This is your SolarWakeup for June 26th, 2017
I am in Sacramento for the PAC-12 Sustainability Conference. At 11:45 this morning, Bill Walton and I will be speaking about the role of solar on college campuses. What would you want to hear as a college leader about the solar industry?
CalSEIA Leading State Advocacy. It is no secret that CalSEIA is the leading State chapter to advocate for the solar industry. In the latest episode of EnergyWakeup, I speak with Bernadette del Chiaro, the executive director at CalSEIA. She understands how Sacramento works and alongside strong members, the group drives California to continued leadership. Part of her success is that legislators know that CalSEIA represents the solar industry and the industry backs CalSEIA. That is not a given and is oftentimes trickier than you would imagine. SEIA also has a presence in California with multiple staffers, most of the time the groups agree on policy but sometimes they don’t. Many times the groups do not coordinate closely and lobby separately. It eludes me why that would be the case. California is so far ahead, why would SEIA spend any money in the State when it could be spending it in a State with no local presence. What if, hypothetically, SEIA supported States that have budgets over some amount with capital as opposed to redundant resources? Do we need State chapters and SEIA intervening on the same docket? Make sure to listen to this episode, lots of great stuff in there including the most pressing legislative priority for CalSEIA this session.
Must Be Nice. I would be surprised if 10 years from now, electric monopolies weren’t on the way out. If Texas and Connecticut can agree on the deregulation of electric markets, there must be something to the idea. The notion of fuel in power supply introduces a volatility in the equation and it is not fair to consumers to be the only backstop to this financial risk.
Solar Isn’t a Partisan Issue. Clean Air, Clean Water and Clean Energy. Those are issues that Americans agree on. Cheaper Energy? We definitely agree on that. Taking the issue of renewable energy to partisan fights is a bad idea politically and consultants should start reframing the conversation to focus on competition, cost and consumer choice. Sprinkle a bit of resource conservation and property rights on top and you have yourself a libertarian/green party overlap.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for June 23rd, 2017
IPPs Making Changes. The head of Engie has been shifting the business in a whole new direction, selling power assets and making acquisitions including solar and energy storage. There is a long term vision of where the grid is going, away from fuel based assets that have too many inputs in volatile markets. Look for IPPs to diverge into the two directions of asset based and flexibility focused.
John Oliver’s Coal Rant. I missed it earlier this week but John Oliver did a great job explaining what happened to jobs in the coal mining community. For those of us in the solar space it seems obvious but for most Americans the premise of regulations killing coal makes sense. Oliver speaks to a certain audience so I am surprised that he is being sued for little reason because the lawsuit makes more of a story than the original segment.
The Solar Wall. This is really dumb and needs to stop being covered.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for June 22nd, 2017
Come see me in Sacramento next Monday at 11:30am at the PAC-12 Sustainability Conference. Bill Walton and I will preach the solar gospel, hopefully driving campuses and students to be leaders and consumers of solar energy.
The Businesses Lead the Way. I’ve always said that our most important and most unserved advocate is the customer. When was the last time that you spoke to a customer for 2 or more years ago? Activate them to help push a policy or sell them some upgrade? We have to think outside the box on this because we have over a million customers nationally, that is a powerful target audience to help us all, including to refer more business to our industry.
Oak Tree Is Making Moves. I don’t know if Oak Tree is really into wire harnesses or the investment partner was hoping to wear cargo shorts more often. The key question for this deal is obvious, what was Dean wearing in the investment meeting??? Congrats to the whole Shoals team!
Turn the LePage. Maine needs to keep working on its policy. Every State matters and every year matters but as State fights go, sessions start and end but the education on solar policy never stops.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for June 21st, 2017
Long day in California which ended in Sacramento for a day of meetings surrounding the AEE conference.
PAC-12 Sustainability. Come see me on Monday the 26th in Sacramento at the PAC-12 Sustainability Conference. I’ll be talking with Bill Walton about the important work students and universities play in our markets. I hope to see you there.
Solar Foundation Solstice. This Thursday, anyone in the DC area should be at the Solar Foundation Summer Solstice event. Now, more than ever, we need to support the important work that the Solar Foundation does for our industry. Get your tickets here!
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for June 20th, 2017
Great first day in the Bay Area to talk about how the solar industry is entering and integrating energy storage. What is your top issue when studying storage for your solar project?
Solar Wins In Africa. Just a few years ago there was a conversation about the need to energize Africa using central power and transmission. The data now shows that solar is doing the job needed to electrify many areas without the need for costly transmission. Add hybrid power systems in microgrids to high power demand areas and you can create an entirely distributed grid.
100% Renewables? Can we get to a grid with 100% renewables by the middle of the century? In my mind, it is absolutely feasible if we have the right price signals.
Are Corporates Getting Smarter? From a development standpoint, corporates and other C&I customers have so many tools at their disposal to control their energy costs. Islanded and behind the meter microgrids can be built to their needs with the power inputs that the client wants. With steep declines in energy storage costs and new technologies, distributed power will not only be distributed but also potentially a microgrid that is smarter than we have been accustomed to.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for June 19th, 2017
I am on the way to San Francisco as I spend the last week of the Energy Storage Road Show in the Bay Area with a quick stop in Sacramento on Wednesday.
Sandoval Goes Back To Politics. The legislature in Nevada crafted really forward thinking policy for its constituents this year. The Governor was quiet throughout the process and after signing the net metering bill on Thursday, vetoed 2 bills related to solar on Friday. The first would have created a community solar market in Nevada which would have brought solar to renters and homeowners with bad roofs for solar. He also stopped the bill that would have increased the RPS to 40%. Much of this was in response to opposition by ‘the boulevard’ and his continued hope to move to Washington. A missed opportunity in my opinion for the Governor to play politics by supporting solar.
