This is your SolarWakeup for November 4th, 2016
Net Metering Appeals. Vote Solar appealed a district court ruling in Nevada. The original lawsuit complaint asked for the reinstatement of net metering to existing customers and provide net metering to all future customers as required by Nevada law. While existing customers got NEM back, new customers did not and Vote Solar is seeking to change that. Our coverage.
Managing the pricing deterioration. As pricing deteriorates market wide, First Solar announced ways to counteract the pure pricing battle. At some point, price of the modules will be taken into consideration with land costs and efficiency of the modules. Wall Street was not comforted by the transparency and the stock traded down 15%.
The Florida saga continues. After filing for relief to the Supreme Court, solar advocates got news today. The Supreme Court will review the ballot question again. The voters are unlikely to see any action prior to Tuesday’s voting day as Floridians have been voting for over a week already.
Total eclipse of the heart. Normally, comments from the CEO of Total about solar would not raise eyebrows but Total is controlling stakeholder in SunPower one of the largest players in the US market. This time the CEO called the coming of a ‘new winter’ with the double threat of over capacity and lower demand. Global forecasts still see growing demand but his reference may be about SunPower focused markets.
The nuclear struggles are real. A 5th nuclear power plant since 2013 has been announced to be closed. This time Fort Calhoun in Nebraska which is owned by Omaha Public Power. The 5 plants have an output roughly equal to the total output of all solar power in the US which means the next iteration of solar needs to make up the difference once again.
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Vote Solar Appeals Court Ruling – Seeks Full Net Metering in Nevada
Vote Solar is appealing the district courts ruling that reinstated net metering for existing customers, grandfathering the policy for those customers. The original lawsuit called for net metering to be put back in place for all customers after the PUCN eliminated it. The appeal calls for net metering to be offered by the electric utilities to all customers as required by Nevada law. The solar advocacy group is represented by local counsel and Earthjustice. Attorney from Earthjustice, Sara Gersen, said, “Nevada law requires utilities to offer net metering. By ensuring the Commission follows the law, the Nevada Supreme Court can put clean energy … Read More
This is your SolarWakeup for November 3rd, 2016
A day of vertical disintegration. First Solar announced its 3rd quarter earnings yesterday. Highlighted weren’t the financials because the company announced the sale of Skytron to a German firm just two years after acquiring the company. It also made some mention on the analyst call that it could skip gen 5 of the module and focus on getting gen 6 out in to the market ahead of original plans. With $688 million in revenues during the quarter and $154 million in profits, the company is now refining its focus on module manufacturing and sales.
Florida, Florida, Florida. Solar advocates filed a lawsuit to bring the issue back to the Supreme Court and ask the Secretary of State to embargo the results. At the heart of the complaint is the leaked audio which offers “proof” that amendment backers mislead voters. SEIA also released a poll commissioned by SolarCity that showed that the voter education campaigns is working. In less than a month, support for the amendment went from 71% to 51%. It needs 60% to pass.
Paris for Oil&Gas Companies. 7 Oil and Gas company CEOs are joining forces in a renewable energy fund. The goal is to fund technologies, promote renewable energy and seek an active role against climate change according to Reuters. More details will be announced in London tomorrow.
Small dollars, big impact. Frank speaks with Dr. Jones-Albertus in today’s United States of Solar podcast about the $21.4 million DOE granted to 17 projects in an effort to cut soft costs. SunShot has now met their goal of $1/watt utility scale and it is great to see them find more areas to reduce the cost of solar to consumers across the Country.
State of the day. Solar policy fights are getting expensive. SolarCity is looking to put $2 million into non-profits for the Arizona ACC elections and promote solar while Pinnacle West will put in at least $1 million. Pinnacle West remains under subpoena and grand jury investigation by the US Attorney.
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United States Of Solar: The DOE Decides To Attack Solar Soft Costs
In mid-October, the Department of Energy announced it was providing $21.4 million to 17 projects across the United States to investigate the best ways to bring down solar’s soft costs. Dr. Rebecca Jones-Albertus is overseeing the projects, and we asked her to talk about this critical work.
Florida Polling Shows Anti-Solar Amendment Behind
In a poll commissioned by SolarCity, released today by SEIA, Amendment 1 is showing a change in sentiment from the voters. In the most recent poll, 51% of respondents said that will definitely or probably vote yes on the amendment. That is a steep decrease from a month ago when 71% said that yes would likely be their vote.
The poll was conducted over two periods. From 9/29 - 10/09 and from 10/20 - 10/25 which showed the change in sentiment by the likely voters. 528 respondents were polled and a strong level of support for definitely voting yes was found at 30% meaning that the amendment needs another 30% to reach the 60% required to pass. 22%, down from 40%, still find themselves leaning towards yes while 11% are undecided, down from 15%.
In a poll commissioned by SolarCity, released today by SEIA, Amendment 1 is showing a change in sentiment from the voters. In the most recent poll, 51% of respondents said that will definitely or probably vote yes on the amendment. That is a steep decrease from a month ago when 71% said that yes would likely be their vote. The poll was conducted over two periods. From 9/29 – 10/09 and from 10/20 – 10/25 which showed the change in sentiment by the likely voters. 528 respondents were polled and a strong level of support for definitely voting yes was found … Read More
This is your SolarWakeup for November 2nd, 2016
People agree on solar! We start the day with some of our own coverage about a new registered voter poll by Pew. The result is interesting because Trump and Clinton voters apparently agree on a single issue. America is united around solar! The other takeaway is that when it comes to fracking and nuclear, we are also united in our desire for less of it.
