This is your SolarWakeup for November 9th, 2017

Live From DC! Big congratulations to the new and fantastic team at MDV-SEIA. They cover 3 (4) States and hosted their annual Solar Focus Conference this week. I had the opportunity to interview Tom Matzzie, CEO of CleanChoice at the conference and record it so you could listen as well. Tom is an amazing advocate and energy leader in our space using the power of the masses to advance renewable energy. I can’t wait for him to lead CleanChoice to 1 million customers. Tom and I are sharing some great ideas on advocacy which we will hopefully share soon!

10 Hours. In our conversation, Tom tells the story about the union painter having to spend certain amount of hours educating legislators. What would it take for you to spend 10 hours per month on policy like calling or meeting with legislators, volunteering on a campaign or educating regulators? Imagine if 275,000 solar pros spent 2.7million hours per month on policy, do you think we’d be fighting legislative battles right now?

Inverter Battles. There seems to be split happening in the microinverter battle between SolarEdge and Enphase. SolarEdge announced revenues of $166million, net income of $26million. On the other hand Enphase had revenues of $77million and lost $5.9million. The problem with technology is that winners take market share and the slide as the second place is difficult. I’d expect Enphase to pivot into something that separates the offering into another category so the comparison isn’t apples to apples and allows customers to think differently. If they don’t expect more of the split to happen.

Ratebasing Solar. There has been a flurry of requests for and investments in renewable energy. NV Energy is looking to approve PPAs at rates in the $30/MWh range. AEP, like NextEra, has focused on ratebasing renewable energy. The issue is that utilities aren’t truthful about what is best for the customers. A PPA in Florida or Ohio would likely have better rates than the LCOE to consumers, especially in the situation that would drive the utility to give zero capacity value for planning purposes and request additional gas power to make up capacity needs.

DER Data. Does anyone have data on demand side management, demand response programs run by investor owned utilities? This goes in line with capacity value for solar across distributed and central plants as I don’t remember the last time my DSM box was used for my AC unit in South Florida.

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Have a great day!
Yann

E024: Live From DC, Tom Matzzie, CEO of CleanChoice. Talk Power Markets, Community Solar And Policy

Live from MDV-SEIA’s Solar Focus Conference in Washington DC, I speak with Tom Matzzie, CEO of CleanChoice Energy. CleanChoice is a retail energy retailer that sells clean energy to homeowners and businesses across 9 states. As a market participant, CleanChoice can create the products that can revolutionize solar development across markets, even outside of community solar regulations. CleanChoice is the largest developer of community solar in Maryland and working on a project in Brooklyn. Tom is a politics veteran that once live tweeted a retired CIA director’s conversation with a reporter while on a train. This is a great conversation … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for November 8th, 2017

States Matter. A bit of a sweep across the NJ and VA elections as democrats have taken the mansion in NJ and retain it in VA. Solar is a bipartisan-supported issue at the voter level but GOP politicians have still hesitated to adopt pro-solar policies. To be fair, consumer cost has been used as an anti-solar excuse across party lines because the repercussion for not supporting solar isn’t there. But as our friends in Maryland would attest to, having a friendly vote in the Governor’s mansion goes a long way to passing legislation. Nobody wants to pass a bill against a veto threat.

280.Twitter now has a 280 character limit…

Solar Saves Lives.An important announcement yesterday about the future of energy in Puerto Rico and the rebuilding effort. In a call led by David Crane, President Bill Clinton announced the start of a coalition to raise funds and products to help bring energy to Puerto Rico and rebuild the grid in a better way. Solar Foundation is leading the operations and has set up the website solarsaveslives.org which gives you information on how to get involved.

Big Money Jobs. Cypress Creek Renewables has been making a lot of noise in the press recently. After announcing a billion dollars to be invested in Oregon, more coverage has come out on their investment in South Carolina. In coordination with the announcement, Cypress donated $25,000 to a technical college to build out the workforce. Investments and jobs are a good way to speak to policy makers.

Consumer Choice Modeling. It is interesting to see rating agencies look at the risk of consumers wanting something better as a negative corporate impact to companies like utilities. When the result of giving your customers something they want is negative to your business, your business model may be broken.

EV Tax Credit. Keep your eyes on the EV tax credit in the tax reform bill. Demand growth is the most important data point for power companies and cheaper EVs mean faster adoption which in turn creates demand growth. EEI is likely making or requesting that change on the hill right now.

