installs later on, gives the consumer advocate a way to make sure installers are doing a good job and there is some work to do. In the US, we need to do more to get closer to an instant solar process. We also need to do more in having the solar industry regulated by solar experts. We will be discussing this in much greater detail this summer but ponder how the solar industry could ensure that consumers are getting great solar.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for June 1st, 2018
Bad wifi on the plane means no column this morning. Have a great weekend and I will see you all on Monday. Let’s get ready for a strong June to close our Q2 in a great way! SolarWakeuplive.com to register for our Chicago event.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for May 31st, 2018
Learn This, Import License Fee. Here is the thing for you to think about going forward with the global solar economy. As we read about new plants in the US, product is coming and going across borders. Silicon, wafers, cells, glass, back sheets etc, are made all over the world. Some innovative companies like SunPower will have an onshore/offshore strategy which creates the best blend of lead times, cost of goods and types of products the market wants. Tariffs just increase the cost of the products across the value chain and nobody benefits. If instead, we had an import license fee on modules, the market would be able to pay for local module assembly manufacturing. Any module that comes into the market from abroad would create a pool of capital from the ILF that gets distributed to domestic manufacturers. So using an example that has both on and off shore manufacturing equally, the manufacturer ends up basically being tariff free. This ensures the solar market gets low cost solar while benefitting local manufacturing. Best of both worlds!
Growing Choice In Illinois. As policy fights in energy come up, I see a natural ally for solar in the retail energy companies. Utilities see this alignment as well and fight the consumer choice rules that allow retail energy providers to compete for consumers’ business. This is happening in Illinois right now. As a tangent, this affects community solar in a big way because the rules could overlap. Learn more about community solar and adjustable block grants in Illinois at SolarWakeup Live! Chicago on June 21st. Early bird pricing ends today so get your ticket today!
EVs For Everyone. EVs everywhere, that is a future of our transportation sector that I can get behind. This isn’t just for your Tesla owners, this is a 40x growth of where we are today in the next 10 years. The future includes electric buses and scooters in addition to cars. Add this to the retirement of coal and gas peaker plants, we’re going to need a lot of solar to be built in that same time frame.
Solar Powered Peaches. Hanwha is setting up an assembly plant in Georgia which is great news. I will note once more, this has very little to do with 201. This has to do with the value of supply chain and the growth of the markets on the East Coast. The Jacksonville and Savannah ports are massive distribution hubs with rail that goes up and down the coast. 201 supporters can save their happy dance for another argument.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for May 30th, 2018
The Bridge Fuel To Solar. Utilities and IPPs, like Vista Energy, are showing the future of the grid by announcing intentions to build more solar and less natural gas. If natural gas was the bridge fuel, the future costs of solar and storage may be the land on the other side of the moat. This is a space to keep your eyes on as a critical power market intent, especially when it comes from IPPs that benefit from more consumer retail choice. Having forward thinking allies on our side could be a great partnership in the future.
Policy Advocacy Works. SolarCity used to spend a ton of human and financial capital on policy in the US, on their own and in partnership with advocacy groups. Since the acquisition by Tesla, the company has been quieter on policy, not necessarily absent but a lot quieter. With the news out of Australia, it appears that it may be a US internal policy to stay out of the limelight but this is a great reminder that policy advocacy is an important part of our work. Can you commit one hour of legislative outreach in June? Meet with a State rep, Member of Congress or your mayor?
Great Benchmark In Haiti. Having lived in South Florida for most of my life it’s great to see some positive news out of Haiti. Glad to show off the results of solar leaders that have pushed for more solar to be built their and drive some economic growth in the space.
Cost Of Inaction. Trillions of lost economic growth due to inaction on climate issues. This is on top of the cost of inaction that drive more damage to our society and infrastructure. Pennywise, pound foolish is the saying you are looking for.
