This is your SolarWakeup for April 3rd, 2017

Flat Earth Society. In this political environment, we take normal events that shouldn’t be news to be breaking news. Take Chris Wallace from Fox News as an example of just that. In an interview with Scott Pruitt, who does the bidding for polluting oil and gas companies, Wallace pushed back on Pruitt’s false comments on effects of humans on climate change. This comes in the wake of the disastrous cuts to the EPA and DOE programs that keep our water and air supply clean. If you look at pollution in some cities, drinking water in places like Flint and eroding beaches in South Florida, you would see that more work is needed. Keep up the good work Chris Wallace, maybe we should start a club for anchors that still think the earth is flat and convince them that science is real.
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Legislative Agendas Across America. One week during legislative gives anti solar efforts in Indiana, Ohio and Missouri. Of course there are more attacks under way and efforts to enhance solar in some States. The problem is these policies are being argued in places where solar is yet to go mainstream. Local installers are there already but few on the national level are paying attention because it doesn’t drive their bottom line. I don’t know what the solution is, we used to have TASC and SolarCity with big budgets. We have to figure out a way that the bi-partisan support for solar is translated to local legislative fights. Legislators at the State level want to go to Congress and we should, as an industry make it clear to them that if they want to go to Congress, being anti-solar is going to make you lose your election.
Make sure you listen to the latest episode of EnergyWakeup. Google is now at 100% renewables, how do they do it and what is next? Sam Arons talks to SolarWakeup.

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Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for March 31st, 2017

Back in the home office after a week in San Francisco. I went to cover the asset management event because I was curious to see how the 40GW of US projects are being managed. Still a very immature market but its filled with software platforms doing asset management, performance analytics and O&M ticketing. There are also established/larger companies like Mercatus getting into the space. Mercatus announced the expansion of its software adding an asset management to its project platform. That being said, a vast majority of the projects are still being managed in excel files which most vendors called their biggest competitor. Look for more content about this sector, I am officially intrigued.
Consumer Protection. This is the next big thing and it’s not just from the people going after solar. There are definitely forces being pushed and funded by utilities to protect the consumers but the solar industry is abuzz about this as well.  SEIA came out this week with a consumer education system and legislation in State’s like Florida is looking to add protection. I don’t have a problem with the concept but let’s not overreact and overextend. Ask your clients to give you good ratings on platforms like BBB or Google. Earn their trust and don’t let fast talking, fly by night sales people speak for the solar industry. This isn’t a solar problem, this is a problem caused by a few bad actors passing through our industry. Don’t you think there are bad mortgage brokers, roofers, plumbers, etc running around? Nobody in their industry is overreacting.
Help support SolarWakeup. If you are looking for investors or buyers of your projects, hit reply to this email and let us help you. Our expansive network is always looking to partner with you and helps us pay the bills to keep the newsletter free to you, as it has been for the past 4 years.
Raising money, the old fashioned way. First Solar has the biggest war chest in the solar industry with about $2billion worth of capital. Much of that is now going into rebuilding its manufacturing capacity for the Series 6 module. Making money through project development has been the leading way for the company to do as well as it has, riding the PPA contracts through product cost decreases. This time it’s another 250MW solar farm in Nevada.
Make sure you listen to the latest episode of EnergyWakeup. Google is now at 100% renewables, how do they do it and what is next? Sam Arons talks to SolarWakeup.
Squeeze the lemon. Creating finality for SunEdison isn’t going to come without some more fighting. The unsecured creditors have filed objections with the bankruptcy court regarding Brookfield’s acquisition of the TERP and GLBL shares. I’m sure things will still end up the same way but this is part of the process regardless.

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Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for March 30th, 2017

We talk to Google about solar. Yesterday we spoke with Sam Arons from Google about the tech giants achievement to go 100% renewable energy. In this episode of EnergyWakeup, we go deep into how this works and how Google participates in the wholesale markets. In some markets, like North Carolina, Google has had to push utilities that own those markets into new ways for Google to get access to renewable energy. We talk about corporate PPAs and how solar gets a bigger piece of that market going forward. Don’t miss this episode and pass it on to your friends.
Help support SolarWakeup. If you are looking for investors or buyers of your projects, hit reply to this email and let us help you. Our expansive network is always looking to partner with you and helps us pay the bills to keep the newsletter free to you, as it has been for the past 4 years.
Solyndra times 20. Westinghouse, the nuclear power plant contractor, filed for bankruptcy yesterday. Huge news on its own but there is an interesting part of this. The cost overruns of the Southern Company/Oglethorpe Vogtle Nuclear Plant in Georgia had a lot to do with it. The Vogtle Nuke also received an $8.3 billion loan guarantee from the same program that Solyndra got money from. There is a nuance, Southern Company has apparently guaranteed the loan so even if the project fails, Southern will likely pay their portion. Nevertheless, a huge blow to the nuclear industry that is now lacking capable contractors to build plants. If you don’t like the Solyndra comparison, check out this side by side from the Nuclear Energy Institute justifying the loan.
Make sure you listen to the latest episode of EnergyWakeup. Google is now at 100% renewables, how do they do it and what is next? Sam Arons talks to SolarWakeup.
Tariffs don’t work. Exhibit 542 on why protectionism doesn’t work. SolarWorld loses money again and doesn’t see profitability until 2019. How do protectionist policies work for you now?