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Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for November 7th, 2017

I’m in DC for the MDV-SEIA Solar Focus Conference. Join me on stage tomorrow to kick off the conference with a discussion on power markets, growth of community solar and policy.
South Korea. Trump is in South Korea which last week threatened a WTO complaint if the US creates a tariff under the 201 petition. Korea could also go on the defensive considering they have an important share of the energy storage market, which the US needs access to. With everyone on the agenda, it is doubtful that solar makes the conversation but I hope that it does.
FERC is Full. The Senate has confirmed the two final nominees for FERC including McIntyre from Jones Day who will be the next Chairman of the regulatory body. Last week we published a conversation with Wellinghoff, former Chairman of FERC, in which he discussed the odd precedent of the chief of staff being appointed by the White House.
Coal. ERCOT, a closed but competitive power market in Texas, is saying (through pricing) that coal plants are no longer market viable. On the other hand solar projects are being financed and contracted by corporate, municipal and utility offtakers. Now, the same company that closed two plants is buying generation assets which include ERCOT coal plants by acquiring Dynegy and its 30GW of capacity (most of which is gas).
Coal Subsidies. The reporting has been focused on Murray Energy and First Energy with their push for coal subsidies (resiliency payments) under the NOPR that DOE is pushing at FERC. Rick Perry said the $10billion plus of extra cost to consumers is the price of freedom. I don’t follow his logic since gas is made here and the sun shines for free.
Ratebased Solar.Florida continues the path to let monopolies own more solar. Unlike other markets where the price of solar drops through competition, utilities in Florida are not incentivized to get the lowest cost of solar and take advantage of the tax credit or deductions.

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Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for November 6th, 2017

First Speaker. SolarWakeup Live! DC is setting up to be a great lineup. Andrea Luecke, President and Executive Director of Solar Foundation, will be joining us on December 6^th. Solar Foundation performs the important annual solar jobs census which is currently underway and recently released a report on diversity in the industry. More speakers announced soon.
Power Markets. You probably agree that solar needs to become a more active participant in the power markets. Whether you are doing an off-site PPA or selling power on the wholesale markets, there are questions you want to be educated on. On Tuesday, I’ll have the CEO of a power retail company on stage and I want your questions. What do you want to know and what is important to your business?
Climate Report. In 1990, Congress passed the Global Research Act which led to the release of the updated National Climate Assessment last week. This is a report initiated as a joint effort of over a dozen agencies and brings the administration to the mainstream. “It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century,” Furthermore: “For the warming over the last century, there is no convincing alternative explanation supported by the extent of the observational evidence.”
Twitter Trolling. The Rick Perry comments last week brought out a bit of a Twitter troll in me because ‘smart’ people were agreeing with Perry’s comments. Many people were making the point that electricity is good for society and its fight against crime. The problem is that solving this issue doesn’t require fossil fuels. I quickly found myself getting targeted by an ‘academic’ for arguing with Perry’s flawed logic. Money buys access and academia is not immune from it – which saddens me for the students of School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.
Electrification Design. If you had to design a way to bring energy to an un-electrified village in Africa, how would you do it? Take into account the levels of service: lighting, cooking, cooling, etc – how would it work in your design and how much would it cost?
Clean Air/Clean Water. Pruitt is dismantling scientific advisory boards and replacing members with people that say things like, “air is too clean, children need to breath more irritants, in order to learn how to fight them.” Why is this not a political risk for politicians? Clean air polls very well except campaign advisors don’t seem to think it risky.

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Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for November 3rd, 2017

