This is your SolarWakeup for June 18th, 2018

This is a big week in SolarWakeup, our first full day SolarWakeup Live! event in Chicago is on Thursday. I’m excited about the solar market these days and even though there are challenges, we have markets like Illinois to look forward to. I’d love to see you there, get your ticket at solarwakeuplive.com
Another Tariff. Solar Silence. On Friday the Trump White House added another layer of costs on solar by imposing 25% tariffs on cells and modules from China. The impact is minimal on the face of it because AD/CVD already caused much of the supply chain to be out of China. This reality is more complicated after the 201 tariffs and several manufacturers planning on building module plants in the US. Those plants are now in jeopardy because they essentially lost access to the Chinese supply chain of cells. My question, as usual, is who wanted solar on the list of tariffs given that we were just on the tariff list? Where was the industry’s lobbying efforts and quite frankly it’s time to change our lobbyists because I see this as 0 for 4 in the tariff fights. The silence is deafening indeed.
IPP Deals Show New Grid Resilience. Tomorrow, a lot more on this topic but let me give you a highlight. The past decade has been about intermittent solar being added to the grid. First, there isn’t enough solar to matter. Second, we have to limit the amount of solar and charge them for the grid services. Third, we have stop letter solar connect because the caps have been hit. Now we are going to see a fundamental shift of solar being the solution to grid services with energy storage. I have said this publicly, we are less than a decade away from every solar installation having energy storage on it and even retrofitting most of the solar plants that are already operating.
Energy Subsidies. Solar will stop fighting for its subsidies when the energy sector and monopolies give up their subsidies which are much bigger and more effective than solar’s.
Solar Fires, A Big Story? My question to you. Are these stories coverage of events or worthy of a discussion?
PACE In PA. Frank has a great story about one of my favorite markets within solar, PACE. PACE was one of the fastest growing legislative movements in the 2010 era and since then has tried to find its place. I think we are really close to that reality coming true because PACE is now pricing below the cost of debt with longer terms for many solar projects. It also has the potential to open up the C&I markets by removing the credit barrier for DG PPAs. Great for the PA solar market to get this moving in the right direction. Make sure to click on the CleanFund link below to get some idea on the pricing available.

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Have a great day!
Yann

Report: New Tariffs Should Have Only A Minimal Effect On Solar (With One Notable Exception)

Pennsylvania Governor Sets Aggressive PACE For Clean Energy Growth In The Keystone State

This is your SolarWakeup for June 15th, 2018

Will Suniva Find A Buyer? SQN has taken over the company formerly and still, for now, known as Suniva. It will now seek strategic partners, i.e. sell the company, to someone interested in the intellectual property, equipment, and other assets. The obvious name that comes up is the manufacturer that recently announced a Georgia module plant for which it will need cells, which Suniva used to make in Georgia and ship to Asia to be assembled. We shall see.
Industry Wants Certainty On Climate. Amy Harder of Axios has the industry insight on a letter sent Trump stating that climate regulations would create American jobs. Solar also has some great American jobs, some manufacturers making many of the solar mounts and associated equipment in the US.
The New Utility Normal. No more coal, slowing down gas and more renewables. Next week, I will highlight what is happen in the IPP market because those that don’t operate in the monopoly utility market have a particular insight on what is going to happen next for the power plant owners and investors.
SunPower Continues Adapting. We had this first but here it is officially, a partnership between SunPower and Sonnen. I’m a fan of the solar plus storage play having lived in a hurricane zone for many years.
SolarWakeup Live! This Thursday in Chicago. Top solar folks and a marathon day of interviews with me. And if you have seen my interviews, you know that you are going to get information out of the conversation that helps your business. SolarWakeuplive.com is the place to get your tickets.

