This is your SolarWakeup for March 15th, 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.
The Sungevity demise. 10 years ago, someone showed me this idea of a customer typing their address into a web browser which pulled up their house on a map. Once you did that, a solar consultant would send you a layout and proposal within 24 hours. These were the beginning days of Sungevity, a solar sales platform that over the years did very well but may have gotten caught up in the craziness of owning assets. Without a proper sponsor, Sungevity went for the reverse merger. I was told the merger was in trouble as early as Intersolar North America in July so I am sure the company has been trying to find an alternative suitor throughout the process. As I said last week, I feel bad for the employees that tried to make things work and hope they find other opportunities in the solar industry. Sunrun called itself the largest standalone solar company last week, which may be true for the moment but I don’t expect that to hold true through the rest of the year.
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Are you down with IPP? Big news out of Europe with the potential acquisition of Innogy by Engie. Innogy is the decentralized part of the RWE separation and Engie is the rebranded GDF Suez, where GDF stands for Gaz de France. Engie has been making big investments and buying into the new IPP model, including energy storage, solar and energy efficiency. The company also sold power assets in the US to Dynegy totaling almost 10GW which shows more steps to decentralization. Let’s see what’s next for the company.
Scientists can’t stand for it. The head of the EPA’s environmental justice program resigned from the agency. Mustafa Ali wrote a 3 page resignation letter to Scott Pruitt asking to focus on the science, saying “I needed to stand up” in an interview with Think Progress.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 14th, 2017
We’re doing this again? Why is it that anytime someone says “solar gets subsidies” the response is, we don’t need them anymore. Nobody needs subsidies in a market that gives none. This market however plays winners and losers and once you give up depreciation and ITC, are you ready to give up net metering and interconnection rights too? This is all stupid because until everyone else gives up their subsidies, I will keep fighting for solar to keep theirs. You better be sure that I am going to argue for continuation of the ITC just like I did the last time when everyone was telling me, “we don’t need subsidies anymore.”
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A new kind of oil. In 2007, Assistant DOE Secretary, Andy Karsner, talked about the potential for solar in Morocco. Karsner had developed a pipeline of wind projects in Morocco prior to his public service and joked that he was the highest ranking US official of Moroccan descent. I share this ancestry with him so I am excited to see the progress the oil free nation has made with solar.
20MWs everywhere across America? You may be surprised to hear that large IOUs aren’t the only power companies in America. There are hundreds of co-ops across the Country serving small and large communities. There is plenty of solar going into these communities and this will be a market that will continue to grow, so hit the road and knock on some doors in rural America because everyone loves solar.
Compromise in NH. A proposed settlement in NH. Before I opine on this one as I did regarding Arizona, I want to hear your thoughts.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 13th, 2017
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 10th, 2017
Limited commentary this week as I am traveling in Europe.
PURPA is an excuse. Duke is looking to shorten the solar offtake contracts in NC to 5 years. Not because that is better for consumers. Only because they know a 5 year contract won’t get financed therefore stopping solar altogether.
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Pruitt versus Joe Kernen. A non-scientist’s dialogue on carbon emissions between the host of Squawk Box and Pruitt. No, he doesn’t believe CO2 is the primary driver for climate change. Yes, he wants scientists to keep studying it. No, he won’t keep on funding it. No, solar associations said absolutely nothing on the topic. No, I haven’t heard them be critical at all of the new administration.
Painful to see. Sungevity is having issues after the reverse merger collapsed. This is sad to see and continues to show how difficult it is to grow a solar company at scale. Without more markets opening up, this may get worse before it gets better.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 9th, 2017
Limited commentary this week as I am traveling in Europe.
Aquion goes 11. Hardware is hard. Storage owners are wondering what’s next with their batteries.
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Net metering is fair. No surprise here, let’s keep compromising though.
Energy Star. Trump can get rid of Energy Star but it’s too late and too stupid anyways. Manufacturers will keep labeling the efficiency of their products for consumers.
Revenue is strong. But margins suck. That’s why advanced energy has the same revenue as pharmaceuticals but nowhere near the influence.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 8th, 2017
2017, The Year of IPPs. Getting access to infrastructure assets is spurring an acquisition spree. Add to the list Standard Solar being acquired by Gaz Metro which follows Nexamp and Grosolar being acquired in similar deals. This one is particularly interesting because Standard Solar has been tremendously influential at SEIA, even if under the radar. More on that soon.
