This is your SolarWakeup for December 5th, 2017

Monday Flights To DC. I sat down in my seat to be surprised to have a member of congress sitting across the aisle from me. As we started our descent, I introduced myself to the Representative as working in solar. Right away, “Why do utilities in Florida make it so hard to go solar? The prices really dropped so much, I should look at it again. The Florida PSC is totally owned by the utilities.” As I explained that solar is making small advances, I brought up the tax reform issue and the 201 case. “We shouldn’t be increasing the price of solar, we should be incentivizing people to do more of it.” The member is a Republican. Solar needs to do a better job educating members, so we need to go back to discussing the idea from last month where everyone spends 10 hours a month on political outreach and education.

Conference Committee. Last night, the House voted to send the bill to conference committee which starts the next step in the process of reconciliation between the House and Senate versions. This is where a lot of the lobbying gets done once again, once the conference agrees there are likely to be no changes. If solar is looking to stop provisions like BEAT from becoming law, this is the point where it would happen.

Coal Tax Credit Request. Coming out of nowhere, in addition to the FERC NOPR process, the coal lobby is seeking a tax credit to the tune of over $60billion over the next ten years. The hypocrisy is thick on this one and it’s a topic I will be covering with Amy Harder on Wednesday at SolarWakeup Live!

Choice For TVA Customers. Solar is an underused political issue. A recent poll of 600 Tennessee residents showed overwhelming support for more solar. All three questions below came back in the mid 80% approval range including when residents were asked if they would use solar in their homes if offered at the same price, whether Tennessee should use more solar and letting their local power company buy solar from generators. All of this while TVA, a public entity, prohibits the use of power purchase agreements. I’d like to see this used by campaign staff in the upcoming elections.

New Tax Equity. Listen to the latest podcast from SolarWakeup and my discussion with SunWealth CEO, Jon Abe. In part of the discussion I ask him about his capital sourcing from tax equity investors. If you are worried about the tax reform bill, you may want to arm yourself with information on how to diversify the tax equity pool of capital.

Presented By True Green Capital.  Our current partnership, Fund III, is actively seeking investment opportunities and channel partners to deploy capital in a scalable focused on DG and small scale projects.  Fund III has ~$350million in equity commitments to build out a ~$1billion solar portfolio.

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Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for December 4th, 2017

Another DC Week. I will be heading to DC this morning for a week of solar activities culminating in SolarWakeup Live! on Wednesday which is occurring at the same time as the solar rally in front of the US Trade Representative hearing on the 201 case. Of course the conversation about tax reform supplements the 201 process that is ongoing. At Live! we will talk about much of this with Amy Harder, Rep. Gonzalez-Colon, Lidija Sekaric, Kerinia Cusick, Andrea Luecke, Colin Murchie and Tony Clifford. Last minute tickets still available.

BEAT Tax Issue.  The Senate’s version of the tax reform bill includes the onerous BEAT (base erosion anti-abuse tax) provision that could reduce the ITC investments by multinational corporations significantly. As the bill proceeds to the conference, lobbyists from many sectors are mobilizing to argue their points. Expect to get some coverage on this topic from SolarWakeup this week once I chase down a tax lawyer for you all.

Small C&I. A new podcast is out today, my conversation with SunWealth CEO, Jon Abe. SunWealth is doing interesting things around the small C&I market from a financing standpoint and how they evaluate the credit profile in that segment. The company also partnered with a corporate to help with scaling, perhaps a sign of things to come. Catch the conversation here.

Sign My NDA. The headline from late last week was the Canadian Solar and Longi had engaged in conversations with Suniva for the purposes of acquisition. My reporting says that this has not gone much further than opening a data room for the companies by the Suniva representatives. This is in many ways like using a signed NDA as a way to show you’ve advanced a project. I remain skeptical that any 201 deal would get Suniva approval unless one of the following happens – a retroactive tariff payment to US manufacturers that yields cash in SQN’s pocket or an acquisition of the company entirely.

NY Storage. Big headlines out of New York about energy storage as the Governor signs a promising policy. More to come on this topic soon and it will be part of the conversation at SolarWakeup Live! New York.

Presented By NTCIC. National Trust Solar is a subsidiary of the National Trust for Community Investment Corporation.  We enable historic, new market and solar tax credit investments in support of communities nationwide.  Since our beginning in 2000, we have raised more than $1 billion in tax credits.  We are recruiting new sponsors and hiring for our dynamic team.

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Have a great day!
Yann

E027: Financing Small Solar With New Tax Equity and Power Of The Crowd With SunWealth CEO Jon Abe