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Have a great day!
Yann

Looks Like Suniva’s Finally Up For Sale (No, Really, We Mean It This Time)

Intersolar North America Honors Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. with First-Ever Champion of Change Lifetime Achievement Award

Intersolar and ees North America, the premier solar and energy storage events, will award California Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. with the first-ever Intersolar Champion of Change Lifetime Achievement AWARD. Each year, Intersolar recognizes an individuals' commitment to supporting the development of renewable energy with the Champion of Change AWARD, hosted in partnership with the California Solar and Storage Association (CALSSA). The Lifetime Achievement AWARD honors pioneers in clean technology and their outstanding accomplishments in advancing the adoption of renewable energy. "California's solar industry owes a debt of gratitude to Governor Brown for his decades of support," said Bernadette del Chiaro, executive director of CALSSA. "It was his original vision and early acceptance of solar energy as a mainstream source of energy that set the wheels of industry in motion decades ago, and still generate change today. Governor Brown has never stopped pushing for progress and change. Somehow he understands better than most public leaders that progress begets progress and that change happens one solar roof, one solar school, one solar farm at a time." For nearly five decades, Gov. Brown has dedicated his efforts toward building an emission-free future by enforcing sustainable policies within the state of California while also contributing to national and international green initiatives. Under his leadership, California has solidified its position as a global leader in solar and clean energy, being home to one third of the country's solar workforce and the largest solar market within the U.S. Gov. Brown appeared at Intersolar North America as a keynote speaker in San Francisco, and promoted the economic and environmental benefits role solar and renewable energy technologies offer. Gov. Brown's commitment to solar dates back to the mid-1970s and early-1980s during his first term in office as the Governor of California, where he halted the expansion of nuclear power and promoted renewable energy. Now about to end his fourth term, Gov. Brown has been a policy trailblazer for the solar industry. In 2015, Gov. Brown signed a mandate for 50 percent renewables by 2030 inspiring many states like New York and New Jersey to follow suit. More recently, the governor formed the U.S. Climate Alliance with state governors across the country, in response to President Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, to further battle the effects of climate change and drive the United States' sustainability efforts. Expanding to the international level, Gov. Brown co-founded the Under2Coalition, a global commitment to combating climate change and represents more than 1.3 billion people in GDP, 17 percent of the global population. And this year, under the governor's leadership, California adopted the nation's first policy requiring all new residential construction in the state to have solar installed starting in 2020. "California has long led the United States, and the world, in solar energy innovation and adoption, due in no small part to the forward-thinking policies of Gov. Brown," said Florian Wessendorf and Daniel Strowitzki, managing directors of Intersolar North America. "We are thrilled we've been able to work closely with Gov. Brown and his administration over the years, and have found his comments on the industry and his actions and progressive policies inspiring. There is no one more deserving of Intersolar's first-ever Champion of Change Lifetime Achievement AWARD." By honoring individuals such as Gov. Brown, Intersolar and ees North America, as well as its partners, shine a light on those helping drive new energy technologies forward, and underscores the events' commitment to supporting the solar economy in California and beyond. For more than a decade, event organizers have worked closely with organizations such as CALSSA, NAATBatt and NorCal Solar to help advocate for programs and policies important to the solar and storage industries and have also offered financial support. Off-site networking events, such as CALSSA's annual Summerfest, serve as important fundraisers for the organizations. All proceeds from Summerfest go directly toward CALSSA. In 2017, CALSSA raised nearly $500,000 from all activities at Intersolar North America. Registration to Intersolar and ees North America's exhibition and conference is available online. Members of the press can now apply for a media pass here. Tickets for Summerfest, as well as other networking activities including a San Francisco Bay Sailing Tour, trip to solar installations in Wine Country, and a tour of notable solar projects in San Francisco are available for purchase. All attendees are able to attend the Opening Ceremony and Champion of Change AWARD Ceremony on Tuesday, July 10 at 8:30 a.m., which will feature keynote speakers Tony Seba, author and Silicon Valley entrepreneur, and Elaine Ulrich, Ph.D. Senior Advisor U.S. Department of Energy. Information on all AWARDs can be found here.

