This is your SolarWakeup for February 10th, 2017
Going inside tax equity. In this EnergyWakeup episode we speak with Conor McKenna, Managing Director at CohnReznick Capital Market Securities. Conor advised a $78 million tax equity investment for the Crescent Dunes Solar Project by SolarReserve. The innovation here is that the Crescent Dunes solar project uses molten salt energy storage technology from the SolarReserve concentrating solar tower site. We couldn’t leave the interview without asking Conor about his thoughts on tax reform and how it could impact the markets.
The easiest way. When it comes to energy, not all things are created equal. Regulators are still failing to compare the power sources correctly, leaving out the usage of water or other societal costs. Also, the healthcare cost shouldered by taxpayers from the pollution of fossil fuel plants. That is why a flat carbon tax makes sense, it achieves what the market regulators are failing on. Pollution also doesn’t stop at State borders and doing it on a national or continental level can and should work.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for February 9th, 2017
This could work. Assuming you could get the executives on board (hardest part of any merger), bringing Sunpower and First Solar together would make a lot of sense. Both companies are rooted in manufacturing and have products that offer a strong value proposition. First Solar does really well in the utility scale segment with modules close or better than 72 cell poly panels. On the other hand Sunpower is leaving the utility scale and focusing on distributed, mostly residential. The companies already share 8point3, the publicly traded yieldco. With the public markets down on solar, now would be a great time for a buyout of all three public companies. First Solar has a solid balance sheet but is entering a difficult time as they skip the Series 5 and go straight to Series 6 panels. If a PE firm is interested in this idea, give me a call!
A 5 billion dollar profit for taxpayers? It didn’t do what it was supposed to do, lose money. Get rid of it, total loser. Sad!
Solar farms in Florida. The biggest disappointment in solar over the past 10 years has been the market in Florida. One of the largest users of energy, sunny (Sunshine State after all) and plenty of land. Good to see some of Sunedison’s legacy projects getting to the finish line.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for February 8th, 2017
Update. The site is going through some updates that is why there hasn’t been posts on the site itself but that is why you get the email with the links, no need to go to the site at all. Please remember that if you enjoy this FREE service, pass it on to your friends and colleagues and tell them to subscribe.
Does the White House care? I think that SEIA with about 1,000 solar supporters should go to the lawn of the White House. The White House may not care about solar according to the America Has a Stupid Energy Policy so it is up to us to make the job growth political. The Koch’s are doing a great job politicizing 400 coal mining jobs when States like Florida added 1,700 solar jobs last year. We have to bring the message to the White House and the national media will cover it. The twice as many as coal, more than other fossil combined messages just don’t work.
Take it a step further. If you really want to make an impact and we should, then we should work with like-minded people. Your suppliers, lawyers, bankers, etc. do you know where they stand? Are they okay with the approach this administration is taking regarding solar? You get to choose the people you work with and if they aren’t looking out for your best interests, maybe you should go elsewhere. Best way to do that is look at their personal twitter accounts, tough to hide your views on that platform.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for February 7th, 2017
Jobs matter. Spare me the, Mr. President look at the jobs in the solar industry article, because money matters to the now 260,000 solar professionals. Solar Foundation’s National Solar Job Census is out this morning with staggering growth numbers. 44 out of 50 States had solar job growth and the industry grew over 25% once again. The best part is that over half of the jobs are installation jobs, these are hyperlocal and impact the economies that understand that solar cannot be outsourced and quality matters. This isn’t a race to the bottom where it counts and local officials should take notice. Take a look at the report highlights by visiting SolarJobsCensus.org.
Terminating the EPA. Imagine spending years in the Florida legislature riding your dad’s coattails. In Tallahassee, it gets decided pretty quickly if you make it to leadership and if you don’t and let’s just say Congressman Gaetz wasn’t picked first on the playground. He has a history of saying things to make headlines, once trying to accelerate death penalty implementation to hurry the meeting with god. As a freshman in DC, what better way to make waves with the Koch Brothers and be invited to lunch with Scott Pruitt than proposing a stupid bill. This is a PR effort, it’s working but it will not go anywhere.