In this episode of energywakeup I am joined by Jon Abe the CEO of SunWealth. Sunwealth is a solar start up based in Boston Massachusetts focused on financing small commercial and nonprofit solar projects. The innovation at sunwealth is getting new capital into solar by educating them about the small C&I market. In our conversation Jon tells you about his work to grow a partner network for scaling and partnering with a corporate investor to fund the business. Jon is a solar veteran that made the jump to a startup and is looking to do great things. This podcast was recorded in front of a live audience at SolarWakeup Live Boston. Make sure to catch previous episode on your favorite podcast platform, episodes with the director of renewable energy at Massachussets DOER, the CEO of Sunpower, Former FERC Chairman and CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute. Join us on January 31st in New York and look out for future events across the Country. Make sure to catch previous episode on your favorite podcast platform, episodes with Mike Judge from Mass DOER Jon Wellinghoff on the DOE NOPR Sunpower’s Tom Werner are now available 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 EnergyWakeup is helping you. [soundcloud id='364642724' height='false'] YANN: We've got John Abe, he's CEO at Sun wealth and before I tell you a little bit about his background. I wanted to have John on and have him speak to you, because I believe in the market that he's serving. I spent many years focused on C and I and it's an incredibly frustrating, difficult, low margin business and you know, John is tackling it and I think he's tackling in a unique way and that's why we want to have him speak. But as by way of background he spent a few years at a Massachusetts state agency, which we're not going to- we're going to get into that a little bit and he was also a vice president NEX Amp before starting sun wealth. Well, we're going to start off the conversation because he told me a really interesting story about evergreen, and I almost asked the senator about, the history of manufacturing in Massachusetts but it's timely, right? We have this conversation about 201 happening and the role of manufacturing or module assembly in the US, versus the rest of the jobs that are created in the solar market. So John, welcome to solo wake up live why don't we-- why don't you tell that story so that people get a little bit of the background. ABE: Sure, well John thank you for having me and of course I'm not tackling C&I all my own but with great partners and with a great team and we'll get more into that. So, everyone knows how Obama has Solyndra, but most people don't know that Romney had evergreen. And I worked at the Massey's before was called the Massachusetts technology collaborative Renewable Energy Trust. And one of the things that we were tasked with there was making investments in creating jobs in the solar industry. And so, it was at that time when the state threw in large part the M. T. C Renewable Energy Trust made a large investment to help fund and largely subsidized a manufacturing plant for evergreen, in Massachusetts. And so, what was interesting enough is there was a lot of debate at the staff level, in that recommendation and I think the prevailing wisdom at the time was that. It made a lot of sense for Evergreen to have their R&D facility here in Massachusetts but that again this is just the staff level. That it probably did not make sense for them to have a manufacturing plant but hence you know the political winds prevail and of course we had Evergreen and the state funded manufacturing plant. YANN: So, the moral of the story is the 15,000 jobs and solar in Massachusetts came through the market, but not the manufacturing? ABE: Yes, at least at that stage. YANN: Well, I don't know what that mean. ABE: Yeah. YANN: Module manufacturing we're going to separate-- ABE:  The first 10,000 jobs here in Massachusetts were for the most part downstream solar jobs. YANN: Absolutely. So, tell us a little bit about Sun wealth and your focus on C&I in particular the--you focus on the small side of S&I and you've got some unique financing structures. But startup, give us the background of how you got to starting Sun wealth and what mission you're trying to solve. ABE: And so, as some of you know I used to work at NEX Amp and NEX Amp, basically started as a residential small C&I installer. Went to more of a C&I installer but really overnight went to a small utility scale. Develop build own operate model, and I really love the C&I business, I loved it when I was that NEX Amp I loved it, when I was working at Renewable Energy Trust, it was the champions are not-for-profits, local businesses and municipalities that really create the foundation for what Solar is today. Not just in Massachusetts but everywhere. And, I was in a boardroom doing what is about a million dollar, closing C&I deal and there were 27 file folders. There were, no three attorneys in bow ties walking around, one of them might have been an accountant. There was a really nice lunch that ultimately, we were paying for and you know a couple investors would come in and do their signatures and leave. And, we got the bill on that and it was probably a hundred and thirty, hundred and forty thousand dollars and third party legal consulting and accounting fees for that deal. Then you know fast forward a whole whopping two and a half months and you're in almost an identical room, but with the same law firms I think they're just on other sides of the deal, and the exact same deal structure and they still charge 120 thousand dollars on everything. And at that time, [inaudible 00:05:41] use the chairman of panel clause, well you looked that meaningless, “You know John there's a better way of doing this,” and I said, “Yeah, absolutely,” and so we've started and founded sun wealth on the premise that you could do a lot better around C&I deals or financing smaller solar projects in general. And so, what we did was, base that on the premise that with experience, standardization, of all the documentation, and a little bit of technology. You can work with developers to help them provide PPA’s to their small C&I projects and you can create a new source of capital that's going to reduce the transaction costs and believe in the standardized method, especially after you do a couple deals with them. YANN: But, you weren't further right? The standardization isn't-- that's not novel right? Sap C and now there's sap C 3.0 pace, you know some of these things have been around but you also merged crowd funding, kind of crowd sourcing whatever the term is that keeps you out of legal trouble. You also merge that into it you know. Why did you do that and what has that--what benefit has that created for the structure? ABE: Yeah and so, when we looked at the traditional sources of financing for solar projects, whether it's bundles of residential, assets or larger utility scale projects or even at the high end of C&I, where you have investment grade credits. There are a number of boxes that they just have to check to do those deals. And there's a number of fixed costs that goes into those deals and there's deal size limitations. So for example, you know we wanted to work with middle market local installers, to let them build and operate these projects and talk to XYZ institution, they said, sorry we can't underwrite that installer. That makes no sense! Some of the best projects that have been installed across the state have been done by qualified installers that Wall Street would never underwrite as an installer. YANN: Because of their bank ability? ABE: Because of a perceived Bank ability. And you know I've seen, other companies that are much larger and check the box on bank ability, build some really crappy projects that we would never underwrite. That's unlawful. YANN: I think we all have names to be redacted. ABE: So, a second thing that they might not under write is actually the credit of the off taker in the PP A's and I'll give you a couple examples. Where typically they're looking for a bundle of residential projects and they're underwriting a FICO score of 740 and above or something like that or they're looking for a very large C&I project or utility-scale project that has a contract with Google or Apple and they're underwriting that credit and that's being great. What they might not under write is, I'll give you an example the Walden Woods project where we couple solar projects with. So, this is a not-for-profit that was founded by Don Henley 25 years ago, because condo developers were about to buy and develop the land around Walden Pond State Park. So, he bought it with a couple other people and they basically funded it but you know what's worth probably tens or hundreds of millions of dollars with the property and endowed it, you know to basically do mission work, similar to Thoreau. And what they have now is, they have a center there, they have a library, that actually uses a lot of electricity because it houses some of the original Thoreau works, and it's dramatically sealed. They have, let's see over a 25-year operating history. They have a huge endowment relative to the size of their and budget and they own a ton of assets. And so by any logical underwriting process, their credit is good, and it's good for not just the 10-year PP A or 20-year PP A but probably for generations to come. And that is a credit that Wall Street would not underwrite. YANN: I mean credits, a bigger story right? Because there's the credit that won't default but then there's also the credit that you won't foreclose and maybe that you-- because a lot of pace lenders for example won't do deals with churches because who wants to foreclose a church? And you know, but if you don't have the credit, you know you and I could make a personal business decision and say, well that makes sense. But you still have to get the lender to-- unless you're going to just do unleveled deals throughout, you know how do you solve that piece? ABE: So, how do we get the lender comfortable-- YANN: With your portfolio? ABE: With our portfolio? So, there's a couple ways we do that. So, the first thing we do-- the first underwriting criteria we have, is that our PP A provides clear, long-term savings to our customers. So, you know people come to us and say, well you know they're willing to pay a 13 cents and I think they're avoided cost this, you know about 13 cents and I say well you know you're actually including demand charges and calculating their per kilowatt hours probably closer to 10 like, let's get them to 8 cents a kilowatt hour, we're not going to underwrite this project. So, operational savings is fundamental to every deal we do. Then we do your standard credit check, we review financials and then we ask this question. You know, has this business or organization or government entity been around for a generation and do they provide a product or service that's going to enable them to be around for a generation or more? The next criteria look at is geography, in terms of their replacement value in the event, you know they can't pay their bill somebody else can. Give in geography or building function and based on all those criteria, we get our debt to invest in the project. They want to see it, but it's not just the data, you have to tell a longer-term story about it. YANN: Are you going to traditional community banks, banks for your leverage or are you going into a different direction? ABE: So we can, but let me tell you a little bit about our investor community. So, we raise tax equity and solar bonds directly from our community investors. And I wouldn't say we're crowd sourcing it, but it's really as community sourcing it. We're building a community of accredited investors, that either have the-- much smaller percentage have the ability to invest in our tax equity products or as most or a larger number have the ability to invest in our solar bonds. And they are a combination of high net worth individuals, trusts, small institutions, wealth managers that believe in what we're doing and our product and you know we've been working with them for years now to get them to funnel their client money into projects. YANN: And the-- so how does that look from a fund raising, but also from a project finance perspective, tax equity investors, K Ones and then the bonds is that equity or is that debt structures with interest coupons? ABE: Yes, so technically to get into the details, we typically back lever our deals and so they have a membership interest in one of our LL C's and they get a k1 as well, with interest-- YANN: So the solar bonds are actual equity investor? ABE: Correct. YANN: Understood. So, let's jump over to the other side which is, you did an interesting corporate deal you know you what you-- maybe you raise some seed money but you did a corporate deal with panel call. Describe why you did that, how did you do it? But also what were what was the decision-making process in terms of, does this make sense for us and this is what we would get in return for doing that? ABE: Sure, and so from an early stage, what we wanted to do was assemble a board of directors and key investors that understands what we're trying to do and have deep expertise in the component of what we're doing. So, if you look on the project side, we wanted someone with market expertise. We wanted someone with technical expertise and we wanted someone with expertise on the built environment as well. So, when you look at the technical expertise and our desire to be in that space, panel claw is a perfect fit from our perspective. It was a real home run to get panel claw as a strategic investor. There's a couple reasons for that, when we work with developers and we try to be as agnostic as possible about equipment, choices, it doesn't really make sense to get a panel company to be our strategic technical expert in that space. Because well for obvious reasons, there's so many of them, it's commoditized. It didn't make sense for us to get an inverter company to be our technical strategic partner, for similar reasons though, perhaps not as extreme. And what really made sense from our perspective was to get someone who specialized in the same space we do. Basically, flattop commercial, rooftop systems though we do pitchers and we do aggregations of low to moderate income residential and we have some ground mounts but