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Yann

Sam Arons from Google talks about going 100% renewable energy and how corporate PPAs work for them

In this episode of EnergyWakeup, we speak with Sam Arons from Google. Sam is the Lead, Tech and Infrastructure at Google. In short, he is responsible with bringing renewable energy to Google operations and behind the ability for Google to say that they power their operations with 100% renewable energy. In December of 2016, Google shocked the energy world by announcing that they bought 2.6GW worth of renewable energy, almost all of it wind and matched their total operation’s energy usage with renewables. Sam and I get into the details of where they are now and where they want to … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for March 29th, 2017

On the road again this week, covering the asset management market in San Francisco for the next few days. Big shoutout to the folks at Powerhouse. They hosted, thanks to Paul from Folsom Labs a nice networking happy hour. Good to see folks working hard on software innovation in solar.
What Spicer Said. “I think he understands, he does not believe on the outset that there is a binary choice job creation, economic growth and caring about the environment. And that is what we should be focusing on. At the end of the day, where we should be focusing on is making sure that all Americans have clean water, clean air and that we do what we can to preserve out environment.”- Sean Spicer

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Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for March 28th, 2017

On the road again this week, covering the asset management market in San Francisco for the next few days. With so many gigawatts and hundreds of billions of dollars deployed, I wonder how all of this gets managed and maintained. So here I am, stay tuned for some content and I’d love to hear how you solve this.
The Day Is Here. Trump is doing away with the Clean Power Plan. CPP is going to start to unwind which means the EPA will go through some sort of rulemaking process. Flawed data is included in the talking point and its bad for America but we knew this was coming. The early goals of the plan had been met but that wasn’t the point. Now there are some mixed signals to the market and I have a positive outlook. I don’t see how investors that are asked to structure capital for power plants ignore the future carbon regulations that have a big likelihood of coming back. Let the private sector save us from this horrible deregulation.
Help support SolarWakeup. If you are looking for investors or buyers of your projects, hit reply to this email and let us help you. Our expansive network is always looking to partner with you and helps us pay the bills to keep the newsletter free to you, as it has been for the past 4 years.
Vegas Baby. There are quite a few bills being filed in Nevada, we knew they were coming because Assemblyman Brooks told EnergyWakeup a few episodes ago.  The Governor has been quiet but the next few weeks will be telling to see if the bills go through committee. If they are not held up and make it to the opposite chamber or meet for reconciliation, I would be hopeful that the backroom deal with the Governor has been made. NV Energy has made some proposals and their posture may be part of what the Governor is thinking.
Make sure you listen to the latest episode of EnergyWakeup. Wall Street has plenty of ways to invest in solar, so what does analysts say about our industry.
Pleasing the buyer. The Dallas area must be a hotbed for solar because Oncor is asking for solar fees to cover the ‘infrastructure costs.’ We all know that Texas does not yet have a vibrant distributed generation market and this has little to do with actual policy. Oncor’s parent is going through bankruptcy and Oncor is selling itself to NextEra. Maybe that is more telling about why the attacks on solar are happening.

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Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for March 27th, 2017

Go Ducks! Some of my first deals in solar were in Oregon and I have some great memories of the BETC, those were the days. Now the local industry is doing great work to push new policy to revive the industry and get it back to where it was. If you listened to last week’s podcast with Michael Morosi, the wall street analyst, you will have heard some of the challenges in the solar market. Local support goes a long way with legislators as we are seeing around the Country.
Help support SolarWakeup. If you are looking for investors or buyers of your projects, hit reply to this email and let us help you. Our expansive network is always looking to partner with you and helps us pay the bills to keep the newsletter free to you, as it has been for the past 4 years.
SREC Twoooooooo.1. SREC II keeps plugging along. I’m not saying that as a bad thing, the Massachusetts market has been looking for the next iteration for several years. As developers were making well over $1/watt, it’s time to move along and get some sustainability in the policy. So DOER is working on the SMART program and until then SREC II will continue on with completion deadlines of March 31^st of next year at new SREC factors.
Make sure you listen to the latest episode of EnergyWakeup. Wall Street has plenty of ways to invest in solar, so what does analyst Michael Morosi see about our industry.
Solar is still hard. Shunfeng is trying something noble. Consolidating solar from manufacturing, development and assets across multiple holding companies is very difficult. Suniva has been quietly moving high quality modules and adding capacity in the US. The company is loved by DOE and has done great research out of Georgia Tech. The losses don’t appear all that bad given where module prices have gone over the past year.