The ‘e’ word? David Crane comes out wondering about the ‘e’ word. An oil embargo to be exact. What if? What if the response to the blunt speak from the oval office is to decrease the amount of oil being supplied to the US? What impact would it have? 40 years after the Carter embargo, we are in a different era. We produce A LOT of domestic fuel, our natural gas output is exponentially higher than the 70s and our electric grid has removed essentially all oil from the grid. Consumers would be I think, prices would ratchet up rather badly hurting the discretionary spending that fuels our economy.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for February 6th, 2017
Solar sells. Super Bowl 51 was inside NRG Stadium and last I checked there are few companies with as much coal and natural gas power plant in their portfolio. As the company was gearing up their PR for their big day, it was the solar power deal with the stadium that was the highlight. In a regional ad, Florida Power & Light had a commercial implying the need for natural gas baseload while showing their solar farms. Maybe companies are trying to tap into the 80% approval ratings enjoyed by solar.
Solar sells. Super Bowl 51 was inside NRG Stadium and last I checked there are few companies with as much coal and natural gas power plant in their portfolio. As the company was gearing up their PR for their big day, it was the solar power deal with the stadium that was the highlight. In a regional ad, Florida Power & Light had a commercial implying the need for natural gas baseload while showing their solar farms. Maybe companies are trying to tap into the 80% approval ratings enjoyed by solar. Let’s Get Real. I’m a pretty positive guy but … Read More
This is your SolarWakeup for February 4th, 2017
Solar sells. Super Bowl 51 was inside NRG Stadium and last I checked there are few companies with as much coal and natural gas power plant in their portfolio. As the company was gearing up their PR for their big day, it was the solar power deal with the stadium that was the highlight. In a regional ad, Florida Power & Light had a commercial implying the need for natural gas baseload while showing their solar farms. Maybe companies are trying to tap into the 80% approval ratings enjoyed by solar.
Let’s Get Real. I’m a pretty positive guy but I also get rather annoyed at companies that make everything sound easy and great. Smoothing over the difficulties of this market is silly, nobody is buying it. This is especially true with storage and the new executives of Sonnen should be more careful with their PR. After a rather loud exit from the former US CEO as he went to Mercedes, I would expect management to be a bit more subdued. Storage is hard, let’s not sugar coat things. Same goes for solar companies, if margins are terrible, say so. Investors aren’t buying your talking points anyways as you share your books with them during a raise. The media is complicit in this. Bankers inside capital processes always leak and tell us the real story but we often act as cheerleaders and don’t want to write something that would be detrimental to our markets.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for February 2nd, 2017
The links. It is not lost on me that I promised something yesterday that I failed to deliver on. We are working on it again today, some process adjustments are in the works. If the links below are in blue, then you can bypass the website.
Make those cuts. Enphase announced yesterday that it would reduce staff by 75 positions or about 19%, mostly in the California HQ. I always empathize with those that are laid off. On the other hand the moves typically save the remaining jobs as the company drives its way to profitability. One point to note when I read the filing was that Enphase (after raising $10mm) engaged McKinsey to consult on the moves. Not exactly the most prudent use of money in that regard.
Charm City Politics. Maryland is trying to override the veto from Governor Hogan on the expansion of the RPS. It’s odd that Maryland has a republican Governor but the State has a pretty diverse population with the Eastern Shore and Western Maryland. I’d love to see more thoughtful talking points from Republican politicians on these things. Blah blah blah tax increases, blah blah blah consumers just doesn’t do it for me. How about: “Maryland has complicated electric infrastructure served by PJM on the Eastern Shore with aging infrastructure and grid congestion that would be better served by working with local IPPs; while the rest of the State has regulated investor owned utilities and municipal power agencies. My plan would be to work with the utilities to replace (read ratebase) aging, dirty power plants with cleaner power including the use of central and distributed renewable energy that give consumers more choice on their energy supply and costs.” No need to thank me Governor Hogan!
Out of the ‘woods’. NRG has gotten the Ivanpah power station up to minimum production levels. The entity operating the system was in forbearance for nearly a year but now the approximate 65 full time on site technicians have operated themselves into the sunlight. I guess haters will have to start writing about birds again…
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for February 1st, 2017
The links are live. Let’s try this out. Starting today, until further notice, the emails will have the links right in the email. That means you don’t have to go to the website to route yourself to the article you find interesting. That means that I am hurting the one metric that would allow me to monetize which is web clicks but I am doing it to improve your experience. What can you do for me? Help me get more subscribers! Tell your friends and make your employees subscribe.