they really focus in that area and understand it. They have 40% market share and when we talk to a developer that in the rare instance doesn't know panel Claw, it's still a plus that panel Claw is an investor in our company, as a partner. YANN: But, I mean a) how hard is it to raise business model, venture investment and you know where else were you trying to get capital because there's other people that are you know similar ideas right? I spent three years doing a pace PP A startup and, let's just say I want three years of my life back[laughter], but you know leading question but I mean, how complicated is it to do what you did? ABE: It is really hard. I think the interview process with panel Claw started over ten years ago and that's when I was stuck into a cube when Next Amp and Panel Claw are bootstrapping in the same building next to Costa. YANN: How do you scale from here you know, I mean maybe that's a follow-on to how hard is it to get to get venture money. But how do you scale your business, where do you scale and to match on to the conversation I had with Daniel. What how does energy storage maybe help that? ABE: And, I don't be too coy about what I said about the relationship with panel Claws, because on the flip side our market, technical market investor is a company called Sky View. I don't know if you've heard them. But they have one the largest that's rack and rack positions in the entire country. And that was more of a deliberative four or five month discussion to get them on board. But they're a company that sees downstream solar every day and they understand the problems. The first meeting was fairly straightforward and then they just needed to understand the business model and why it was the best for trying to do, what we're trying to do. And, the great thing about having them on board is that, they had some good ideas on how we would tweak to make things better. Now, in terms of scaling this business, I think you know we're essentially a two sided market or a bridge between projects and investors. And on the project side I think it's evident to a lot of people in this room but there's a huge untapped opportunity around C&I, and it's just a matter of cultivating and cost-effectively bringing those projects to the point they're shovel-ready. On the investor side, what we're doing is we're creating a new source of capital for solar. And it is challenging to do, but where we started was you know with a community our first project we did we had nine investors and there was 100% tax equity basically investment. And from there we now a community of 80 investors, but what has changed since then in the last two-and-a-half years, well we went from having a number of individuals to now we have several institutional investors. We have several foundations that invested in us and we have a number of wealth managers as well that are funneling clients to us as well. And then, the other thing that's changes obviously, the transaction size has gone from 25-- our average transaction size, has gone from 25,000 to over 50,000 per transaction. YANN: And I mean, what kind of deals are you looking for, how many states are you active in, you know how many projects have you completed? ABE: So, let’s see, so we've completed almost 30 projects and we have completed projects in Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York State, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and DC. We have a California project in the pipeline, with our trusted development partner central plan as well and so we do see ourselves as relatively geographically agnostic. And, our goal is to really find projects that basically pencil have good IRS, not only do they have to have a good-- a decent IRR for us to do the deal but in addition to that we have to make sure that the PP A is providing a value to the host and that we can underwrite the host and our development partner as well. YANN: And where are you getting your deal flow from? ABE: So, when we look at the market there are probably no more than a hundred to two hundred developers across the country that would make really good partners for us. So, at least initially we are talking to people one at a time and we're trying to source a good partner, you know we have a great partner in Buffalo. We have a great partner in the Boston area we have a couple partners in the Boston area that we work with. One out in western mass, one in Connecticut, one in Vermont and what we are planning to do once we really want to grow our project pipeline as well, I mean we do have an investor that has 40% market share in the commercial rooftop racking system and deals with a hundreds of customers a number of which would be ideal partners with us and we haven't even tapped into that faucet yet. YANN: So, from a business perspective right I mean you know, I think we all recognize how difficult it is that you do you know as you're talking about different geographies all I can think of is there's so much regulatory and so many regulatory things that I don't know about, that I would have for large projects hired a lawyer for, which sort of part of your original plan of not doing, so that you can routinely standardize. But, we live in a in an energy market where there are 200 markets it's not one country it's 200-300 energy-- ABE: At least. YANN:  At least, how do you keep your margin up, so that you can drive value back to your shareholders? ABE: So, this is where tactically how we've built the team and basically when you talk about, well standardization is great but it only take you so far. And so, in addition to being you know, my role at next amp, I was also in charge of regulatory affairs. So, I have a decent amount of knowledge on each of the markets, the key ones, we're not trying to do every market but, the ones we do you know the ten markets we have a pretty good understanding institutionalized within us. One of my partners Omar, he comes from both Wall Street where he worked on fixed income, he worked at Cohn Reznick Capital Markets, where he structured deals and then he was CFO for green Scots as well. So, he brings not just deal experience and transaction experience, but he also understands four or five markets really, really well. Our other partner Ryan comes from the social impact investing space. So, he understands our investing community really well and the regulations around that as well. So, we focused on building the right team, not necessarily in an entrepreneurial way but in very functional way in order to get the job done, that we needed to do and to do it very cost-effectively. YANN: So, from an exit standpoint, do you see kind of in a few years are you the mosaic- and I use mosaic in a broad term of residential loan provider- are you the mosaic of the C&I market, providing an ability for whether I'm a small you know maybe I'm a Sun Power dealer and all of a sudden the house-- I install solar in a house and the guy owns, you know the family owns some business and I as a residential install all of a sudden find myself with a hundred kW and I need an investing source. And are you the provider of that capital to solar companies around the country? ABE: Yes, recognizing that the developers as far as we work with, they are likely going to be small or medium sized players but we will pre qualify them. YANN: Okay, and are there instances where someone would bring you a project, that you say, Listen, this isn't your expertise but we have someone in that area that you can work with? ABE: To help them with the development of the deal? YANN: Sure. ABE: Yes, that might be the case. However the C&I projects we tend to focus on, aren't development intensive and so you know a lot of our partners they might not have developed a hundred kilowatt project before on their own and they but they're used to selling them and building them. We are glad to work with them through the first couple ones to share our recipe with them, so that they can do it themselves and on the next deal, develop it on their own and bring it to us for financing. YANN: What's the best advice you've gotten in starting this business? ABE: The best advice I've got on this, was that because we're raising money and we're raising money from a new source of capital that our business wasn't going to grow at the speed of technology or how fast we could integrate and update our advancement platform that our business is going to grow at the speed of trust. YANN: It's good advice. What advice would you give to your competitor? Someone in this room is going to knock you off all point of this conversation. ABE: So you know I think, we learned a lot from-- before mosaic was a residential lending platform-- YANN: It was a crowd funding company. ABE: It was a crowd funding company for C&I projects. So, we learned a lot from them and I think that what we've learned and this might change and maybe someone's going to disagree with us and meet us in the middle, is that if you want to do what we're doing in terms of accelerating the flow of capital and to undeserved commercial solar projects, you got to do it from the ground up, it's not a top-down type of business. YANN:  Right, so you've got a regulatory background and we had Senator Boncore earlier, and we have Michael Judge, coming up tell Senator Boncore, why you need the net metering caps raised and ask Michael a question, no. You're the regulatory guy. ABE: That's right, so you know one of the things I promised my investors being a former regulatory guy and knowing how wonky and times lucky that can be is, I wouldn't do a lot of advocacy as CEO Son Watt Lee son for the first couple years. However, I'm going to take this opportunity to say a couple things. So, you know we need the nebular in caps and it in Massachusetts because, you have a lot of jobs and you have a lot of projects that are tied up in National Grid and a couple other service territories that won't move forward until they're done. And it's not just having smart on but we need those to kind of fill the gap between now and that. And so, if you're interested in you know essentially reducing the cost of this business over time, one of the things you have to get rid of and smart program is going to help do that is, staying the course and smoothing over these stops and starts that we experience in the market because it's really inefficient. It does spawn a little bit of creativity and ingenuity, but at the end of the day what it really does is it really hurts, local installation jobs across the board. So, then what I would ask Michael is, to provide more transparency around and be more actively involved in developing some of the DPU related rules that need to be put in place before you know somewhat as a financier can really understand and start to underwrite the smart program. So, this has to do with the details around, where the utility meter is going to go? And how long is it going to take for that meter to be installed? And what happens if it doesn't get installed in time? And what is really the definition of a bill credit in the smart program? And where is that going to show? And how does that differ from a net metering credit? And how are these programs going to interact? I think they've done a great job, and they've passed the ball over the DPU, they still have to go through the option process as well but I'm confident that they're going to get that done. But the DPU to me is a bit of a black hole in terms of what they're going to do and how they're going to ultimately carry the ball across the finish line and get this implemented. YANN: Sure, before we take some questions, where is Sun wealth in two years? ABE: So, Sun wealth in two years is based out of Davis Square and Somerville mass and-- JOHN: Is that close to your house? ABE: It's within four miles in my house yeah, it's mile walk and two t-stops some it's great. And we are-- we basically in two years we have funded including our pipeline close to 100 million dollars of deals and these include commercial and seeing ideals that range from projects with-- we just finished two fire departments in upstate New York to small municipalities. We did a water treatment plan people are like, wow! That must've been a big project 170 kilowatts cover the entire load for that water treatment plan. We continue to grow our portfolio of houses of worship we're now at about seven that's probably in the 20s or 30s by then, we have a great relationship with Boston Properties, where they've gotten tired of issuing RFPs for essentially 100, 150 kilowatt projects and as long as we can meet their numbers they'll continue to work with us, they have some great tenants. We just finished the project on the Clarke Shoes headquarters on 128, using Panel Claw racking system out there. And, we are also starting to do what we call solar access. So, you know when you dig a little deeper the undeserved commercial solar market, you really have an undeserved solar market. That if you spend a little time you can figure out ways to finance. So, we're doing a lot of low to moderate income homeowners and the way we are doing it, is that we are leasing their roofs, we're putting a separate meter on for the solar project and we are giving them a percentage of the net metering credits generated by the project. So, it simplifies the underwriting process, it gives them a guaranteed benefit in the project. Probably much better than they would get through a standard power purchase agreement and then we aggregate all the remaining net metering credits and we sell it to a credit worthy entities, such as the city of Somerville or someone like that. So, it's reverse community solar almost, where we'll have 25 projects and then a single off taker for all the power from those deals. YANN: Interesting, so I appreciate your time John, just so that everyone knows, because I do talk to a lot of people in the space. The reason I wanted John to tell the story is, even though he's targeting the C&I space, he might have the best terms on tax equity in the entire solar space and that includes the really large-scale developers and I'm hearing-- this is what I'm hearing directly from tax equity investors. So, you know just because the market says one thing, doesn't mean that if you have a good idea you can't execute in a different way. A lot of people don't achieve it, but at the end of the day you have and for that congratulations. ABE: Thank you everyone. [Applause]