Faces To Political Issues. Mainstream news outlets are doing a good job to see who is affected by the changing economy. This isn’t a good/bad economy problem, but a old/new job opportunity issue. As part of this, I would like to hear from you about interesting career paths on your teams. There is a political connotation to this and I want to show that people from all sorts of backgrounds found work in solar. Did they come from oil or coal? Laid off from another trade contractor? Anything interesting and appeals to mainstream America, please send me an email.
Florida Hates Taxes. We don’t have an income tax and now commercial solar will get a large property tax reduction thanks to the leadership of Senator Jeff Brandes and Vote Solar. Vote Solar’s team pushed for this years back and stuck through the process by getting a legislative push to bring it to the voters. Well done by all.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for June 16th, 2017
Presented by T-Top Buddy, Thanks For Your Support This Week
Enjoy your weekend. See you all in the Bay Area next week.
The Good News. After years of fighting, lawsuits, protests and PR fights, Nevada’s solar market is once again open for business. Arguably biggest turn around in solar policy fights where a win actually followed a loss. Most other State battles settle before the complete demise. That’s the untold story about policy in solar, we win a lot. Teams in Nevada saw an opportunity to turn this around and fought the long game to get this done. Congrats to all.
The Bad News. As everyone in solar knows, bankruptcy lenders for Suniva are trying to hurt American families from lowering energy costs and providing jobs to hardworking Americans. The 201 petition to increase the price of modules to $0.78/watt would cost 88,000 solar professionals their jobs. That is the opposite of what we should all want and what we need as a Country. It is indefensible at all levels and politicians need to be educated about this.
Annual Energy Report. BNEF has published their annual energy report that estimates clean energy taking a 7.4trillion dollar share of the 10trillion power market in the next 22 years. 74% of all power investment will be clean energy! That’s a stunning statistic.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for June 15th, 2017
Last call to join me in the energy storage conversation next week in San Francisco. The focus is on speaking with IPPs and operators of solar farms, primarily in Western States. I want to see how energy storage plays with your portfolio, operating and in-development. I look forward to meeting with many of you.
Getting into double digits. Solar and wind reached 10% of energy production in April. This is the first time that it reached double digits and got to 7% in 2016. That’s a long way from the less than 1% talking point we had just a few years ago. Note that this information typically leaves out distributed solar which could skew the data to the lower band of reality.
Cost of Money Winner. I want to be Apple’s solar buyer. Give me that cost of money and access to the capital and let me create an IPP of solar assets. With the green bond capital, Apple could probably get solar to match its usage across most markets using energy storage and other renewable sources. We all thought pension funds were the cheap capital, it seems that they were the long term capital.
Corporate Outreach. Amazon going solar isn’t a big deal, they’ve done much bigger solar for their web services business. However, Bezos talking about solar is a big deal. He’s currently the richest man in the world and runs a company that lives in almost all of our lives. Bezos thinking about and talking about the company’s solar goals means a lot to reaching solar supporters outside of our industry.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for June 14th, 2017
Presented by T-Top Buddy, a product I created
Peak Coal? Production. Down. Consumption. Down. Globally, coal looks like it has hit its peak. Production is down over 6% globally and consumption is down almost 2%. New power plants are virtually non-existent, which can’t be good news for coal industry.
Appealing to the Base. Oil fell off the $100+ levels and settles at or below $50 per barrel. That didn’t bode well for some parts of the oil drilling sector especially in Texas. The Houston Chronicle looks at how solar saved the day for some hardworking Americans that are going from the oil fields to the solar farms. This comes right behind solar hiring hundreds in Virginia with no experience required. This is the argument that needs to come out in the 201 petition argument. Raise the cost of modules by any amount and hardworking families will suffer. SEIA needs to head down to Texas right now and make an ad, the Houston Chronicle did the hard work for you. If you want, you can hire me to do it for you.
CEOs want it, CFOs approve it. A lesson many of us learn very early in our solar careers and it’s never a bad idea to repeat it. Educating CFOs is part of the mission that we must all focus on every day. Nice message from GreenBiz as they head to Verge in Hawaii next week.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for June 13th, 2017
Presented by T-Top Buddy, a perfect gift for Father’s Day.
Power loses to Healthcare. When the CEO of GE steps down, it has repercussions throughtout the giant company. It also creates some noise outside of the company to determine where the board, vis a vis shareholder value, sees the value coming from. Immelt’s largest acquisition was Alstom Power so there was some rumor that the energy unit could make its way to the corner office but it was not to be, the head of GE Healthcare will take the reigns. I can only imagine that GE saw a changing energy sector to a distributed grid at the same time GE Current wasn’t necessarily a huge success.
Research carries some weight. Research dollars often get a black eye when it comes to government spending. But with Trump’s new budget proposal (which isn’t going anywhere), big name CEOs have come out to protect the research money. I am most surprised by the US Chamber being on the list though the signatories are quite eclectic.
Regulators Rule The Day. When it comes to making an impact, we should focus on congressional seats first. The reason is because State Reps want to become members of Congress. You control a portion of that vote and you can control an issue. On the other hand, members of the regulatory body have an outsized ability to shape a State’s leadership or lack thereof when it comes to clean energy growth. The Northeast has quite the regulatory conferencing going on right now between NECPUC and the EEI conference. But more on EEI tomorrow perhaps.
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Yann