The Energy Show: There is a New Utility in Town – Silicon Valley Clean Energy

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The Energy Show: By Barry Cinnamon The electric utility industry is undergoing rapid change. There used to be two types of utilities: investor owned utilities (IOUs, such as Pacific Gas and Electric and ConEd) and municipally owned utilities (MOUs, such as LADWP and Silicon Valley Power). Now there is a third hybrid type, called a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) utility. IOUs work for their stockholders — striving to maximize their profits by charging the most they can for electricity, maximizing their net assets and minimizing their expenses (often maintenance). MOUs work for their local cities — and try to provide … Read More →

Creditors Spar In Court Over Suniva Solar Cell Production Assets (Full Complaint Attached)

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent You had to know Suniva would come to this, right? Nothing – and I mean nothing – has come easy with this company. First, it filed a trade complaint, only to get bigfooted to almost an afterthought on its own complaint by its “co-petitioner” SolarWorld. Then it won the case, which led to SolarWorld being purchased by competitor SunPower and Suniva to be…sold for parts. But now that we had finally moved on to the selling off of assets, even THAT can’t go smoothly for the poor bankrupt module manufacturer. Now two of its creditors … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for August 16th, 2018

What It Takes, To Win. I had the incredible pleasure of spending the day with more than 200 solar professionals and the world class leaders from CALSSA in Sacramento yesterday. The annual ‘Solar In The Capitol’ lobby day allows groups of 6 to meet with legislators, including the members that represent the companies and individuals. Legislators thanked us for coming and helping them as they push for solar policy, the in person lobbying is irreplaceable and there should have been a thousand of us. I can’t thank Bernadette Del Chiaro and her team enough. There would be no solar industry in California without them and CALSSA and now I had the pleasure to see their work up close and personal. If you are not a member, join by clicking here.
Taking The Case To WTO. In a move that surprises nobody, China is taking the US to the WTO to review the tariffs imposed during the 201 case. It is important to note at this point that Suniva is no longer operational and SolarWorld USA is under contract to be acquired by SunPower. Don’t expect much to happen but its a process.
Free Markets. Subisidies. Sitting with republicans to talk about solar often starts with a comment about subsidies and that the free market should choose the technologies. That is complete and utter bullshit and now Rick Perry breaks down why the free markets in energy are really not free markets. Quite the contrary, energy markets are advantaged to the incumbent monopolies against competition and new technologies.
Storage Is Inevitable. In our lobby day, we spoke up for SB 700, the CA bill that would extend the SGIP program for 5 years. After the PG&E announcement to build over 1.5GWh of storage and the solar industry’s move to include storage in more systems, the future of energy storage is unstoppable.

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Have a great day!
Yann

German Company To Build Cutting-Edge Solar Module Recycling Plant

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Easily lost amidst the excitement and thrill of building more solar capacity is a real concern: What do we do with the solar modules after the typical 25-year lifespan of a particular project? Fortunately, thanks the the European Union, a German manufacturer is on the case and has built the first industrial-sized recycling pilot plant for an industrial company in its home country. According to the website Phys.org: With strong competencies in plant manufacturing and wastewater treatment including recycling, the Geltz Umwelt-Technologie firm has built a test and treatment facility at a large disposal firm … Read More →

China To The United States: Two Can Play At That Game, Files WTO Complaint Over Tariffs

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Reuters is reporting that China has filed a World Trade Organization (WTO) complaint against the United States over the solar tariffs President Donald J. Trump imposed in February. Who could have seen THAT coming? (Everyone. Everyone saw this coming.) From Reuters writers Dan Stanway and Muyu Xu: China’s commerce ministry said a U.S. decision to subsidize renewable energy firms and impose tariffs on imported products has seriously distorted the global market and harmed China’s interests, firing the latest shot in a broader trade conflict. This is what happens when you start a trade war – … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for August 15th, 2018