Taking It Up A Notch. Bam! Vote Solar, ELPC, SEIA, and others are appealing the Michigan commissions decision to approve the DTE natural gas plant. At the very least I hope that the legal tie-up lasts long enough for DTE to see the virtue in our argument and rescind the request to build the gas plant.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for May 29th, 2018
A Solar Pro In Congress! On Friday I interviewed SolarCity alum, Sam Jammal. Sam is running for Congress in California 39th district and has a primary election coming up. Sam is imminently qualified and I can’t help but think of the opportunities the solar industry would have to leverage a solar pros influence in Congress. Check out my podcast interview with Sam.
The Tariff Impact. The reality of the tariffs is that our industry would be able to grow much faster without them. I’ve spoken to countless solar companies and one of my questions is always, what does your business look like if solar panels were low 30’s. I’d love to see an import license fee that is distributed to US manufacturers.
The Florida Market. We covered the Sunrun request to the Florida PSC in detail last month. Now VIvint Solar is going for their own approval by the PSC in Florida. The reason may be an abundance of caution given that Sunrun received the approval, not the lease in general. In detail, the two documents may be different in some form.
Midwest Interconnection Rules. IREC, ELPC and Fresh Energy have pushed Minnesota for better interconnection rules and have gotten some of the way there. These updates always remind me there are quiet warriors fighting for the rules and regulations that allow the solar industry to exist.
Illinois Deals. Illinois is going to be a multi 100MW market next year and there is some of it available to you. From residential and C&I behind the meter to large scale and community solar, the market rules are being finalized. At SolarWakeup Live! you will hear from ELPC’s Brad Klein and Illinois Power Authority’s Anthony Star amongst many industry participants. This amazing one-day event is a must attend if you want to play in Illinois.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for May 25th, 2018
As you enter this long weekend, make sure to think about how you and your business can help the veterans of our armed services. I know that our industry does quite a bit in the form of training and hiring veterans but let us all take a moment and see how we can do more.
Your Privacy, Our Privacy Policy. Take this as your official notification of our privacy policy, which is also the privacy policy of Mailchimp, our email service provider. As always, we appreciate your readership and hope that we are always providing content that you find valuable. Of course, you can always unsubscribe by clicking the link below. I promise that I only think less of you for just a few minutes.
Complicated C&I Projects. I wanted to make sure to point out some recent announcements of success for Black Bear Energy. Many of you know Drew from BBE and his work from Prologis and now Black Bear. He’s been working hard for a long time to get large property owners to do more solar and this set of relatively small projects in multiple States shows that the hard work is paying off.
Growth In Residential. Nice interview by Bloomberg with Sunnova’s CEO, John Berger, about the California residential market. It is becoming incredibly clear, as California slapped down an anti-solar piece of legislation this week, that residential solar advocates cannot stop fighting until retail rate net metering and retail choice for consumers is available in every State. Moreover, anyone that is in solar but not residential should advocate for those same exact rules. Because if you want solar to grow you need non-solar professionals to advocate for your issue.
Growth In Community Solar. See above, this is a perfect example of a jealous neighbor with his shaded roof wanting to get solar as well. If they can’t put the panels on the roof then they’ll sign up for community solar.
Have a great weekend, before you leave for your vacation please make sure your colleagues are reading SolarWakeup and book your ticket to visit us in Chicago for SolarWakeup Live! on June 21st.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for May 24th, 2018
Solar Goes For Meghan Nutting! We are just a few weeks away from the June 26th primary election for Meghan Nutting. Meghan is running for Colorado’s 5th District in the State House and she is also the VP of Public Policy for Sunnova. She’s been a solar advocate to advance our industry and now is the time for all of us to come together and put Meghan into the State House to represent Denver. First, help her raise money and send $5, which you can do here. Second, if you have friends in Denver, you have to get them to help her knock on doors. This race gets decided in the primary so we have just a few weeks away. If you want to learn more about Meghan, you can listen to my interview with her.