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Brookfield gets Terraformed. Brookfield is taking over Terraform Power and Terraform Global. We’ve been expecting this but now the massive infrastructure investor is taking over. I’d love to be a fly on the wall during the discussions about change of sponsor.
Vive La France. I’m sitting here in Paris so I may as well write about this. I pitched solar to munis in France a decade ago during their tiered, roof integrated feed in tariff days. Only problem was that EDF, the national power company, was also regulating the interconnections. Suffice it to say that France has been lagging in their national deployment numbers for solar. As solar costs have come down and access to cool water for nuclear power plants has become costlier, France is changing the tone.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 7th, 2017
Limited commentary this week as I am traveling in Europe.
Gutting the EPA. What the Trump administration has proposed as a budget for the EPA is nothing short of terrible. Anyone that can stand by that kind of cut is a special kind of person.
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The Common Ground. I get it, solar and utilities want to get along. Utilities don’t like the bad PR and solar is having a problem affording the policy battles.
Storage in NYC. Let’s fix the solar on rooftops problem in LA first because solar on roofs in Manhattan is probably a bit crazy. On the other hand, storage in the basement of each building would do much good for peak demand cuts and helping when grid needs some demand response.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 6th, 2017
Cheers from Qatar. Watch for more rhetoric about tough trade talk from the folks at SolarWorld, as their Qatari backers appreciate it.
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That’s not how it is supposed to work. Solar is cheaper than the grid, Georgia Power is trying to sour the marketing value of solar by charging a premium.
The Climate Caucus. I love the idea of this bi-partisan caucus to educate the GOP members in Congress about the effects of climate change. However, there should be a cost of entry for members. Sponsors a bill, a real bill, to actually do something about this. Right now you are seeing coastal members in swing districts use this for political cover, don’t let them get away with it.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 3rd, 2017
Bannon vs. Tillerson. Who would have thought? The CEO of Exxon in the cabinet seemed like the worst thing ever (I still don’t condone or support it) but then the rest of the internal staff became public. Self described economic nationalist (i.e. I win if you lose), Stephen Bannon, hates the Paris Agreement and he is taking the argument to drop out to the Oval Office (SNL covered this a few weeks ago). Tillerson is on the other side of the table, as an engineer and the 41 year veteran of Exxon, I am glad to have that voice in our corner.
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Silevo your way to the door. Somewhat quietly, but not without anticipation, Silevo has been exited by Tesla. After missing several milestones, the investors will fail to receive further payments and Panasonic has taken control of the manufacturing plant. Toodles!
Yea, this happened. In the words of my favorite demi-god, Maui. Yes it's really me, Rick Perry, breathe it in. Enjoy this video, it’s a must watch resume for the Secretary of Energy.
Enjoy your weekend! Don’t forget to buy your IREC Impact @35 and Vote Solar Equinox Tickets
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 2nd, 2017
That didn’t take long. Just yesterday I made the case for picking up our fight for solar policy. Later that day, solar policy groups took a big loss in Arizona and are calling it a win. When it comes to policy or market dynamics, the test is whether or not the policy allows the market to grow going forward. If it fails the test, if it fails to allow more customers to exercise their choice to add solar, then the policy change is a loss. If, and I expect this to be the case, the solar industry saw no way to win any forward progress, a likely outcome in Arizona, and the deal on the table saved existing solar customers by grandfathering them for 20 years, then take the loss, give up and say the truth why you made the deal. The language outlining the deal was clearly agreed upon because all three press releases I saw had the same crappy language. It’s a loss folks, and that is unfortunate. We should fight with our greatest assets, our supporters by filling halls and streets with signs. Make it political. We lost against a company that is under grand jury investigation.
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A bull distracted by bright red colors. The headlines are never ending in Washington DC and when you get large cuts to the State Department, most of us are ignoring whatever is happening to DOE or EPA. We call it moving the goal posts because once State dollars come back, you feel like you’ve won and the environmental and energy lobby has lost. Heritage and Koch brothers are laser focused on executing their plant to undo everything possible when it comes to our industry.
New headline, old news. Reuters has the news from a filing about the 20% cut to the workforce at SolarCity. I can only presume that some was due to slowdown in markets like Arizona and Nevada and some from redundancies in the merger. The company still has 12,000 employees which isn’t a small number. Read the article and I don’t see more than that, but I could be wrong.
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Yann