This is your SolarWakeup for December 1st, 2017

SEIA Board Elections. Today is the last day to vote for the elected seats of the SEIA board. I do not know all of the candidates but I know too many to tell you who to vote for. So let me highlight the folks I know, that read SolarWakeup, or have introduced themselves to me in advance of this writing. The top story today is the link to the login for your SEIA membership so you can vote. Please do so. In general, I would recommend you vote for people that have helped you move your business forward, have gone out of their way to advocate in your State or helped the industry even if it didn’t look like it would help themselves. In no particular order, my highlights below. I do ask you however, that you vote for Kendra Hubbard, my reason below.

Kendra Hubbard. Currently with UniRac, Kendra is passionate about solar. I first met her at InterSolar when she came to the conference even though she wasn’t working in solar yet but knew she wanted to get herself into it. I’ll never forget sitting at the dinner speaking with Kendra and wondering to myself who would do such a thing. Kendra should be on the board, her passion is needed and I hope you will cast this vote for Kendra.
Chris Diaz. Chris has been in solar a long time a Principal at Seminole Financial based in Florida.
Bret Sowers. Bret is with Southern Current and works very closely with Solar Powers America, the PAC working to educate legislators on a bipartisan basis.
Tom Hunt. Tom is with Clean Energy Collective  based in Denver and a loyal reader of SolarWakeup.
Adam Shor. Adam is based in Golden, Colorado and Principal at Shor Power.
Brad Stutzman. Brad is the COO and co-founder at O3 Energy based in Dallas, Texas.

DC Agenda Is Final! We will have 5 fantastic conversations. Three 1 on 1 interviews and two discussions with two speakers joining me. The interviews are with Amy Harder of Axios, Congresswoman Gonzalez-Colon of Puerto Rico and Andrea Luecke of The Solar Foundation. The discussions will be about how 100% renewable energy is feasible and what would need to happen to execute on this and what it will take to reinvigorate the Maryland solar market. Join us if you can, we added a few more seats for last minute registrations.

