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 be. We dig into out this works using their FERC regulated subsidiary, Google Energy LLC as the offtaker of the energy in the RTOs across the globe. With the growth of corporate PPAs, we discuss how this market can expand using financial products available in the wholesale markets. Google is also getting into policy and pushing investor owned utilities that have monopolies on providing renewable energy to corporate clients. One case was the green rider program that allowed Google to get over 60MW of solar from Duke Energy in North Carolina. Sam sends a message to utility CEOs on what Google is looking for. I also ask him why Google is so far ahead of the other tech companies and what it will take to get more corporates into the market. Don’t miss this episode of EnergyWakeup. Find the episode on SolarWakeup.com, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stitcher radio. Please subscribe and share with your friends how much EnergyWakeup is helping you! [soundcloud id='315169332' height='false']

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.
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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.
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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.
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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…
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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?
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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

This is your SolarWakeup for March 20th, 2017

Back on the road. Heading up to New York for some meetings. The solar industry is being noticed by the media, apparently headlines with solar in them get read big-league.

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Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for March 17th, 2017

Buy a ticket to Equinox. Vote Solar does great things and you should give them at least $100 per year. In return you get to go to Equinox, a great party, or just buy a ticket to support the group. Most importantly, I am on the host committee which means we compete to see who can drive the most traffic to ticket purchases. My proposal to you again. If you buy a ticket, email me the receipt and you will be recognized. If you buy 10 tickets or donate $1000, you get to write a paragraph in a future edition. If you want to donate more, email me and I’ll figure out a way to get you even more exposure. Ticket link here.
Paid for Regulators. What did you expect? Regulators to…regulate?
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, No, No. Close your eyes and think of an agency you like that relates to climate change, clean air or solar. Trump’s budget likely cuts the funding for it. Be thankful that the President doesn’t pass the budget, that’s a job for Congress. Good think Congress doesn’t take it very seriously.
More layoffs. Good reporting by PV-Magazine on an unhappy topic. More corporate alignments happening in the solar space.

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Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for March 16th, 2017

Buy a ticket to Equinox. Vote Solar does great things and you should give them at least $100 per year. In return you get to go to Equinox, a great party, or just buy a ticket to support the group. Most importantly, I am on the host committee which means we compete to see who can drive the most traffic to ticket purchases. My proposal to you again. If you buy a ticket, email me the receipt and you will be recognized. If you buy 10 tickets or donate $1000, you get to write a paragraph in a future edition. If you want to donate more, email me and I’ll figure out a way to get you even more exposure. Ticket link here.
New York’s REV Dream. I haven’t read the REV rules as adopted so let’s crowdsource this. What are you excited about? What do you see as the first segment of the solar market most likely to get developed?
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.
Carried by California. California is carrying the rest of the Country. The total installed capacity is nearly half of the Country’s total solar. NEM 2.0 is going to create a soft moment as re-education of consumers is taken on. We highlighted the softening numbers months ago, stay calm and solar on.
Irony Alert. Most people in solar were not confident that the ITC would get extended. Only a few were bad market participants and actively campaigned against the ITC. Noone did that more openly than Sunnova so imagine my surprise when I see their tax equity fund being raised. At the very least, Sunnova should say a public thank you to the people that got the ITC extended.

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Yann