Will We All End Up Working For SunPower?: Module Company Launches Battery Partnership With sonnen

This is your SolarWakeup for June 14th, 2018

Chicago Is The Place To Be. 1 Week Out! We are about to be at capacity and our agenda looks great. Folks from around the industry are flying into Chicago to be a part of the SolarWakeup breakdown of the Illinois solar market. Get your ticket at solarwakeuplive.com
Trump Gets FERCed. We have a standoff. Perry wanted a coal bailout, then a grid stability study and Trump went for the bailout. But when FERC went to the US Senate, no commissioner would state the need for the bailout, because as we all know it is not needed. What we should be talking about is creating a shorter response time market in the ISOs so that storage and real flexible assets can find the value that they create. Give me a 30 second market and you’ll see the 21st century grid come to life.
Mr. Governor, Instant Permits? The event I have yet to attend and would like to is VERGE in Hawaii produced by GreenBiz. In his comments, Governor Ige spoke about the need for governments to be agile in disruptive moments and when it comes to renewables Hawaii has definitely attempted to stay with the advancements even with the setbacks that were sometimes enacted. So in a week when we look to bring behind the meter small solar to our utopian vision of instant solar installed perfectly, let’s ask Hawaii to be the first to buy into the idea. If you haven’t caught my conversation on the topic, catch it here.
First Solar Rocks Ohio. The plant is not news but the plant has now broken ground. First Solar is investing hundreds of millions in the expansion of the plant to take on the capacity that the utility scale market is looking to fill. With gigawatts of coal and gas coming offline across the Country and solar plus storage offers reaching incredible numbers as we outlined earlier this week, solar will be asked to fill the gap and First Solar is bound to take advantage of this. If you ever wondered how well Wall Street understands our market, look at the one week chart on FSLR after the announcement from China.
Bit Me Up Scotty. Captain Kirk is all in on solar mined bitcoin, while it may not be Potcoin (I will share my Dennis Rodman story with you all at a later time) this is better. It’s almost as good as the solar powered honey that my friends at Connexus Energy sent me after my interview with their CEO at the Midwest Solar Expo a few months ago. Solar powered everything, feel free to send it my way.

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Have a great day!
Yann

FERC Commissioners Tell Senate: Coal, Nuke Bailout Unnecessary

This is your SolarWakeup for June 13th, 2018

AC Modules Take Two. Enphase is buying the Sunpower micro inverter business, some of which tracks back to the Austin based inverter company, Solarbridge Technologies. A cash and stock deal also gives Enphase a path into Sunpower’s AC modules which caused the stock to jump up. Sunpower already has the market share in resi with its strong dealer network, which now translates to more market share for Enphase. Great deal for both sides in my opinion, well done.
A Tough Day At Tesla. Elon went to Twitter to publish his company wide email yesterday announcing a 9% cut to the workforce at Tesla plus the end of the retail relationship with Home Depot. I don’t have the details on the 9% that are going to lose their jobs but I have to think that solar will not be unaffected and I always hate to hear that. This will lead to a stronger Tesla and that is something I support. If any solar folks from Tesla are looking for the next big gig, let me know and I’ll do what I can to support your search.
An Idea For Elliot. Elliot which is behind the sale of NRG renewables unit is also involved in the Sempra divestment of its solar assets. I think Elliot should consider doing the same in the IOU business units, many of which have surpassed the monopoly revenue streams. I’m not going to call out particular names but some could double their market cap if they were split and I’m not a financial guru like the analysts are Elliot. Let’s see where they go next.
Big Money For Resi Solar. Vivint tapped the capital markets to lower its cost of debt funding for its projects. This is not only to lower the costs but also to refinance some of the likely shorter term capital for the projects that were placed into service. In any scenario $811million in capital is a big deal and it’s good to see the interest to get involved in this.
Growing US Solar. The quarter’s solar market insight is out and 2018 is on track to be on par with 2017, which is unfortunate because it could have been so much better. On the bright side, we have new great markets in Illinois which we will discuss next Thursday in Chicago, a few tickets remain at solarwakeuplive.com

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Have a great day!
Yann