Sponsored by Mintz Levin. Mintz Levin is an Am Law 100 law firm with a nationally recognized Energy & Sustainability Practice that has completed more than 500 transactions across energy sectors totaling over $7.5 billion since 2006.

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Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for November 30th, 2017

A Carbon Tax. Amy Harder, who is joining us next week at SolarWakeup Live, has an interesting top 4 list of reasons why a carbon tax is hard to come by. The first two are primary examples of where we fall short as a solar industry. Political capital still remains on the sidelines for our sector but I hope that changes soon. Educating politicians of the political power of clean air and clean energy means showing them the voters will follow. Part of my conversation with Amy will be about this topic, where the lobbying on clean energy finds openings with republican legislators.

Problematic Tax Language. Language called the ‘Base Erosion Tax’ has shown up in the tax reform bill floating in DC currently. This complicated language appears to cause a quasi alternative minimum tax for multinational corporations. Amongst other things, it hurts the market for domestic deduction and credit investments like the solar ITC. The tax reform conversations are very frustrating because our code is used as an economic development tool. For centuries we have focused tax credits and deductions on sectors we want to see growth in. If we remove the supply of demand, by lowering tax liabilities, then growth in these sectors will slow as well.

The Massachusetts House. One of the things that I gathered from my interview with Senator Boncore was his description of the process to raise the NEM caps. While there was some view on how the Senate could move this forward, he sounded skeptical about the potential of getting the house to do the same. Listen to the interview to hear the skepticism yourself.

New Trade Info. The nuances are getting a bit legal but as I read between the lines, I see a less bureaucratic approach from the trade rep. In asking for the details that led to the complaint by bankrupt Suniva, now owned by an offshore hedge fund. The ask is to find “unforeseen developments” causing the alleged injury. With two prior complaints about dumping, there is hardly anything unforeseen and furthermore begs to ask why Suniva didn’t participate in those prior cases.

Another Coal Plant Closed. This time We Energies has announced the closure of 1.2GW coal plant in Wisconsin, to be replaced by gas and renewables.

Presented by MMA Energy Capital. At MMA Energy Capital, we partner with developers, EPC contractors, and system owners to provide project capital necessary to develop, build, and operate world-class renewable energy systems. We are currently hiring at our growing company.

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Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for November 29th, 2017

MA NEM Cap. In this episode of EnergyWakeup I am joined by Senator Boncore, the Massachusetts State Senator representing a large part of Boston and Cambridge. He is the sponsor of the net metering cap increase bill that would raise the cap by 5% across the board, clearing a large amount of backlog for SREC II projects. What did he have to say about the chance to get the cap increased? Listen here.

Senator Merkley. Spoke with a measured tone about how to handle the resolution of the 201 petition. Following the SEIA proposal of a revenue stream to US manufacturers instead of tariffs, Merkley urged the President to weigh in softly through incentives and not harm financial detriments that would cost many jobs. This is a stark contrast to the reactionary comments from Senator Wyden or the use of taxpayer dollars by the Hillsboro Mayor to represent SolarWorld at the ITC.

Bernie’s Puerto Rico Plan. A bold proposal by Bernie Sanders to revitalize the infrastructure in Puerto Rico. Part of the plan is to fix the credit rating by wiping out the existing debt. It may cost $150billion, but imagine living without power for 2 months and no end in sight.

Your December 6^th Options. If you live on the east coast, you should be in DC next week on Wednesday. Hundreds of people will be in front of the USTR hearing, at the SEIA rally while a second crowd will be gathered at SolarWakeup Live! Some unfortunate timing because most people would want to do both but solar never sleeps. Keep in mind that you will not be able to get into the USTR hearing due to lack of space. There are a few seats left for Live!, that you can get here.

Schools With Solar. Another great report from The Solar Foundation on Schools going solar, this is released this morning and worth a read. Great roof space, wonderful message to students and excellent credit ratings – every solar should end up with solar on its roofs.

Presented By Standard Solar. With access to $300 million in low-cost project capital, Standard Solar delivers superior solar projects—from start to finish. From development and engineering to construction and maintenance our extensive team of experts guide our partners through each step of the solar-project process.

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Yann

E026: Future of Net Metering In Massachusetts with Senator Boncore, sponsor of the NEM Cap Bill