Elon’s Twitter Rant, My 2 Cents. Elon went on a twitter rant yesterday about the media. One of his points was that much of the coverage is negative and when it comes to all things Tesla, negative headlines get a lot of clicks. How do I know? I have the unique vantage point of being able to compare many outlets and many headlines. Unlike publications that can only compare one headline over another through internal A/B testing, we have the ability to track headlines across publications. The truth is that headlines matter more to readers than the publication and any story that is about a bankruptcy, problem or negative issue gets significantly more traction than anything else. Case in point, the story this week about Cypress Creek cancelling projects was clicked by almost every person that clicked any story at all.
My First Solar Project. Hats off to Portland for going out for an RFP to drive the best deal possible for its customers. Two of my first solar projects were in Portland, one for Nike and one with Portland Gas and Electric. Fun times!
Value Of Solar, Infinite. $20k to go. $20k left to raise to help save over 200 babies over the next year in a single hospital in Sierra Leone. Because of unreliable power, almost half of the babies that go into the NICU in the hospital pass away. $20k is less than $5 per reader today, so skip the Starbucks and send the money. Please!
New Jersey Bills Signed. Frank has your coverage on the bill signing in NJ, keeps an important market going forward and creates a few new opportunities for solar to develop projects.
Big Oil + Storage + Solar. Another oil investment into storage, this time Shell into Sonnen. Keep watching the trend of auto, IPPs and oil converging around solar + storage. Sparkspread reported that a storage developer with pipeline went into market for acquisition yesterday, if you have info about that, let me know.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for May 23rd, 2018
Strand My Assets, Not My Money. RMI is out with a report that outlines the long term investment thesis for new natural gas plants. Hint: it’s not good. The report finds that like many coal plants today, gas plants don’t provide the best financial return in the future and could find themselves pushed aside for financial reasons. This isn’t just a problem for private investors, consumers that finance these plants, guarantee their financial return, are the quasi investors within regulated monopoly areas. If this sounds familiar just look at the nuclear bailouts and requested coal bailouts in the news today.
Show Me The Wires. SEIA’s report on grid modernization makes the point that RMI found above. The future of energy will value the grid of the future. This means that more distributed generation will require a grid with less wires. Anything that ends up pushing energy from a central power plant to the loads will have a value that is significantly diminished. That future may be okay for solar and wind farms that have no exposure to fuel costs and volatility but it becomes harder for more traditional fuel. Distributed generation needs to be a central part of everything we do as a solar industry and that benefits even those that are not focused on DG.
Talk To Michael. There is a statement that comes up in some conversations with politicians. It doesn’t have to be said often because lobbyists get the process for political leaders very quickly. After a pitch on an issue with some politicians, emphasis on some, the elected will say something like, “that’s very interesting, I’d like to learn more, please talk to XYZ.” In Trump’s universe, it may have been “Talk to Michael.” At the very least, this is what one nuclear power plant was thinking and maybe solar should have been told to TTM. Of course I kid, mostly, I think.
Long Term Vision, Short Term Problems. 3 months go by very quickly and changing the energy market in 3 months increments is basically impossible. If access to capital is required in order to make that change work, then having to focus on the quarterly earnings makes that difficult. So how do we merge the desire for transparency in public companies with the hope to allow companies to change the norms.
Windy City, Sunny Market. Get your ticket for SolarWakeup Live! Chicago. Part of the event will be personal matchmaking between those that have projects or pipeline with those that have capital. The one day event you will not want to miss. solarwakeuplive.com
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for May 22nd, 2018
Q2 Sentiment Survey. The second quarter sentiment survey is up and running. Please take 30 seconds and answer these 5 questions and tell us how you feel. This is a survey for individuals so it doesn’t matter what role you play in solar. We will release the results at SolarWakeup Live! Chicago on June 21st, you should have your ticket already!