A memo from Elon. After his trip to Wisteria Lane, Elon had to follow up his powerpoint with a strategic rationale memo. On November 17th, investors will vote on the sale/purchase at SolarCity and Tesla. Obviously it’s a crucial moment for Tesla to become more than a car company, though they make really awesome cars.
Tale of micro markets. It’s getting rough in solar hardware again. After a Q3 from Enphase that sold 869k inverters and revenues of $88.7mm, the company still lost $18.8mm. Analysts seemed to focus on storage however, a market growing for Enphase primarily in Australia currently.
Endorsements aren’t for sale. After $26mm spent on the Florida ballot amendment, one thing is still missing for the utilities. Endorsements from the newspapers continue to elude the effort to kill solar. The tally is 25 against the ballot amendment and 0 in support. Enough said.
All In on free markets.Voters in Nevada also get to chime in on energy policy next week. An effort led by funding from Switch and Las Vegas Sands is attempting to essentially deregulate and break up the NV Energy monopoly in Nevada. Both companies have been active in getting more energy from the free markets and solar power plants.
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This is your SolarWakeup for November 1st, 2016
It’s Tuesday and we are just 8 days away from election day in the US! Scary Face of Energy. The winner on Halloween for continued marketing chops is the Department of Energy. Their Twitter account went with an adaptation of the Netflix original, Stranger Things. Can Money Buy Utility Happiness? If so, what does it cost? In Florida we learned that in October the happiness cost over $3.5 million for the investor owned utilities. PACs added another million for the month bringing the overall total spent to kill net metering to $26 million. Are We Halfway There Yet? New York announced the landmark 50% clean energy standard a few months ago. For the solar industry, New York continues to be the next place to go and early developers have gone to set the groundwork. This week, the leaders in the energy space in New York are getting together in Albany to discuss the CES. Salmon Eats Salmon. Washington has an interesting ballot fight going on as well. A unprecedented carbon tax is on the ballot and the opposition is not the usual anti clean energy front group. This time it comes in the form of ‘we aren’t doing it well enough, fast enough’ environmental groups. Walls of Protectionism Suck. All the protectionism, trade duties and anti-dumping tariffs aren’t helping SolarWorld. The company missed its earnings and projections again on lower revenues and losing $30 million in 2016.
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The Clinton And Trump Supporters Venn Diagram of Agreement
When it comes to an overlap of issues that both Clinton and Trump supporters agree on, the issues are limited. Issues on energy are no different and show a large divergence on all fossil fuel issues but there is some agreement. In a poll conducted from August 16th to September 12th by Pew Research, 1,324 registered voters were asked about their support regarding coal, fracking, nuclear, wind and solar.
When it comes to an overlap of issues that both Clinton and Trump supporters agree on, the issues are limited. Issues on energy are no different and show a large divergence on all fossil fuel issues but there is some agreement. In a poll conducted from August 16th to September 12th by Pew Research, 1,324 registered voters were asked about their support regarding coal, fracking, nuclear, wind and solar. Mr. Trump has been very supportive of coal, in particular clean coal, that it comes up during debates and is a standard part of his stump speech. The effort goes to reach … Read More
This is your SolarWakeup for October 31st, 2016
Loaded news day for you. Shine upon my roof. SolarCity (which was really Tesla) announced their vision for the future of solar on Friday. Solar tiles and slates in a variety of shapes and colors will integrate solar and roofing material. My takeaway is that Tesla is looking to get into the roof replacement cycle and make the financial decision a bit different. The challenges and unknowns remain. No real details about efficiency, codes, design, partners or cost was released by Tesla. We are living dangerously. Last night we had the season premier of the Nat Geo show, Years of Living Dangerously. Solar in India was highlighted with a hat tip to Ohio’s factory of First Solar. The highlight of the show was the Nevada policy fight featuring Sunrun and former NRG CEO, David Crane. Cecily Strong from SNL was the host of the segment even got a tour of the Mandalay Bay solar roof. Build a wall, save a solar panel. Imagine a solar company going to a Trump rally and getting most of the people to agree with them. In this case it was all caught on video and really well produced. Watch it here. Trump likes solar, if he outlives it. In an ad libbed section of his stump speech, Trump went off script in Colorado this weekend. You can read the entire text of the solar portion, but he is telling his supporters in Colorado that solar has a 28 year payback while modules only last 10 years. Time for someone to educate the man in the Trump Tower that even solar on that roof may have a better payback than 28 years.
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Yann
Trump Believes That Solar Has A 28 Year Payback, Modules Last 10 years
In a speech in Golden, CO, Trump said this about solar. Clearly he is mistaken about solar and it was not vetted by the campaign, because here is the script that showed on the teleprompter. You can see the speech here, renewable energy starts at 31:48. According to Trump, solar panels last 10 years and payback is 28 years.