In this episode of energywakeup Yann is joined by Senator Boncore, the Massachusetts State Senator representing a large part of Boston and Cambridge. He is the sponsor of the net metering cap increase bill that would raise the cap by 5% across the board, clearing a large amount of backlog for SREC II projects. Senator Boncore provides valuable insights on where the policy is going and how it may or may not progress. This interview was recorded at SolarWakeup Live Boston, which means that your competition that attended the event already has this valuable information. Make sure to catch previous episode on your favorite podcast platform, episodes with Mike Judge from Mass DOER Jon Wellinghoff on the DOE NOPR Sunpower’s Tom Werner are now available 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 EnergyWakeup is helping you. [soundcloud id='362303120' height='false'] YANN: So our first speaker Senator Joseph Boncore. This is his district, we are in his market. He represents Cambridge Winthrop. [inaudible 00:00:08] you are-- either you are his customer or he is your customer, depending on if it's election season or not Winthrop Revere and Boston senator Boncore has served on the Winthrop Housing Board, and was elected to the state Senate about 18 months ago in a special election. Most importantly, and the reason we have him here today is he's the sponsor of Senate bill 1824, which raises the net metering cap by 5%. This is a vital aspect of the solar market and clearly something that we want to hear about the bill has not been signed by the governor yet and it hasn't passed. But that is what we want to find out about. Welcome to solar wake up live senator. SENATOR: Thank you, thank you for having me. YANN: So, you have in front of you a nice crowd of what represents the Massachusetts solar market. And most importantly, these are the people that are running businesses. They would probably have a couple thousand jobs represented here of solar companies. You're not on the Energy Committee, but yet you sponsored Senate, Senate bill 1824. Tell us the story of how that happened. SENATOR: So, I am not in the energy committee I don’t have much of background in solar obviously you know as millennial, which I am, I can put myself in that category. It's something I see some fellow Millennial’s here in the front row. It's something that Millennial’s are definitely concerned about. I represent a district that encompasses, you know, it's a very coastal district, so people in my district are very concerned with climate change things of that nature. But I also represent a very innovative district, where in my district, I represent all of Vinnie Street, I represent all of the financial district in downtown Boston, also part of my district. So, these are two places where solar has kind of you know taking a lead. It's obviously important to the district, not just I don't have a lot of manufacturing, and I think you know, when we talk about solar, and on the legislative level, you know, we like to talk about manufacturing. But there's so much more around innovation I think, and around obviously capital and financial, financial companies that are investing in solar. So as I would say, though I wasn't a you know, you know, proponent so I believed in solar you know, my district, my life experience as a public defender, you know led me to a criminal justice background and to work on bills like that. You know, my housing background led me to be, I'm now chair of the housing the Senate's Housing Committee. But just looking at my district, the people I represent, the companies I represent, you know, and knowing the 2020 goals that we're trying to get to here in Massachusetts, and how woefully inadequate we are in getting there or, where our track has been, I thought that solar was a was a good position for me to take and obviously, raising the net metering cap by 5% for public and private industry, is it's going to help and get us to 2020 goals. YANN: So, tell us where the bill stands now, where it goes from here and sort of some of the barriers that you're encountering in the legislative process. SENATOR: So, you know, I would say the bill as it currently stands I filed it in January, at the beginning of the session, we should all understand there's over 2000 bills filed in the legislature. So that bill was reported to the Telecom utilities and Energy Committee short for TUE, if I reference that, that's what it means, that's shared by Senate Barrett on this, and the Senate side, and representative golden on the house side. So we were able to get the bill heard. So the bill was heard last month. So we’re rating the legislative process is that, after a bills reported out it will be-- after it's heard it'll be reported out favorably or unfavorably, favorably by the committee, either way whatever wage reported out it will come back to the Senate. I would say in Massachusetts the Senate has been the body of innovation technology and especially around solar, they've been the driving force in the legislature and some of these issues. So, I think we're in a good spot where the bill will be ported hopefully you report it out and shorter order it'll get over to the Senate, and after it's to the Senate, we'll put it to a vote, for all the Senators to vote on. Thereafter, it'll go to the house. The biggest impediment that I see right now in the legislative process is that last year Massachusetts took up a pretty common-- Well, it started out as a very comprehensive, what we would call a legislative omnibus of energy policy. It got watered down, probably to a minibus by the time we took it up. But I would say that there was some net metering, some net metering legislation within that package. And where had Massachusetts, had typically relied 1% increases, and that metering, for the past somewhat years. Since net metering has become a common topic, this bill actually increased net metering by 3%. So, I would say the majors impact-- the major impediment is to that legislators who are dealing with you know, two thousand other bills may not see the priority that we all see in this room. Legislators from across the state who don't represent innovative districts like I do or financial districts like I do, don't see the problem or the necessity to raise a net metering cap. So you know, I think that's on me in the legislature to bring that up. But it's on everyone in this room to make sure that legislators across the Commonwealth are understanding that, when we raised it to 3% that just dealt with a lot of the backlog, the backlog projects that we have in Massachusetts, I mean in Massachusetts is more than 120 projects across the Commonwealth that in backlog. So if we raise enough metering cap again by 1%, we're going to deal with the backlog. But we're not moving the Commonwealth forward, so you know, we need to raise it to 5% to deal with some of that backlog and move on because when we have backlog, that means jobs for the Commonwealth. That means, people aren't working, Massachusetts employs over 15,000 people in your industry, this is something I don't need to tell you, I know. But you know when people aren't working when capital's tied up, you know, you know that's a real problem. Currently, with the 120 jobs, there's somewhere in the neighborhood of 72 million dollars tied up in capital investments that can't come to fruition because of the net metering cap. Where it's that, I mean, in overall the net metering capital, it makes about 6% of the state's energy portfolio. So I think it's you know, it's time to bring the conversation to the next level. YANN: So, given the fact that the solar market, in Massachusetts has 15,000 workers and real jobs right, I mean, solar now represents probably a job in every representative district and state Senate District, why do you think there's still a lack of perceived power, political influence and political power in the solar industry when it comes to working the state legislative process? SENATOR: I mean, again I mean you're dealing with industry, other industries that have just been in the state legislature for so much longer. You know, and it's a bandwidth issue. I mean, like I said, we deal with a lot of bills in the state legislature and you know, you guys your industry is relatively new to the Commonwealth and it's you know, being there it's being in front of us it's activating a base. It's letting not just the lobbyists and the activists know at the top levels, but letting the constituents know and getting the message all the way down. So, legislators are dealing with this situation and talking about solar you know, there's a perception you know, that Solar is intended for you know, a dentist who works in-- who lives in a very high flew affluent community, and you know some people, most people I would say, you know who aren't in the industry don't realize that it can affect everybody. It affects you know, it's not just a solar bill, but it's a jobs bill. It's an economic stimulus for the entire Commonwealth and it's a--you know, there's middle-income earners in solar as high-income earners and solar and it affects everybody, you know. When me and my staff are drafting this bill, I almost wanted to call it and that metering bill for the purpose of creating jobs. Because when you talk about creating jobs, I think it resonates with more legislators across the Commonwealth. YANN: Is there you know kind of going on that topic? Is there a political risk for anyone that votes against your bill? SENATOR: I would say so. I mean, I would say you know, I would say this is a political risk with certain demographics. When they don't invest-- when they don't vote for the bill, I think with the rhetoric going on at the national level as to you know, what climate change is, what renewable energy is, I mean it's on us at the local level to take up this mantle and I think in you know in California which probably leads the nation in solar development and investment and in Massachusetts which is second, I mean on those two coasts, I think any legislature not paying at any mind or being a void of what the real realities of not moving towards a renewable energy portfolio or strengthening that and having government influence, and making sure that that's growing. I think that that any legislator who doesn't-- who would vote against raising it a mere 5% is taking a huge political risk. YANN: So, you know the other side of the table you mentioned, the jobs and the job creation that this generates is that the people that are using solar energy in almost every project that I've been involved in and most of the room the consumer is also saving money. You served on a Housing Authority board and housing authorities have become one of the largest counter parties to solar projects. There's still a perception that as you mentioned that this only helps the affluent dentist. From a-- for those and I know there are some bills to also work on this issue, you know, what does it represent to middle and low income energy consumers when it comes to having access to more solar energy? SENATOR: I mean I think you know they're realizing it, I mean what are you talking about middle income earners, even low income earners, these are people who are not planning financially you know, and a lot of instances for the future. So, they don't see an investment today oftentimes paying dividends tomorrow. And when you talk about housing authorities you know, in some housing authorities these people on subsidized housing who aren't paying the energy bill, the housing authority in fact pays the energy bill. And that's why the public sector cap, is about 1% higher because the state sees it, but to get it to the end user is a different discussion. And I think when we start to talk about community solar and on the municipal level, you know changing ordinances and having a say at the municipal level in opening up solar farms, which would be very difficult in my district it's obviously densely populated, but having some form of community solar, letting the end-user see in their energy bill what the real results are. You know I think we're getting there, I think by the good work everyone here is doing and having a conversation like this, you know we're getting it to where it should be going. YANN: So, you know your bill covers net metering, but we have a parallel track going on in Massachusetts right now is smart. The DOER has finalized its rules and now it's at the D P U. The, there is a combination of the two being that the parties that are trying to influence, maybe water down