SEIA’s Hopper Makes Hires. Abby Hopper, CEO of SEIA, is adding two senior hires to the team. A VP of business development will join based in the Bay Area and Jon Smirnow will join as well. Smirnow is a name you’ll recognize given that he has been an executive at SEIA before and he was active during the 201 trade case. The new executives will be joined by a VP of federal affairs that has yet to be hired.
Local Policies, Local Outreach. Policy and solar advocates have been taking the solar to the local level. The Million Solar Strong Campaign took to Long Island City with State and local elected officials to grow solar in New York and add solar to 100,000 low income households by 2023. While this was specific to New York, you could be doing this right in your backyard. As an example, 200 solar pros including 12 from the Quick Mount PV team will be heading to Sacramento to lobby for solar policies including SB 700 and SB 100. Why do we send 12 employees to lobby for solar? First, we actually shut one of our manufacturing lines down for the day so that solar pros from all aspects of our business can be heard from. Second, if we don’t stand up for our jobs and market, then who will?
Utility Choice Creates New Formulas. The first iteration of customers leaving investor owned utilities was municipalities leaving to form munis. Then it was the start of the CCAs (community choice aggregators) and energy choice initiatives like in Nevada. The issue at hand is always what happens when a customer leaves and who pays for the infrastructure that was built to serve the customer.
Yea, But What If? Bloomberg has an interesting post that shows that installed cost of solar for public companies is declining in spite of the Trump tariffs. The message is that look how great the market is working. Let me be really clear, the market would be growing faster and more broadly if the tariffs didn’t exist including the AD/CVD charges. What if, that’s the question we need to show data for.
Congrats To Conergy Team. A quick word to the team of Conergy pros remaining in Asia. I spent a great two years with many of them and now they are joining Macquarie as their solar development and EPC platform. The Conergy team is top notch, based out of Singapore, and this is well deserved corporate development.

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Have a great day!
Yann

Old Face, New Face: SEIA Adds Two New Members To Its Executive Team

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has returned to full strength, adding two members to its executive team: one who saw the association through some tough trade times and one outsider to bring a new perspective to the association as it looks to navigate the near-term and long-term futures of the solar industry. John Smirnow will rejoin SEIA as general counsel and vice president of market strategy, and Tony Chen will serve in the newly created position of vice president of business development. The announcement comes weeks after SEIA dismissed its previous executive vice president … Read More →

Farmland Protection Built Into New Solar Bills In Illinois

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent The latest solar bills in Illinois – an emerging market thanks to the Future Energy Jobs Act – hopes to balance farmer concerns about land use with the development of large-scale ground-mounted utility and small commercial projects. Under the legislation signed into law by Governor Bruce Rauner on Friday, farming communities would have a uniform, set property tax assessment on newly built solar farms to ensure communities receive the income from the farms they have been promised. A separate bill also sets strict standards for the construction and deconstruction of solar farms built on agricultural … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for August 14th, 2018

Why CA Is 50% Of Solar Market. Good policy doesn’t happen by accident, it comes from effective policy representation. Tomorrow the solar industry is heading to Sacramento to push for the next year of policy including SB 100, the 100% RPS for California. I know your time and money is valuable but CALSSA has a PAC to help drive money into the political process. Please consider making a contribution.
Learning Lessons. Without knowing the details, you would expect NV Energy to stay as far away from the distributed solar policy as possible. After what happened a few years ago, it appears that NV Energy will continue to think in very short time spans about only itself. That’s why the headline about Sierra Club and NRDC joining NV Energy against energy choice seemed so wrong on the face of it.
Another Trillion To Go. Solar and wind have reached 1 terawatt in cumulative capacity which means that more than a trillion dollars have been invested. For most of those projects that means an interconnection, land rights and off-taker agreement are making that capital some of the most secure investment portfolios in the world. Let’s do it again, this time in less than a decade! 

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Have a great day!
Yann

The Energy Show: Upgrading Your Solar System

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The Energy Show: By Barry Cinnamon Over a million buildings in the U.S. have rooftop solar. These systems are extremely reliable: solar panels are guaranteed for 25 years, and inverters are guaranteed for 10-25 years. Our experience as a contractor since 2001 bears out the terrific reliability record of rooftop solar. Nevertheless, when inverters are past their expected lifetime we upgrade them to new models. Often we are able to replace two smaller inverters with one more efficient large inverter. When rooftop systems get very dirty (generally in areas without regular rainfall) we provide cleaning services. And not surprising to … Read More →