This is your SolarWakeup for April 10th, 2018
Big Florida Solar News. We’ve got some original news for you that is staying under the radar and it’s big. Everyone around solar knows that Florida is not a fan of allowing third parties to participate in Florida when it comes to financing solar projects. Sunrun has decided that now is the time to move forward and figure out how strong this prohibition is. The company quietly filed for declaratory judgement on their lease product at the PSC, asking the commission to basically allow them to conduct business without being considered a utility. The hearing is in a few weeks and if it passes could open up the Florida market for large scale growth that isn’t solely held by the incumbent monopoly. The story here.
BNEF Summit, Loop. It seems that Rick Perry and Tom Fanning are staples the BNEF Summit in New York. It’s a safe place for them which is the give and take for conference organizers. (If you don’t question their talking points, they won’t come) Rick Perry made the interesting comment that we [America] doesn’t want a free market in the energy sector. Maybe he means that literally but its a far cry from the ERCOT system in Texas he is used to. Perry did say that he doesn’t think 202 emergency declaration makes sense for the First Energy case but that he wants those plants to continue operating.
Big C&I Money, BUT Credit. CleanCapital has raised $250million of capital for projects to build a $1billion portfolio from CarVal Investors. If this capital is going to scale in C&I, then they’ll have to figure out how to drive volume and driving volume means figuring out how to do repeat transactions with unrated credits. My friends at CleanFund are growing commercial PACE that may have a way of helping that scale and leverage come together, wonder if they’ve spoken because more C&I solar is great for everyone, more on that tomorrow.
Solar Pays For Nuclear. Southern’s CEO, Tom Fanning, was also at BNEF Summit in New York yesterday. He mentioned that the future of Southern is carbon free with renewables, clean gas and nuclear. Vogtle is a nuclear plant that is still being supported by the regulators and consumer’s money but Southern needs more money. How do they get that extra money? They are selling a third of their solar portfolio! Who knew that solar investments can be so flexible.
More Solar In Mass, Need Money? I’m excited about the MA market going forward. More solar is needed especially with the power plants on track to close near to Boston. SMART development is starting up but it’s costly. If you are looking for development capital, let me know, there are investors eager to partner with you and your projects. (And I need to send my kids to summer camp)
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Yann
Massachusetts Moves To Make Energy Data More Transparent
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened:The Rocky Mountain Institute reports Massachusetts might be on the verge of starting another American Revolution, at least when it comes to promoting transparency in its citizens’ energy use. Governor Charlie Baker has proposed An Act Relative to Consumer Access to Residential Energy Information, which would create energy-use certificates that would be used to record energy-use evaluations for the state’s homes. It would give Massachusetts homeowners information that would allow them to do a serious evaluation of their home’s energy use. And starting in 2021, people trying to sell their homes would be required … Read More
Sunrun Could Start Operating In Florida In Earnest Within A Month
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened:Sunrun is now one step closer to being able to operate without unreasonable restrictions after the staff of the Florida Public Utilities Commission (FPUC) has recommended that: Sunrun’s residential solar equipment lease does not constitute a sale of electricity; Offering its solar equipment lease to customers in Florida will not cause Sunrun to be deemed a public utility under Florida law; The residential solar equipment lease described in its petition will not subject Sunrun or Sunrun’s customer-lessees to regulation by the Commission. SolarWakeup’s View: It’s been a good year for Sunrun so far. Last … Read More
This is your SolarWakeup for April 9th, 2018
SC Takeaway. SC isn’t the likeliest candidate for taking strong solar steps forward, on the face of it. SC is very conservative and does not require bipartisan agreement to move legislation forward. When you compare SC to other nearby States, the main difference is the recent trouble by the utilities charging for and not building the nuclear power plants. I don’t know if legislative success would have been different without the nuclear blunder but I would say that advanced cost recovery for nuclear development is not isolated to South Carolina and it’s not going well in other places either. The desire to build new power plants is universal amongst utilities with rate base, that may be the trend that Vote Solar sees an opportunity in just as they did in Michigan.
The RPS Year? We’ve already seen the ballot initiative trend about moving the RPS up in a few places under the Steyer banner. We also know that Nevada and California will be working on this in the legislative avenues after last year’s attempts that fell short. New Jersey is also into the game now that the Governor's office is a bit more receptive that under Christie. Phil Murphy has been a vocal supporter of our industry and has advisors that are also on our side. On a personal note, US Ambassador to Germany is definitely a gig I would sign up for.
The Storage Industry. I’d be surprised if the solar jobs census next year doesn’t include data for energy storage. This is a market segment growing very rapidly and generating value on economic development and grid infrastructure.
Montana NEM Report. Montana may be the first state to figure out how to value distributed solar lower than the avoided cost used for PURPA contracts. (Maybe not really but it can’t be far off) Reports like this have been seen in other states as well and it’s a troubling distortion of facts. Net metering at its best form is a simple way for consumers to produce their own energy. It creates a benefit for the party making the investment and more importantly a benefit to the system.