some of this policy is on both your bill as well as the D P U process currently. How powerful is the anti solar or the, I want to slow solar down legislative force in Massachusetts? SENATOR: I mean, I think it's you know when we're talking about growth of an industry, obviously were taking away from another industry and an effect and I think that was the idea of you know meter capping, what we're doing in that metering and also what smart growth. You know we're trying-- well smart growth is a little different. I don't see smart growth directly related, I do see smart growth as a plan by the governor and the administration to ensure that incentives, you know weren't so out of whack that the end user is the rate payer you know it wasn't worthwhile anymore. So kudos, to the governor and his administration for taking on this issue and I'm beginning to understand this issue. And that's what-- they're going to do, what they're going to do. They're going to set up the regular-- they set up the regulatory framework, they had to go through D P U, you know and as the governor does that, I think we can't be complacent with that? I think we still need to have this conversation about raising the cap. I mean smart growth was a legislative initiative, to get the incentives back into whack and ensure that, you know the tax incentives were made sense now, that more people are using solar. So, while that's tracking, we still need to keep our eyes on the prize with net metering and raising that cap. So, I mean I do see them a little separate but I think you know listen, there to the original question, you know we are battling you know fossil fuel industry that that's been very powerful. I think Massachusetts does have an advantage with local activist groups and people who have stepped up and kind of you know taken on that cause, so it's at all levels of government people are having that conversation. YANN: If you were to look back and I mean Massachusetts I don't know the numbers second or third biggest solar market now definitely on a per capita basis nationally, especially outside of California, solar industry kind of there's California and there's X California. How would you view the progress that Solar has made over the past five or so years and what kind of advice would you give to the solar market and solar advocates, on how they can continue to improve in both legislative messaging and market penetration? SENATOR: I mean seeing we are the number two market for solar growth in the country, I think Massachusetts has made incredible strides. Massachusetts has a 2020 goal of getting to 1600 megawatts of solar energy on the grid and I think so, where I think comparatively to other states you know, we're really on the cutting edge. As we are on most things, I like to say so, I think in the past five years just setting goals, having goals and making the investments. We have five billion in investments in solar energy in Massachusetts, you know comparatively per capita or otherwise that’s really big. I think the advice to-- my advice to solar energy is you know this is an easy conversation for the senator from Boston and Cambridge to have because I have financial institutions in my district, I have innovative institutions right here we're in one of them you know. I think as we talk to other legislators, we need to change a little bit of the rhetoric on how we're talking about. We need to make sure that you know it is jobs we're talking about, its development, its economic development and when we grow solar in a responsible way, you know that it's not us first Sam, it's not versus first, fossil fuels but it's growing in a way that it's going to bring down the cost to the end-user in the Berkshires if a solar farms built out there. And it's really very much making it a local issue I think in government it's something that's lost. I think it's something that's starting to come ahead now, with kind of the lack of work going on in Washington DC in Congress and with the executive branch. But you know making it a local issue and letting know the end user from all across the Commonwealth is going to see you know their pocketbooks hit or not hit or you know and making sure that people, everyone has access to solar. And it's not just for the dentist from Lexington Massachusetts, it's for you know-- the middle income earner and the Berkshires or Springfield or Wooster. I think moving the rhetoric that way it's just going to help the entire market from the top down. YANN: So, there's an ongoing movement in the solar industry to engage more of our-- I mean there's 270,000 people now working in the solar industry in the US. And there's an ongoing push to try to get some of them to run for public office. I don't think there are any solar professionals in the state legislature here now, but what would you-- what kind of advice would you give to you know to someone that wanted to run for office to move certain things forward? And given some of your background and your expertise and the work you're doing in criminal justice based on your background. How valuable is it to have a member of the legislature that has some domain expertise and can have the conversation you're saying without sort of the advocates in the room? SENATOR: Yeah, I mean it I think it's you know it's incredibly beneficial to have you know somewhat of an expert in the room. You know, just last week the Senate took up criminal justice reform. You know, I've been in the Senate for 18 months, there are people who have been in the Senate for 30 years you know I had more to say and more influence on that bill than probably any other senator in the room, just because of my background and experience. So, to have someone familiar with the industry, like I said before I wasn't familiar with the industry, I have this one issue and that metering that I'm happy to champion and carry because it makes good sense to me. But beyond that to get into the weeds on this some of this stuff, you know I would encourage someone from the industry to run you know. Hopefully not against me, so I want to be very clear with that, no but even, if you did run against me, you know you know elections are a good place to bring out these issues and press the issues. And you know even if you don't win, you make sure that your opponent or the person you're running against for that seat, you know has an idea of what's going on. You really press them you bring them up to speed, as it will go. So, I would say that experts in the industry, as long as you're that's not the only reason you're running and as long as you're not so much of an ideologue around it. That you're not able to work with others to get to a goal, because we can't in this country and in the state you know let good be the evil of perfect right? We got to be able to get there and we got to get to good. I mean this makes a lot of sense for everybody in the room to get to 5%, probably makes a lot of sense of everybody in this room to get to 10%. But we need to work in a collaborative way and to ensure that everyone in the Common wealth is heard and dealt with and it's a process. And ideologues typically don't make the best legislators; because they're a little too you know they're not pragmatic about getting to a solution. So-- but expertise in the legislature, because of the bandwidth of legislators and the fact that there's 2,000 bills right there, that we're dealing with this session, I mean some expertise in an area will truly you know you'll be a legislator on such ago. YANN: So, a) were you surprised when Sia-- I mean the way I found out about this bill is Sia last month wrote a press release saying, “Massachusetts needs to step up and pass your bill.” And so that kind of got some national attention on the issue. And you know how helpful was that and handicapped the forward progress, because the worst thing in the solar industry is the uncertainty. When you don't know if you can make an investment to hire someone or when you're looking at a customer in the eye and say I don't know what the value of the net metering will be, that hurts and that stops progress and investment. Handicap for us how this looks going forward. SENATOR: I mean, I think with the national recognition it's gotten and with the local recognition, I hope you will all still push for, you know it looks pretty good. I mean there is an understanding with certain members of TUE, the telecoms utilities an Energy Committee that I talked to, that this needs to be done. So, I'd say those people who are in the trenches with this bill and the hundreds of other bills that just that committees dealing with, they understand that something has to be done. I can speak to the Senate President Stan Rosenberg, he knows we need to raise the cap. He knows that doing what we're doing is just helping some of the backlog and not garnering further investment, further capital, further job growth in the Commonwealth. So, I'd say there are people that understand it, but not everyone does it's not a priority for everyone and I think it's, you know we need to get it down to the level of each individual legislature in the Commonwealth. Their constituents need to be talking about this as a priority. Their constituents need to see the benefit of the job growth of solar being really, for everyone, for every level of income earner and they need to see the progress that can be made with what solar. So, I'd say the bill will look really good coming out of the Senate. I would say in decamp it very high coming out of the senate and then as we as it gets further down the process and over to the house, we're going to need a bigger push on that under. YANN: Any of you on timing of when you think this could happen? SENATOR: Again, I'm not on the committee, so I can't even speak that when it will be reported out. You know I'm happy I've written and my staff has written letters to see that it's reported out after the hearing, but our legislative cycle goes through next July. So, I you know I would expect it to come out of it to at least be debated on the floor before that. YANN: Okay, so a little bit on a federal issue and because we know that you have the year of the president there the trade— SENATOR: The senate president? YANN: [laughter] No, the other guy. The trade commission, early this morning voted for recommendation to increase the cost of solar panels by about 35%, in what some would dub a protectionist move brought on by some players in the solar market. SENATOR: I would agree with those people. YANN: Which ones? SENATOR: The protectionist. YANN: Yeah, the protectionist and what message would you-- so now the president's going to decide if there should be increased costs of solar modules. What would you say to the president, what the impact of that might be to your constituents and the folks that you're talking to in the solar market here in Massachusetts and the taxpayers given that this would have an impact across the board? SENATOR: What would I say to the president? That's an interesting question [laughter]. But in this realm and then we're adding solar what I would say to him is that, in Massachusetts we're doing a lot to grow solar in a responsible way. To make sure that the end user, the rate payer is seeing the benefit of solar. I would tell this president that, this protectionist move and this ruling is not going to benefit solar. Making solar more expensive to people is going to stymie growth and we can't have this stymie of growth. You know, this is one place where if foreign markets are creating you know a similar product for less money at this time and at this special time and growing this economy forward, that we need to keep costs low to grow the industry. We need if we-- if investors I mean if finance companies are seeing that it's too expensive to do it, I mean there's other places they can spend this money, there's other places they will spend this money. Solar growth in this Commonwealth and across this nation is what we need to do for future generations. So, I would advise against it, I'm sure he would tweet something at me on the other end that was unrelated and something probably about me personally. But, I would certainly advise against it and let him know that, you know an investment in solar is an investment in our future. YANN: So, I want to thank you for your leadership, I join everyone in the room to wish for your success in this especially this bill. SENATOR: Our success. YANN: Our success or your success to make us more successful and please give a round of applause for the senator [Applause].

This is your SolarWakeup for November 28th, 2017

Moving Puerto Rico Forward. As Puerto Rico continues its recovery from Hurricane Maria, it is undoubtedly planning for the next step in recovery. There are less eyes and ears focused on the initial emergency response but as a solar industry, there are still great people with knowledge and resources helping create the next grid. A network of interconnected microgrids with a grid system made to maximize the distributed generation.

Join Representative Gonzalez-Colon. To further this conversation, I will be joined by Congresswoman Gonzalez Colon. She represents the Americans of Puerto Rico in the US House of Representatives. Gonzalez-Colon spent time in the Puerto Rico legislature with a clear understanding of the many factor that impact the energy market. She will be at SolarWakeup Live! DC to tell the solar industry about the current state of relief in Puerto Rico and how solar can continue to work on the effort.

Rural Utility Co-Ops. Some of the best solar deals in America will happen in co-ops that you’ve never heard of. Co-ops have boards made up by customers and don’t share the need to deploy capital for a return to a 3^rd party. Given the circumstances, co-ops make sure that any transaction has long term benefit to customers. Keep your eyes on this space.

Run For Something. We focus a lot on congressional seats and utility commissions but we rarely talk about the need to run for the boards at utility companies that serve you. If you live in a co-op served geography, think about finding your way into that board room. If you need to run for a seat, make sure to let the solar industry know so we can be supportive.

Solar World Without SolarWorld. SolarWorld is spending some of its remaining capital buying ads on solar publication platforms. I’m disappointed to see publications take their money, I wouldn’t take their money because the success of SolarWorld in the 201 petition would mean a smaller solar industry and a negative market for you, the readers. As a reader, you have a choice on where to get your news, which I recognize with every new subscriber. My frustration sits with the fact that this is the 3^rd time SolarWorld has come back to the trough and keeps wanting more. The solar industry is united in its opposition because this case is bad for solar and has already caused drastic impacts on business planning.

Presented By True Green Capital.  Our current partnership, Fund III, is actively seeking investment opportunities and channel partners to deploy capital in a scalable focused on DG and small scale projects.  Fund III has ~$350million in equity commitments to build out a ~$1billion solar portfolio.

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Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for November 27th, 2017

8 Days Out. Next Wednesday, December 6^th, is a big day for solar. If you aren’t going to DC, you will be missing the coordinated efforts to move solar forward. More below.

Live! DC. Tickets are about half gone but you can still get in with a 50% off black Friday special. Join me as I speak with Andrea Luecke, Amy Harder and Lidija Sekaric. We’ll have a few more speakers to announce through this week but rest assured, the conversations will be worthwhile. So, if you are not waving signs in front of the USTR hearing, you should be here. I look forward to seeing you.

USTR. The public comment period has ended and now the trade representative will hear testimony from relevant parties about the case. This appears to be less about the case law, as it was in the 201 proceedings, but about the politics and real life impacts that a tariff would cause on the industry. I know that Trump’s comments of “I want tariffs” is in the back of everyone’s mind but jobs and foreign policy is also in play. Senators are also legitimately involved in this process and nobody wants a trade war with China over solar panels, that would be a lose/lose.

Solar Happy Hour. At the top of this email you will find a link to a solar happy hour for December 6^th. After attending SolarWakeup Live and the USTR hearing, join Vote Solar, SEIA and SolarWakeup as we host a happy hour. Short notice means limited space available, send me an email to get on the list.

Michigan Solar. PURPA tariffs for solar are looking good in Michigan. While limited to 2MW projects, the contracts are 20 years which are attractive for any solar investor. Will this be the next North Carolina?

Equal Time Is Flawed. You won’t find it here and it restates the same tired arguments. Matt Card from Suniva has an op-ed out and the Washington Post ran it as some sort of equal time contribution. When an argument is 99% to 1%, the 1% doesn’t get equal time but journalists feel the need to provide equal coverage. Not here, especially not when you are paid to lie.

Big Storage. Australia is leading the charge on big storage. As I’ve mentioned in the past, this is where I have been spending a large amount of my non-SolarWakeup time. The value of large storage is more than move energy from one time period to another especially when coupled with a solar farm. You can’t just co-locate storage with a solar farm, two inverters means two systems. What you want is energy storage behind the solar inverter, moving energy in and out of a single point of interconnect.

Presented By NTCIC. National Trust Solar is a subsidiary of the National Trust for Community Investment Corporation.  We enable historic, new market and solar tax credit investments in support of communities nationwide.  Since our beginning in 2000, we have raised more than $1 billion in tax credits.  We are recruiting new sponsors and hiring for our dynamic team.

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Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for November 21st, 2017

Happy Thanksgiving. 50/50 shot at a newsletter coming your way so I am taking the time to thank you for your continued readership and support for our Live! events. Interacting and learning from you makes this a path worth undertaking. If you buy tickets for DC and sell out the event this week, I’ll be even more thankful.

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Have a great day!
Yann