Have a great weekend, I will be back in touch on Monday from DC where I will be interviewing Tom Matzzie from CleanChoice at Solar Focus Conference.
No, Don’t Say That. The highest hopes I had for Rick Perry was that he’d want to turn the entire country into an ERCOT market. Now he’s just an embarrassment considering his post is normally filled with some of the smartest people in the world. Let’s focus on the future where some of solar’s biggest innovators are electrifying developing Countries in amazing ways – in ways that central power plants could never do it.
Future of Peakers. Probably doesn’t include much gas. If you don’t get a capacity contract the cost of gas transmission/supply paired with the lack of dispatching will make your plant less than profitable. Starting with California, market spreads between retail and wholesale are ridiculous right now and pricing signals are showing that markets want to move away from gas peakers. The future looks towards storage especially when signals get into the microsecond level. How long before every solar plant has energy storage installed on it?
Cost Of Money and Jobs. Tariffs will cost jobs and fail to create a market benefit. How many jobs are we willing to pay to create nothing here? Let’s highlight the jobs that are located here that are working abroad. If you are a lawyer, investor, developer that is involved in foreign projects, let me know – we need to highlight this.
Trade War. South Korea is threatening a WTO case in response to US tariffs. What will China do? Silicon is a good case study of how jobs are lost when politicians try to play market development.
Ratebase Victory. The hurricane that caused me to lose two weeks of my life, caused many grey hairs and cost me thousands is about to cost me more in the form of higher electric bills. As the hurricane came through and snapped my power pole in half, utilities in Florida were calling the hurricane, Saint Irma. Every wire that fell, every truck that had to be called in – meant more cost that needed to be ratebased and repaid by the consumers (don’t forget to add the return on that ratebase).
Tax Reforms. Solar will be fine, if you want to worry, worry about the impact on depreciation value with a lower corporate tax rate. Building a pipeline is more important right now, the ITC is incredibly unlikely to go away.

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Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for November 2nd, 2017

Tax Reform. The House tax writers are working overtime trying to get the tax plan to the members. Some rumors are circling that the solar ITC could be on the block. Realistically, the tax plan has a lot of headwind and even if it gets to the President, it will be very unlikely that the ITC will be cut. The tax rate reductions would be the more important number to watch which will impact the supply of tax liability – and reduce value of the depreciation.

Just The Thought. Solar fails the basic power test. What is the repercussion to a politician for floating an anti solar idea, let alone vote against solar? The answer is – nothing. We don’t play politics, we’ve shunned solar advocates that play politics. The solar coaster will continue until we get off the bench and grow up. Our budgets are too small and we don’t do the hard work that would identify politicians that are willing to sell out on solar before they ever gain power. For example, my County commissioner voted in favor of a resolution that favored the utility against solar. He is now running for State Representative in a race where the margin is a couple thousand votes. A solar advocacy campaign can derail his political career right here and right now but we won’t be there to do it and in a few years he’ll be running for progress with no repercussions on his anti-solar vote.

NOPR #1. The root of the coal subsidy in the NOPR is having 90 days of fuel supply. Solar, especially with storage, would make sense to qualify. I didn’t ask the question to Jon Wellinghoff but we talk about the process that could impact the power markets you are working in. Podcast here.

NOPR #2. Join me on the 7^th of November in DC at MDV SEIA’s Solar Focus Conference as I interview CleanChoice Energy’s CEO, Tom Matzzie. We’ll be discussing the impact of the NOPR on energy prices and some potentially fraudulent trades on gas capacity. If you’re not watching and learning about power markets, you are not realizing where your market is going.

Transcript. Most podcasts, including Episode 023, will not have a transcript in the post if you prefer to read the text of the conversation.

Read For Yourself. Are you confused about the different recommendations that the ITC commissioners voted on? Find the individual statements in the post below.

DC Happy Hour? As I mentioned before, the important next step in the 201 process is the trade representative hearing on the 6^th, the same day as Live! DC. There will be a large contingent of the solar industry in town. I’ve been asked if I would plan and host a happy hour to get together after the hearing and after Live! DC. If you are interested in co-hosting and sponsoring this event, reach out.

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Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for November 1st, 2017

Big Success In Boston. Nothing caught on fire at the sold-out inaugural SolarWakeup Live! event in Boston. All four conversations dove deep in to the content, some of which I give you some highlights of below. Recorded interviews will be released over the next month.
SMART RFP Coming. I spoke with Mike Judge from DOER who led the SMART regulation process which is currently at the DPU for tariff language. We spoke about the auction process to clear the initial block of projects and how the 201 process impacts the timeline and if the process can proceed without knowing the costs of development. DOER is party to the DPU proceedings and expects to comment in some ways on the creation of the tariff process.
NEM Cap In MA. S. 1824 increases the net metering cap in MA by 5% and is sponsored by Senator Boncore who joined us yesterday. While the bill is progressing through the Senate, current in the TUE committee, there is no timeline on reporting it out of committee or hearing it on the Senate floor. Most importantly, there was little understanding of how the House would view the bill. Result? Don’t expect quick work on the cap increase.
ITC Vote. The trade commission held a vote yesterday to recommend some tariffs on imported modules. For those keeping count that would be the third tariff. They are lower than what Suniva and SolarWorld asked for and analysts from Roth Capital view the resulting ASP in the low 40cent per watt. That being said, this doesn’t mean anything until the President decides what he wants to do about it. This is still a tax on American consumers but probably livable for the US solar market. Keep up the pressure and make sure to attend the USTR hearing on the 6^th in DC if you can.
FERC Trouble. Jon Wellinghoff spent 8 years on the FERC board including 4 as the Chairman. He has spent his career on policy and I knew that is the voice I wanted to hear about the DOE NOPR. From now on, let’s call the NOPR what it is – a subsidy for coal plants in what should be open and free markets. There seems to be additional trouble brewing at FERC, which Jon describes at the end of the episode. Listen here.
DC Dec 6^th. Join us in DC, already 50% sold out so make sure to get your tickets soon and get one for a friend. If you are interested in sponsoring, email me, you get on the website, newsletter and conference.
Sponsor Thank You! Please support our Live! Boston sponsors. EnterSolar is hiring. True Green Capital is buying projects. DGEP Management is investing in development. If you want a personal intro, let me know.

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Have a great day!
Yann

E023: Impact of DOE’s NOPR and Next Steps At FERC with Former Chairman Jon Wellinghoff

[00:00:01] Today I’d like to welcome Jon Wellinghoff to the show. Jon is the principal at policy DER consulting. He spent a year as a chief policy officer SolarCity but most importantly for this conversation was, he was a commissioner at FERC from 2006-2013 and the chairman for the last four years of his tenure. Welcome to the show Jon.

JON WELLINGHOFF:

In this episode I speak with Jon Wellinghoff, former FERC Chairman and Principal at Policy/DER consulting. We discuss the DOE NOPR and the FERC docket that is now open to review the proposal to subsidize coal and nuclear plants. Full transcript available below. Make sure to rate and review the podcast! Make sure to check out SolarWakeup Live! in D.C. on 12/6 and NYC late January. If you enjoyed this episode as much as I did, make sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform including iTunes, SoundCloud and Stitcher radio. Please subscribe and share with your friends how much … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for October 31st, 2017

SolarWakeup Live! Boston. Later today! If you have specific questions for the speakers, email them over. Remember that you will be able to hear the recordings in a few weeks, barring any technical issues. Those in the live audience will likely have some more market intelligence than you but no need to be jealous. You’ll have the chance to catch the next event in DC.

State of Energy. Yesterday, GTM Research’s Shayle Kann announced his soon to happen departure from GTM. He’s been a well known part of the solar research that has made it to events such as Obama’s State of the Union address. In his parting words, he gives a State of the Energy market similar to the presentation he was known to give at the Solar Summits. No word yet on his next move.

Learning 201 As We Go. The ITC is meeting once again today to vote on remedies. From the testimony we’ve seen, and since 201 is an old petition that isn’t used much, the remedy will have to cause greater good than harm. That being said, the rules of engagement are not well understood and somewhat up to interpretation by the commissioners. We may get some information tomorrow on which way this goes, but the President can come up with his own remedy so it may not matter what the ITC does.

Whitefish Released, Investigation. An insider deal to screw over the Americans in Puerto Rico gets some sunshine from journalists. Now the FBI is investigating and it could get ugly. Red fish, blue fish, white fish, no fish.

MA Net Metering. At 1pm I am interviewing the sponsor of S. 1824, a MA Senate bill to increase the NEM cap by 5%. I’m interested to understand the political part of this work by the State Senator. I’ve been giving some thought on the political rewards reaped by politicians that help solar while also wondering if there are political ramifications for voting against solar. If no, why not?

MA SMART, Tariff Filing. At 4pm, I speak with the person in charge of creating the new SMART program in Mass which is now in front of the DPU to create the tariff language. I’ve got some questions on the process, most importantly on when we will see the benchmark auction that will set the clearing price. If it happens before 201 is resolved, how would it take that into account?

New York. With the success of Live! events in Boston and DC, I am announcing the next location in New York in late January. Likely the last week of the month. More to come.

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Have a great day!
Yann