Send Tips. You can reach Frank and me by replying to this email or sending an email to frank@solarwakeup.com. If you have data that you want to send confidentially, you can use the tips or contact form on solarwakeup.com
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Yann
South Carolina Sends Solar Soaring With Cap Removal
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened:Solar electricity wracked up an enormous victory in South Carolina yesterday when the House of Representatives eliminated the prevailing net metering caps on residential installations. But don’t spike the ball too early: The issue now goes before the state’s Senate, where the debate is expected to be just as contentious as it was in the lower chamber. . Yes, the utilities are trotting out the cost-shift fabrication again – but I won’t spend too much time on it right now because I’m in a celebratory mood. SolarWakeup’s View: Maybe South Carolina is sick and … Read More
New Jersey Solar Industry Receives Much-Needed Win
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened:The New Jersey legislature got about the business of undoing former Governor Chris Christie’s treachery when it came to the solar industry, passing two companion bills out of committees in the House and Senate that would fix Christie’s mischief by increasing the state’s RPS and create a community solar program. On his way out the door, Christie “pocket-vetoed” a bill that would have increased the state’s RPS, a move the state’s solar industry says is desperately needed to maintain its strength as a market. Now, under a governor who has unceasingly pledged his undying … Read More
This is your SolarWakeup for April 6th, 2018
Here’s your rapid fire rundown of the top news. Enjoy your weekend!
SC Shifts To Solar. Great job to all fighting in South Carolina and getting a legislative victory. Had the sentiment of old school Arizona and Nevada. Look for coverage from Frank later today.
Consumer Choice In Solar. CleanChoice Energy isn’t the biggest retail energy provider but it gets solar better than most. Don’t underestimate this team. Here’s my interview with CEO, Tom Matzzie, from a few months ago.
LePage Needs To Go. Unable to overturn Governor’s veto once again, solar is stagnant in Maine. I guess we’ll need LePage to go away to fix this.
Really? It’s Not Necessary. Nuclear is a no emission source of energy but to think it’s still needed in the next phase of the energy transition is misguided. Time to plan a future without it, California is.
Go Forth Nevada. The legislature tried to increase the RPS last year but fell a bit short. We talked to Assemblyman Brooks about this, time to try again!
Offtaker Credit Issues. With First Energy’s bankruptcy filings, some of their off take agreements are also in jeopardy. This is unfortunate and stranded assets will have to be considered going forward in other off take arrangements.
Google Energy Update. Another improvement on the 100% renewable energy by the search giant. We talked to their energy director last year, Sam recently left Google and joined Lyft as the Head of Sustainability.
No More Tariffs! Please? The back and forth on trade way is continuing and it’s not good for anyone. Congress needs to step in and do something.
Unlimited Private Jets. We’ll see if Pruitt makes it to Monday but did you know that you can get unlimited jet flights for $100k per month? Who’s in on this with me?
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Yann
Maine Legislature Screws Solar (Again)
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened:The Maine Legislature, for the second year in a row, failed to override Governor Paul LePage’s veto of LD 1444, which would have, you know, mitigated some of the horrible changes Maine’s Public Utilities Commission is making to net metering in the state. The governor, who has made destroying the solar industry in his state an unseemly crusade, wants to tax solar out of existence so, of course, he supports the draconian rules the PUC is imposing on Maine’s solar users. Thanks to six spineless legislators – who had initially said they would vote … Read More
CleanChoice Energy Digitizes Community Solar Sign-Up
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened:CleanChoice Energy launched a much-overdue digital platform that allows customers to sign up for community solar projects in there in five minutes or fewer. “Community solar represents one of the most important opportunities to expand renewable energy access in the U.S., with the potential to reach more than 60 million households across the country,” said Tom Matzzie, CEO of CleanChoice Energy. With customer acquisition costs remaining a particular challenge for the solar industry, any chance it has to bring down those costs is a plus – and in the community solar segment, it could … Read More
This is your SolarWakeup for April 5th, 2018
SEIA Responds. After our reporting from yesterday, SEIA responded to its Board of Directors. We felt that it was relevant for the solar industry to understand the reasoning SEIA states and are showing it to you verbatim. The key is that this topic is not finished, and the questions appears to remain on the table. While we see ourselves as more than just a copy and paste publication, we’d like to show what the solar industry thinks. If you have a view on this, please send us a comment that we could share.
Play It Out. Some of the biggest participants in the solar industry are solar groups within utilities and I heard from quite a few of you yesterday. I understand the dilemma and empathize, you are active in solar, benefit from policies like net metering and share similar frustrations as the rest of the industry. When utilities take too long to interconnect, it doesn’t benefit you and if you can’t net-meter, you can’t do the deal. But here is the problem with allowing an IOU into the fold. Take the ongoing debate in Michigan. What if DTE had a solar unit which was a member of SEIA and SEIA participated vigorously in the debate to do more solar and less rate based natural gas? What kind of pressure could DTE exert on SEIA to stay out of the proceedings and how would we ever know that it exerted this pressure? The simplest way forward for membership would be a non-voting segment for utilities but what if they are paying $100k a year to be a member? $200k?
What Do You Stand For? SEIA published goals earlier this year, albeit very modest and easily achievable. From our point of view it is time for SEIA to stand for something, much like our Solar Pledge did during the ITC extension (very effectively). The values should include all or some of the following ideals: advocating for full rate net metering without advantages given to incumbent participants, fair and equal interconnection access for solar, rate based solar should be given equal access for competitive solar proposals to ensure lowest cost. These are just some ideas but we should not be the source of those values. The SEIA membership base should set those values and use those as their advocacy constitution. More money in the revenue base should not be the only goal, and potentially blurring the lines on values is never worth the price of admission.
Trump Taxes Grow. The Trump trade war continues, this time sparing most of solar but the side effects will come into the space. Hopefully Congress will step in and stop a trade back and forth that doesn’t help American consumers.
Elections Matter. Especially at the local level if you have a utility coop board. SRP in Arizona had an election and added 2 more pro-solar members to the board, with 2 other solar supporters losing their seats. The more people run, the more support we will have at the regulatory level when possible.
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Yann