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Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for March 24th, 2017

The network value. Australia, which hasn’t always been the friendliest place to solar, is adding network value to the benefit of solar. It is looking to create a market dynamic around this value. These are traditional feed in tariff markets and Australia also has quite a complex network system which resembles deregulated US markets. Recently, NY PSC Chair Zibelman has accepted the job to run an Australian grid operator.
Help support SolarWakeup. If you are looking for investors or buyers of your projects, hit reply to this email and let us help you. Our expansive network is always looking to partner with you and helps us pay the bills to keep the newsletter free to you, as it has been for the past 4 years.
No conflict during legislative session in NV. Everyone came together and asked regulators to extend the deadline for grandfathering net metering customers. My guess a little of each of the following played into it. Solar companies are driving through their backlog and maybe squeezing a few more in. Utilities are moving at slower speeds. Legislators are in session now and several solar bills have been filed. It is quite likely that politically, neither the Governor or the utility that will be fighting the legislation wanted upset solar companies cutting workers during the session.
Make sure you listen to the latest episode of EnergyWakeup. Wall Street has plenty of ways to invest in solar, so what does analyst Michael Morosi see about our industry.
Tom Fanning’s fantasy. A clean coal fantasy, a nuclear power plant out of whack and solar offers with premium pricing. Those are the things that get Fanning, the CEO of Southern Company, invited to solar conferences. Of course they also get a giant ratebase and make his shareholders happy. Fanning has done a great job straddling the line of, I like solar and we are doing some while letting others get a piece of the market, with loving any power plant that increases ratebase. On this trajectory, Fanning will clearly be the next chairman of SEPA once he retires and tells us how he would get into the solar business if he was starting his career again. Intellectual honesty folks!

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Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for March 22nd, 2017

I’m in doubt as well. Dow spent what I could only imagine is well over $100 million to develop Powerhouse, solar shingles. It had distribution channel into the roofing industry and yet, couldn’t make it work. Probably the largest residential roofing manufacturer, GAF,  shows a roof integrated solar system called Decotech on its website but also doesn’t have a shingle product. I’m not counting Elon out but gigafactory, solar factory, model 3, SolarCity, SpaceX…solar tiles can’t be too high on the priority list.
Ever wonder why Tallahassee is Florida’s capital? Because nobody goes there during legislative session! A $700 flight or 7 hour drive from South Florida but it’s much easier to reach if you have a corporate utility jet. Floridians overwhelmingly voted for property tax exemptions for solar projects and Florida has this insane process. Constitutional amendments go to the ballot, require a 60% affirmative vote before heading to the legislature for implementation. The legislature then has to pass a bill around the amendment which can get hijacked as it is happening now. FPL, their lobbyists and the legislators are adding a bunch of crap (that wasn’t in the amendment) to the bill that are bad for solar. In Tallahassee, it is all about free markets, except for their votes on monopolies, those aren’t free…
Help support SolarWakeup. If you are looking for investors or buyers of your projects, hit reply to this email and let us help you. Our expansive network is always looking to partner with you and helps us pay the bills to keep the newsletter free to you, as it has been for the past 4 years.
Bring back solar. We spoke with Assemblyman Brooks on EnergyWakeup a few weeks ago about his bill to increase the RPS in Nevada. There have now been more solar bills filed around community solar and net metering. There isn’t a super majority in the Assembly and the Governor is a Republican so let’s see how the negotiations go, maybe time to check in on the Governor’s text messages again to see what NV Energy may be thinking?

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Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for March 21st, 2017

East Coast v West Coast. I’m traveling on the East Coast and it seems like the entire solar industry is congregating in Rancho Bernardo. Send me your thoughts of the show, sounds like well over 1,000 of you are there.
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. The Paris agreement will generate $19 TRILLION in new economic growth and over 6 MILLION jobs. All while saving the planet. And the US wants to leave this agreement?
Help support SolarWakeup. If you are looking for investors or buyers of your projects, hit reply to this email and let us help you. Our expansive network is always looking to partner with you and helps us pay the bills to keep the newsletter free to you, as it has been for the past 4 years.
There will be lawyers. Sungevity employees laid off recently and some checks are bouncing apparently. Lawyers have filed a class action suit. More to come.
The Sunshine State. Didn’t even realize this docket was going on but Gulf Power in Florida, which services Eastern Alabama (aka the Panhandle), was looking to cut net metering in Florida. We have one of the best NEM policies in the Country and it’s super fair to the consumers around the State. Policy teams need to do a better job publicizing bad policy dockets while they are going on.

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Yann