IOUs Getting Bigger. NextEra, the parent company of Florida Power & Light, is buying the Florida subsidiary of Southern Company, Gulf Power. Moreover it is acquiring several power plants that serve other Florida entities like Orlando and FMPA, which previously signed a solar PPA with NextEra.
Innovating The Midwest Energy. AEE is out with a memo to the gubernatorial candidates in Ohio. It outlines 5 points to consider in growing the advanced energy economy in Ohio, which just a few years ago had the potential of becoming a major solar market. It has solar success in the Youngstown area with the manufacturing base of First Solar and its series 6 rollout.
CA Solar Homes, Explained. When CA put in place a solar mandate on all new homes, the details are more nuanced than solar on every home in the State. I wasn’t planning on breaking it down, mostly because reading regulatory documents doesn’t fit into my calendar but I bring you the wonderful reporting from Julia Pyper. The details are detailed and I assure you, don’t start reading the breakdown without sufficient time. I never said it would be short!
Electrify Everything. Keyless entry. Air conditioned seats (I live in Florida). Regenerative braking. Adaptive cruise control. These are some of the features I want in my cars. They simply make the car a better driving experience and make our roads safer. Some of these features are part of why electric vehicles make for better modes of transportation and why the transition will speed up. When a city buys a new fleet of buses, why would they buy ICE? I don’t see it lasting much longer before all new fleet purchases are electric.
Helping AHJs. I wish that there was a way to speak to all AHJs overseeing solar at the same time. First, I’d like to make sure they are paying attention to the small details that make sure solar is installed properly without causing roof leaks or affecting the roof in a bad way. In the meantime we have IREC continuing the important work of teaching solar to AHJs.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for May 21st, 2018
Q2 Sentiment Survey. The second quarter sentiment survey is up and running. Please take 30 seconds and answer these 5 questions and tell us how you feel. This is a survey for individuals so it doesn’t matter what role you play in solar. We will release the results at SolarWakeup Live! Chicago on June 21st, you should have your ticket already!
Residential Advisory Council. Last call for residential installers to join the SolarWakeup residential solar market advisory council. We’ve got a couple of dozen involved already and will be engaging this group to learn more about the most important segment of the solar industry. If you’re interested in being involved, which will be worth your time and insights, please send me an email.
The List Of 201 Impacts. Last week we changed the format of our original reporting. Our hopes is to shift into a format that is less about telling you how we feel about the news, which I will continue to do in this portion, but give you greater detail about the news that matter to the industry. In this report we went deeper into the impact of 201 for Cypress Creek, which gave us more detail about their project cancellations. We knew that any 201 tariff would result in job losses, and the most important job losses are the jobs not created. If you live in one of these 11 States, contact your Senator and tell him about the lost opportunity.
Not A Spectator Sport. Michigan is not the biggest solar market but it can be. As an aside, Michigan was on track to be the hub of solar manufacturing in the US thanks to the leadership of Governor Granholm. After a great attempt by Vote Solar and others to stop a natural gas plant in favor of more renewables, Tom Steyer also pushed a separate RPS initiative in the State. DTE announced late on Friday that they are increasing and pushing up their RPS goal to 50% by 2030, with a personal note to Steyer in the press release. While a victory, I wonder who may not have wanted the RPS ballot question on the ballot during a gubernatorial election?
Corporate Energy Executives. I like the idea of energy executives within corporations getting some spotlight in the boardroom. You already see this within big tech companies but how about the rest of the top corporations? When 70% of customers (according to Deloitte) want to know companies are doing more renewable energy, you’ve got to think that the CEO is looking around the room and wondering what the plan is. How do we elevate these executives? Anyone here do this for a living and want to explain the internal work you do to get projects done to the audience at SolarWakeup Live! Chicago? I would love to have you.
I Want This. In case you missed it, Meghan and Harry left for the post-nuptial celebration in an awesome 1968 Jaguar. The best part? It was converted to electric. Here its he official Kensington Palace video.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann