This is your SolarWakeup for January 2nd, 2018

Welcome To 2018. Happy New Year! I hope you are enjoying or have come back from an exciting holiday. I will be spending this week at a trade show for my ‘side hustle’ (check out ttopbuddy.com). Next stop, Shark Tank! This week looks to be short on news as many reporters are still out of pocket, will have daily editions anyways just to catch up on the things that make me excited for this year.
New York. On January 31st, join me in New York City for SolarWakeup Live as we kick of 2018. The CEO of the NY Green Bank is joining us for a conversation about capital and how New York is thinking out of the box on getting more investments into the local solar markets. Alfred Griffin is a veteran when it comes to energy capital and it’s great to have him. More speakers are being announced soon on the conversation about REV and Blockchain as some of the highlights. Use WAKEUP25 to save 25% this week only. 
Catch Up. Make sure you are catching up on all the podcast episodes, available at
Tariff Checkers. Every time Axios reports the inside conversation about White House tariff talk, I get nervous. My hope is that the tariff put in place is only the perspective of what the advisors show as the worst case not what Trump could actually do. This is the time to see if solar trade groups actually have the clout that we all expect them to have. Ball is on the court and the players have been chosen, game on.
Go Faster. I’ve talked about this here before, the biggest issue with storage for market development is the disparity between grid regulators’ version of fast start and what energy storage can actually deliver. Creating a market on milliseconds would destroy the current peaker market and therefore would be slow to be deployed.
My 2018. It’s been over a year since I left Conergy and I want to bring you up to speed on some of the work I’ve been focused on. One of the places is advising great companies that are established market leaders in solar with their corporate ventures initiatives. Matching corporate goals with new startups creates opportunities for 2 entrepreneurs to gain runway and traction by matching synergetic goals. Angel investing in solar is rather dry, corporate ventures are a great way for me to help the ecosystem.

News

Have a great day!
Yann

E031: Rebuilding Puerto Rico’s Electric Grid with Congresswoman Gonzalez-Colon

In this episode of SolarWakeup Live! I interview Puerto Rico’s only representative in Congress, Congresswoman Gonzalez-Colon about the state of the electric grid in Puerto Rico after the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria. Gonzalez-Colon explains what the future was supposed to be in Puerto Rico with legislation she sponsors as the Speaker of the House in PR before coming to DC. Gonzalez-Colon outlines her vision for PREPA and how to restore credit to the energy market in Puerto Rico. She has been busy bringing members of the House and Senate to Puerto Rico to visit the devastation and keep the Americans … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for December 22nd, 2017

See You In 2018. This is likely the last newsletter you’ll get in 2017 given that news are essentially shut down for the year, my family is coming into town and I am going to be a bit lazier than usual. If big news break next week, I’ll make sure you are filled in. Please enjoy your families during Christmas and have a Happy New Year. I look forward to a smoother, less drama filled, 2018 and meeting more of you on the many shows we plan to have throughout the year.

Give Back. You’ll likely be sitting in your heated or air conditioned (in my case) home this weekend, cooking meals with your family and doing other fun things. Keep in mind that over 1 million Americans in Puerto Rico will not have that luxury because they don’t have electricity, for over 90 days now. That is why I want you to take a look at my interview with Congresswoman Gonzalez-Colon, the ONLY representative that 3.4million Americans from Puerto Rico have in Congress. The interview is in video format and will hit your podcast apps this weekend. Please consider giving back through your company or personally at solarsaveslives.org or reach out to The Solar Foundation. 

Stocking Stuffer. Coming back strong this year is SolarEdge with their holiday video. It’s a good one but my personal favorite remains this one, I am biased.

You Get Coals. SolarWorld bankers are trying to pump up the demand on buyers for their manufacturing assets. Nice try and crappy timing on the Thursday before Christmas, get a new marketing director. You’re definitely on the SolarWakeup naughty list.

You Get Fusion. I am surprised that I am surprised. I thought that the Georgia PSC would tell Georgia Power, privately, to stop the Vogtle nonsense but I was wrong. They are going to keep trying to get this done. I have a strong guess that it will not end well for the consumers in Georgia.

Catch Up With All Things SolarWakeup. 2017 has been an amazing year for this platform which is now turning into a company. What was an idea my wife pushed me into over 5 years, the first newsletter went out to 37 people and now over 5,000 of you read the news every day. I am routinely impressed by all you accomplish to move this industry forward. Content will keep coming your way, more board level summaries for you to leverage in decision making and the interviews most others can’t get. A few ways to stay in the loop on all things SolarWakup, pass them on to your friends and coworkers.Subscribe. Twitter. Apple Podcasts. YouTube.

See you on the other side, Happy New Year!

Yann (@yannbrandt on Twitter)

News

Have a great day!
Yann

SolarWakeup Live! Video: Rebuilding Puerto Rico’s Electric Grid with Congresswoman Gonzalez-Colon

In this episode of SolarWakeup Live! I interview Puerto Rico’s only representative in Congress, Congresswoman Gonzalez-Colon about the state of the electric grid in Puerto Rico after the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria. Gonzalez-Colon explains what the future was supposed to be in Puerto Rico with legislation she sponsors as the Speaker of the House in PR before coming to DC. Gonzalez-Colon outlines her vision for PREPA and how to restore credit to the energy market in Puerto Rico. She has been busy bringing members of the House and Senate to Puerto Rico to visit the devastation and keep the Americans … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for December 21st, 2017

Tax Reform. No substantive changes from the conference bill to the one signed into law yesterday. I’ve done some back of the envelope modeling and it looks like the values are in line with where they were, depending of tax investors’ circumstances of course. On the other hand, I do worry about the lack of liability in the overall market and how that will impact the pricing. There could be an interesting uptick in the C&I cash market for companies looking at the immediate depreciation, especially paired with things like PACE to defray the non-tax cash needs.

Get Me Pipeline. Greenskies has been acquired by Clean Focus in what looks like a path to more pipeline for the IPP. The competition for utility scale is strong and it makes sense for some to look for scale in the C&I markets. None of the deal terms were released but I would be surprised if this is more than an acquihire and acquisition of assets that may be on the balance sheet. Glad to see the transaction happen though.

Future Of Gas Power. The gas as a bridge fuel is going to have different shelf lives across States, each having their own sets of variables to drive the adoption beyond gas towards renewables. In California, the high energy prices and a group of regulators that looks beyond the short term has viewed the construction of gas plants (not just gas peakers) as unneeded, or at least it looks like they are implying this. The long term view on this is exacerbated by the next point below and when other power plants shut down.

More Mobility. I was a bit shocked by this number, BMW sold over 100k plug in vehicles in 2017. The i3 has always been underwhelming considering the skinny tires and strange design but I guess consumers are taking an interest to it. What happens to all of this when battery prices cut in half? What happens when more people drive an electric car (you should try if you haven’t) and realize it’s a better driving experience. The grid is going to finally see growth in demand and that demand will likely be matched by renewable generation dispatched through the batteries.

SolarWakeup Live New York. I am biased but I am excited about this event already. There will be a mix of public sector and private sector speakers on topics like REV, community solar development, big capital and blockchain innovation. The details are getting setup now and will be published here when they are finalized.

News

Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for December 20th, 2017

Grid Scam. Resiliency, as the word defines, is a misnomer for what the coal lobby is trying to message. The coal lobby is trying to say that intermittent renewables cannot be trusted to turn the lights on and gas pipelines can have congestion. As everyone in solar knows, resiliency is based on the wood pole outside of the customer’s home. If it comes down in a storm or a car hits it, the generation means nothing. And as the Atlanta airport learned this week, the cost of energy means nothing if you become detached from the generation. You should spend at least some of your time figuring out how to answer and value the microgram system for your customers.

Energy Subsidy Parity. We always hear about subsidies in energy especially solar and wind. We never hear about it for oil and gas (obviously). Now that storage is gaining momentum, it makes sense for them to get into it as well. It’s time we talk about the utopian vision of getting rid of all subsidies, monopolies and rules that favor century old incumbent entities. DC-coupled energy storage has the built in technical advantage of being behind the point of interconnect that also is better suited to take the solar ITC. Dispatchable solar sounds like it could solve all of today’s news problems.

Legislative Truth. This headline gave truth what we have known for years. There are sometimes extra costs during replacement transitions that drive down costs in the long term and in the case of energy also drive down volatility. As more renewable energy gets into the markets, pricing will absolutely reverse and stabilize the market.

Hopkins Divestment. A point of personal privilege as the Board of Trustees, which I look forward to joining someday, of Johns Hopkins University has voted to eliminate investments in the Carbon Underground 200 companies. This is the third time Hopkins has done this with the last one coming in 1991 when they voted to stop investing in tobacco.

GE’s Fossil Problem. I read the coverage about GE’s changes in energy and I recall my conversation with Daniel Hullah of GE Ventures. In the conversation he mentioned that part of the strategy is to find technologies that can have synergies with GE products to make them more competitive or profitable, i.e. prop up the core business. I could see how that evolves to replacing core revenues with new products and services.

2018 Changes. Every year I try to do something different with the SolarWakeup platform, always iterating to improve on the product. Late this year I started the Live! events and in the new year hope to improve on the analysis of the day’s news a bit, creating a way for you to find the business impact of the news. What would you like to see different? Any tips or complaints?

News

Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for December 19th, 2017

Future Of GE. A few weeks ago I interviewed Daniel Hullah, Managing Director at GE Ventures. He has investments in some energy storage and grid technology companies and is doing more. This was a discussion about the role of corporate venture capital and the future of the grid. I could have spoken to Daniel for many hours because this transition is amazing to be apart of and Daniel is trying to do his part to keep GE in the lead within the power sector. The podcast audio is here.

Tax Reform Review. This is as good of a writeup on the tax reform bill I have seen. Keith Martin gives an easy to understand breakdown of each subsection and highlights something missed by many regarding the depreciation which could alleviate the cash sale community.

Blockchain. On LinkedIn, I asked my network what would be an out of the box topic to discuss at SolarWakeup Live! New York and blockchain was mentioned by a few people. I have to admit that my knowledge is limited but if you know this space and can educate me a bit, please reach out. If you want to hear about something specific in New York, let me know. Buy your tickets here.

National Security. Pushing energy in the traditional agencies makes lobbying sense, I understand that the game is played by the winners and their supporters. Dropping climate change from national security threats is silly politics. DOD has to deal with real life issues and changing weather, rising oceans and the impacts it causes on military operations has no party affiliation. If access to a base is impacted by surrounding conditions, then the military chain of command will make appropriate changes, regardless what the document says.

Australian Turn Around. A few years ago, most politics from Australia seemed backwards, less solar and more coal. Fast forward to now and the biggest solar and storage deals are getting done in Australia while 25% of homeowners have solar as well. There are even plans to build a solar plant in Australia and export the power to another Country with an underground transmission line. Great job Australia! Show us how its done.

Presented By GAF. With our relentless pursuit of quality, combined with industry-leading expertise, and proprietary commercial financing initiatives, GAF is working to make solar part of every roof. GAF has also launched the innovative DecoTech™ roof integrated solar system for every residential home and will continue to find solutions for the solar industry.

News

Have a great day!
Yann

E030: GE Invests In Renewable Energy To Grow Its Power Business With Daniel Hullah of GE Ventures

Who: Daniel Hullah, Managing Director at GE Ventures, focused on investing in the energy space. With a Phd in in Chemistry, Daniel has a unique view of clean energy in addition to 10 years of clean energy venture capital experience. What: How does the grid of the future evolve from central, fossil fuel power plants? We have this discussion during our live recording at SolarWakeup Live! Boston. With several investments in energy storage and grid technologies, Daniel’s looking to grow GE’s footprint in the energy space as it continues to evolve. Your Takeaway: GE is in the middle of a … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for December 18th, 2017

Tax reform isn’t passed yet but the language is basically done. As I tweeted yesterday (follow me @YannBrandt) there is a solar victory lap happening right now. It’s not deserved given what we are up against and while I and most in solar expect SEIA to be in charge of this, I also ask you to look in the mirror. We are all a bit apathetic, less so recently, but unless the job is to do policy, few other solar folks get involved. Maybe these are tough words, but we all need to do a bit more, myself included. In the meantime, stay up to date by subscribing to EnergyWakeup and make sure your colleagues are subscribed to this newsletter. On to the news.