Watch this space! Over 110 actions against solar net metering were taken up by utilities across the US in 2015 and 2016. The losses for solar could be counted on one hand. While for some reason I am in the minority in this thinking, I am convinced that it is because the industry played politics. And it wasn’t SEIA or the State Chapters. It was the controversial funding of non-profits with grey money, the tactics of TASC and the audacity of small business owners picketing the commissions to save their companies. I sincerely hope that we are not descending into the desire to play policy instead of politics but I think I am wrong. Just look at where we are in Arizona and the headline in Maine from yesterday. Someone please tell me I am wrong.
Chasing returns in known knowns. Here is what we know. University endowments had a terrible year, with 805 colleges average a return of negative 1.9%. If public disclosures show us those kinds of returns, I bet the private funds and pension funds didn’t fare much better. With solar returns well above 5% unlevered, you KNOW that you can get some money put to work with nice profits. Always the chicken and the egg because it’s not that easy to put $5billion to work in our industry but they can always send it my way and I’ll point them in the right direction J.
More SunShot love. I will keep praising SunShot because they’ve done great work and continue to with another $30million announcement yesterday. What Minh Le is bringing up is totally valid, there is not political reason to get rid of SunShot but there is a corporate reason, the Kochs just don’t like innovation that threatens them. Is it a big enough fish for the GOP to cut? Yes. Is it a big enough fight for the Dems in the Senate to force it to be funded? 50/50.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for January 31st, 2017
Myron Ebell Speaks. The environment hating, former EPA transition head, Myron Ebell spoke to reporters in London yesterday. Not that energy is at the top of mind in the White House right now, but Ebell confirmed that the administration will seek to withdraw from the Paris deal. Some reports say that a member of the agreement has to give a 4 year notice prior to doing so.
Love solar in 49 and a half States. This is the best way to change a corporations’ views. It is no secret that the regulated subsidiary of NextEra, FP&L, has been rather anti-solar and even supporting an anti-solar amendment in November to the tune of millions. But the corporate has been going gangbusters with wind&solar. Many of you count NEE as a client and often walk a fine line on this topic.
I’ve seen this line. I haven’t been in many module assembly factories but during the early craze of the Ontario FIT, I had the chance to visit Celestica. Not for the assembly line but because Celestica was also assembling Advanced Energy’s inverters so they could be compliant with Made in Ontario rules. It seems like the requirements and demand in Ontario have made this work no longer financially viable so Celestica will get out of the business. End of a chapter when it comes to Ontario solar, but mostly because the rules were rather silly to begin with.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for January 30th, 2017
Moving On! As you all know, I have spent the last two years working at Conergy. I have thoroughly enjoyed the work, its challenges and leading the Americas team and now it is time for new opportunities. Late last year I left Conergy and took some much needed time off. I remain available to you all at my SolarWakeup email address and look forward to staying in touch with you.
It’s all clickbait. I get the obsession. Writers have editors that have business owners. The ad folks are just focusing on the metrics of sessions and clicks to drive up revenues. No doubt that a crazy headline can drive you to want to click and read something. It’s frustrating for me because I make sure to spend the time to give you articles that actually have relevance but I fail you sometimes. To date I have never had ads on SolarWakeup so my obsession with clicks is based on wanting to get bigger and better. Trust your article flow, and clickbait wont impact you.
Sigh. Probably the best tweet to date, Elon Musk wrote the single word. As Bryan and I discussed, legitimizing crazy stuff and getting caught in the messaging will be bad for your ability to cause change. Also things slow down after the initial whirlwind (typically) mostly because the bureaucracy is meant to move slow.
FERC gets a chair. LaFleur will be the interim chair of FERC until more members are selected and approved by the Senate. PV-Magazine has it that Senate Majority Leader’s Energy Advisor could get the nod as the next Chair. Keep your eye out on PURPA as the commission convenes.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann