This is your SolarWakeup for August 26th, 2016

The Tesla acquisition of SolarCity was approved by the special committee on around August 1st. While the Federal Trade Commission has approved the deal for purposes of antitrust, there are still some other steps that I believe need to happen before the real deal gets consummated. First off, the special committee approved the deal including a 45 day ‘go-shop’ period which means that SolarCity should go to market and see if a better price was available to the shareholders. Which would put the final Tesla/SolarCity deal to the shareholders on or around September 15th assuming no better bid comes in. The real test is in the SEC approval of the deal, which may not have even started yet considering the ‘go-shop’ has not yet concluded. Also, the shareholders need to vote on the transaction. The SEC could be asking some questions, particularly because on the call to discuss the acquisition, Elon Musk said the reason for the acquisition was to clear conflicts in collaboration. More to come on the deal which I still believe to clear hurdles and get to the finish line.

News

Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 25th, 2016

Last week I told you about the new report from Nevada, this time with different results. Today you can read and hear all about rate design, in some cases with some utility driven cosmetic surgery. I like SEIA’s straight forward talk about the report, not only because I agree, but also because solar really does help all consumers. Tom Kimbis is showing what SEIA can be for our industry by speaking out for what is right. After all, solar doesn’t shift cost, it simply shifts the need for utilities to build more power plants which makes them less money. Net metering is simple and rate design is there for utilities to make solar savings calculations complicated. In today’s podcast you will hear how the solar industry is working to make it simpler for savings to be shown to consumers. Our industry is aligned on this. Complicated rate design is another attempt to stop the progress we have made.

News

Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 24th, 2016

The importance of solar on schools has always been high on my list. A question from a school board architect got me into solar and putting on schools project in New Orleans made me realize what kind of impact solar curriculum could have on kids. Think about it, how often do you get questions about solar from adults that should be taught to kids. How does it make energy? Does it go into a battery? It keeps the lights on if the power goes out, right? We all get the questions and we need to do more to teach kids about solar. A start would be to put it on every school in the Country, use the energy savings to buy more books and computers and make sure that every teacher can educate the next generation on how solar works. Since 2008, I have owned solaronschools.com but have never done anything with it. If you have a good idea, reach out and let’s put it to use.

News

Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 23rd, 2016

Arizona has been a big story for quite some time, mostly for how antagonistic the political atmosphere has been. It has also been a fight to push back the utility requests for $50/month fees and political fight for regulators that have to be elected. You may have seen in recent weeks the podcasts that Frank Andorka has been doing for SolarWakeup and he’s just getting going. This week he covered politics in Florida and today has the insider’s account for Arizona including the best story yet. APS, the large Arizona utility owned by Pinnacle West, is currently under investigation by the FBI for how they were involved in the election of the regulators that regulate them. They have been subpoenaed and a grand jury has been convened, which is rarely a small deal or done without good reason. The subpoenas are public because Pinnacle West had to disclose them to investors in their earnings release.  Listen to the podcast here and in today’s top story.

News

Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 22nd, 2016

Today’s first story is a topic I have been giving a lot of thought to recently and I am glad Zachary from CleanTechnica wrote it. Essentially the question I ask myself is whether all solar is good solar and if that’s true than is any solar just as good? For example, the last NV report said that large scale solar costs are so low that DG solar no longer has the same value. In the same light, you could say that utilities could own all of the solar and build the GW we need across the Country. This is a fundamental question we must face as an industry because when we discuss policy issues amongst ourselves, we must align on where we stand unified. The next President of SEIA will have to ask this question to the membership and industry and the answer is not very simple. For me, I have come down on the side of consumer choice. Consumers should be able to choose solar in any way they want; on their roofs, from their utility, through community solar or as a green choice from their retailer. That’s my vote and I think that when a policy comes up that requires a choice between path 1 or path 2, we should walk down the path that leads to the most options.

News

Have a great day!
Yann

These are the top 10 most read solar articles by your peers this week!

News

Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 19th, 2016

These cost benefit of net metering reports are as useless as expert witnesses in civil litigation. Even though Nevada has already had a study and SolarCity went and get their own study, there is now a new study from the PUC. Of course, this time the data that came from the utility showed a different result. It showed that net metering created a cost shift. This is nonsense but it gives those that try to lobby against solar something to hold on to while they are citing ‘facts’. It is interesting that the reports have a swing of almost $50million from positive to negative. Nobody ends up reading these things because the headline number is all that people will use and it will be used. Just as ‘analysts’ write documents that only use the data that gets them to the headline that will sell the most copies, legislators that need a reason to be against solar will use this report.

News

Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 18th, 2016

Don’t read it as a negative headline, this is a positive move to make sure the business is set up for the right path forward. SolarCity had to move their guidance based on market conditions and therefore ensured that their overhead was correctly aligned with the goal of nearly 1GW of homes this year. At the same time, the company announced a capital raise in the form of a bond at 6.5% for up to $124million which should give it enough capital to get to the Tesla acquisition. In Q2, SolarCity spent over $250million in operating expenses which is a staggering amount but take your business and extrapolate it to 150,000 homes in a calendar year and see what you think.

News

Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 17th, 2016

It’s been a good week for solar policy around the Country. First in the State that always shows negative news, we have a victory by 4-1 vote in Arizona. Even though the vote was on a small utility territory, many expect the victory to be used as a precedent for some future proceedings. A New Mexico request was also turned down and yesterday we saw a nice move forward for solar in Colorado. What most participants are calling a win-win, over 20 parties signed on to the deal that will hopefully be approved by the PUC. Here you have it solar folks, taking a strong position for consumer choice and advocating hard for it yields results. All forms of solar should win in a way that helps consumers save money and use cleaner energy.

News

Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 16th, 2016

Sometimes I get concerned, and I am sure you do too, that solar’s gains are going quickly and that before long the energy system will not need any more. Well that is just a notion that comes from the amazing growth we see in our sector because if you look at the energy chart in today’s top story and see the interactive version here, you will be amazed to see how little PV has actually done so far and how much more we are going to contribute. In the other top story we see what happens when you take a ballot to a gun fight (no pun intended). In Florida, some overzealous policy folks tried to bring a 3^rd party solar ballot amendment to the people which costs tens of millions of dollars. The amendment failed to garner the votes and fundraising but also created a counterpunch. Utilities got together, created a crazy misleading entity and raised over $15million, to put their own constitutional amendment on the November ballot. Don’t get too excited about ballot amendments unless you are ready to write a big (read huge) check.

News

Have a great day!
Yann