10/10/10. Before we get to the news, start thinking about what your company is doing for policy. I agree that it needs to be easier for you, easier to give what is needed, easier to make the calls you want to make and easier to meet with your legislator. That’s on us - the people that think about this full time. Your job is to execute on the tasks that keep your company growing and profitable. Policy isn’t just about creating a market, its about eliminating the market delays/uncertainties and reducing margin pressures enacted by incumbent utilities. In the new year, I and some other folks will be rolling out the 10/10/10 plan and expect your participation. 10 hours (at least) of policy outreach per employee, $0.10 an hour ($4 per week) per employee and $10/kW going towards a solar policy PAC. A 2MW per year company with 10 employees  should be able to provide 100 hours of policy outreach and $22,208 in policy budget. If your company can’t, then I assure you that policy isn’t your company’s biggest problem. More to come - just remember 10/10/10.

BEAT It Back. As we outlined in our tax reform discussion last week, BEAT had to be in the bill to stop offshore capital from staying offshore but it had an unintended consequence in punishing tax equity investors. The pushback shows the power of large scale renewables, looking at Cornyn (TX) and Grassley (IA) comments and groups like NextEra that really focus on the multinational investors. It’s a win but don’t get too excited because a good chance that this didn’t impact you as much as…

The Corporate Rate. Have you plugged 21% into your model yet? Depreciation gets hit and you started to think about showing an after tax IRR, not a pre-tax after tax benefits IRR like we’ve done for years. In other words, we are selling tax exempt muni bonds now. The cash flow also regains some value (crazy statement). But most of all, about 40% of the tax equity market is gone because the total liability is going from 35% to 21% (broad statement) and your cash customers owe less to the IRS. I’ll be looking into how companies use the lower rate for things like inverted leases to shield EPC revenues in some cost-basis appraisal situations. I do expect to see more foreign capital flowing into projects with this tax reform given the lower taxation on the cash flows and low cash yields in other economies.

White House Docs. Someone in the White House leaked this document to the reporters at Politico and it doesn’t read well for solar with regard to the 201 case. It could be a way to signal the parties to find a way to a settlement and it could be a test to see if the public has a backlash to the idea of solar tariffs. You should be calling your local TV news and telling them to report on this because I doubt this bubbles anywhere near the other things being talked about on national TV and that’s bad for solar. The 201 process and how it has evolved shows how much more influence our industry needs to get.

BP Goes Solar. BP took 10% of its last quarters profits and bought 43% of one of Europe’s largest developers. If your market is putting fuel into transportation and transportation is becoming electrified, you better think of a way to defend yourself. This isn’t the first oil company in solar and it won’t be the last. Expect more.

Presented By GAF. With our relentless pursuit of quality, combined with industry-leading expertise, and proprietary commercial financing initiatives, GAF is working to make solar part of every roof. GAF has also launched the innovative DecoTech™ roof integrated solar system for every residential home and will continue to find solutions for the solar industry.

News

Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for December 15th, 2017

Getting It First. Covering news is easy, finding the information you need is hard. That’s what I try to get with this platform and why I focus my time on finding interesting information from leaders across the solar space to bring you. This week you heard a senior executive from Engie tell you that the future is without coal or gas power plants. Take that piece of information and wrap it in the context of the second story today and it gives you a better view of what is actually happening. The full recording of the conversation with Thierry from Engie is now online and in your favorite podcast app. CPUC Gets It. In a filing from the regulatory body, CPUC wants PGE to focus on energy storage to replace needed power. This is a move into the clean energy system but it also represents that long term nature of ratepayers having to pay for gas assets over the next 30 or 40 years. Gas plants are going away, not just peaker plants but also those that are scheduled to be built in the upcoming years.

News

Have a great day!
Yann