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

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Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for January 27th, 2017

Elon Goes to Washington. Elon was seen in the White House this week with some decent seating given the other CEOs around the table. While clean energy and electric cars aren’t aligned with the Trump White House, making cars, batteries and solar panels in the US surely is. Working on aging infrastructure also aligns with the interests the administration has. Elon also came out and supported Rex Tillerson for State this week in a tweet to reporter Dana Hull. Tillerson had previously supported a carbon tax and during his nomination hearings was supportive of solving climate change through engineering, a favorite of Musk.
EU goes anti tariffs. Wow! Sometimes voting politicians push back against staff and this time the EU members have. They voted against the proposed two year extension of the tariffs on Chinese modules. Now staff will have to go back and figure out an alternative plan. Led by the UK delegation, which makes sense because they just had a massive investment into solar that could not be cut tremendously if modules were allowed to enter the markets without duties or tariffs.
Tough to be a supplier. As with the global market data, suppliers also have the issue of contracting financials in an expanding market. With costs coming down rapidly, manufacturers have to figure out a way to cut their spending because revenues are dropping without margins going up. Several markets in the US are now well below $1/watt installed and a ton of markets globally are well into the $0.80’s. That doesn’t leave a room for anyone to make money but does bode well for the markets that are seeing solar at 4 and 5 cents per kWh. Keep your eyes on the next India auction as those prices should get rather crazy.

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Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for January 26th, 2017

I love Sunshot. I’ve been a cheerleader of the DOE and this program for quite some time. When it was established in 2011, getting to an EPC providing a system at less than $1/watt by 2020 seemed ridiculous. I used to think that modules couldn’t get to under $1/watt and few others did either. I congratulate the team at Sunshot for helping get some of the early money into innovative business models and companies that otherwise would have had a hard time getting that money in the private sector. The private sector has followed up with its own capital over 30x, which is indicative on its own.
Buffett loves solar. Apple does a really good job of finding the most market sensitive participant in its purchasing. In NV that is NV Energy, clearly looking to add more central solar power to their portfolio and show the PUC that they really are pro-solar. With Apple’s impeccable credit score and the NV sunshine, I would foreshadow the PPA rate coming out in the net metering debate. Apples and oranges but the news headlines will be there.
Say it again. The States are going to have to make up relaxed Federal regulations. While some would see a difficult path ahead, which I can agree with, but I see a potential avenue. In States with IOUs, the ratebase is a bargaining chip where policy can get passed. Capital markets won’t be moved by temporary policy. A coal power plant needs a 30+ year life cycle for investment and no reasonable money is going to assume no cost of carbon or policy for pollution in that model.

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Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for January 25th, 2017

Stop and Freeze, the Trump Shuffle. Yesterday was energy day in the White House. The President showed his true colors (right after calling himself an environmentalist, which he’s not) by freezing grants for research and other activities. The administration was so proud of that they also issued a gag order on the staff. They were prohibited from talking to the press or social media about it.
Pipelining the Oil industry’s pockets. Promptly at 11am this morning, the President executive ordered all involved to expedite the approval of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines. This is reflective of an administration that isn’t caring much about the numbers or jobs that come with the sector. With solar having more jobs and more growth than any of the projects he is pushing through, solar isn’t getting much respect at 1600 Penn.
What’s the argument? I don’t really think data, facts, and public perception is going to move the needle much. Legislative process and political pain are the medicine for this cold. If legislators want to pass something, make solar the bargaining chip to get something through. If they can get something through, make their homecoming town halls miserable politically.

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Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for January 24th, 2017

The Coal Mine. If it isn’t news, I missed it originally, but I am not surprised. Being small in the solar lease business is like being in no-man’s land. Your overhead will kill you before you ever dream about having a portfolio big enough to trade down to cheaper cost of capital. One Roof seems like it’s about done, moving out of its HQ and closing the doors perhaps. Rumor on the Linkedin boards also talked about some layoffs at Sungevity which is unfortunate after the canceled reverse merger.
Policy versus Politics. As I mentioned during the Episode 3 of the EnergyWakeup podcast, I am becoming concerned about the level of political engagement and level of rage in the fight to save net metering. TASC is seeking the ACC to revisit the end of net metering in Arizona based on legal non-compliance. That’s a policy argument about process, it would be much better to have a thousand people in front of the ACC.
The end is in sight. Thankfully, Terraform and Terraform Global have signed an MOU to negotiate exclusively to be acquired by Brookfield. There is still a bit to go, target closing of April 1^st, but we’ll take the progress nonetheless.

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Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for January 23rd, 2017

Another EnergyWakeup, and it’s good. On her first day on the job as SEIA CEO, I interview Abby Hopper who joins the solar industry after 2 years in the Federal Government. Bryan and I cover a ton of material about the nomination hearings, the Trump Administrations first day in office (a deleted webpage) and what NV Energy is really up to in Nevada. Don’t miss this episode, sponsored by Conductive Capital.
America’s Oil, Gas and Coal First Policy. The Koch brothers have put their official energy policy up on the website, the White House website. Promptly at noon on inauguration day, as is typical, on admins pages come down and the new ones go up. In a drastic comparison, climate change and renewables were deleted and America First Energy Policy is the top issue on the whitehouse.gov site now. It doesn’t mention climate change or renewables but does give a shoutout to clean coal. In case you are wondering who is in charge of energy policy, read this 4^th grade level policy document.
DG Costs Nothing! The Berkeley National Lab has come out with an extensive study on the cost or benefit of distributed solar at current and 10% penetration rates. The results are negligible with any costs or benefits being less than a penny per kWh and could go in either direction. However, the amount of solar has a large impact on the future levels of utility investments which in every circumstance are a cost to the consumer. But on the other hand more investments mean higher returns for shareholders. Now do you understand why there is an inherent conflict between shareholders and ratepayers?
Rick Perry’s Heritage. DC’s worst kept secret is that Committee chairs and Agency Secretaries appreciate anything that maintains or increases their budget oversight. Why? Because a higher budget means more lobbying which means more work after public service. Rick Perry was strongly supporting the Offices of Science, National Labs and other work at DOE while the Trump team was releasing the Jim DeMint, Heritage Foundation’s blueprint on how to gut the Federal Budget.

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Yann

EnergyWakeup – Episode 3 – Interview with SEIA President, Abby Hopper, and Bryan explains what NV Energy is really doing

In this Episode, sponsored by Conductive Capital,  Yann and Bryan cover a wide range of important topics for the solar and cleantech industry. Yann interviews Abby Hopper, the new SEIA CEO and President, who joins the solar industry after leading the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. We cover her vision for SEIA, how to get new members to join and if she sees SEIA working with EEI, the utility’s lobbying group. Bryan and Yann go into the nominating hearings of Scott Pruitt, and why the environmental groups are trying to make him the target, why the nominees are normalizing Rex Tillerson, a man that is synonymous with Exxon, and Rick Perry’s continuing ability to make soundbites for SNL. At the State level, Bryan covers what is actually happening in Nevada with NV Energy’s latest filing and if it really matters. Yann argues that the solar industry may be getting too soft when it comes to playing politics. Listen to the Episode and subscribe on iTunes, Soundcloud or Stitcher. This episode was supported by Conductive Capital, a distributed generation platform looking to acquire your projects. [soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/303819221" params="color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=false&visual=false&show_playcount=false&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]

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

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Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for January 20th, 2017

Your dream job? So, I want you to be Secretary of Energy! That’s amazing, I’d love to do that and be America’s ambassador on our oil and gas capabilities. Telling the world about our energy strengths sounds great! That is how I imagine the conversation went between Governor Perry and Trump. Perry spent the day speaking with the members of the US Senate answering questions and doing his usual, giving SNL some great material to work with. Now that he will be Secretary, Perry regrets wanting to close the Department but was surprised to find out while speaking that the President’s administration doesn’t actually want to fund DOE. At least Congress still doles out the dollars, which bodes well for the Department.
You want a revolution? I want a revelation. We are all living the fact that the energy sector is changing but also recognize that much of the sector is the same. Same wires, same power plants and same way to recoup monopoly investments. If we really want to change the way it’s done, which needs to happen, then we need to admit that doing it the same way isn’t going to work.
Words matter, even if nuanced. Of all the nominees, the target from the environmental groups is squarely on Scott Pruitt, the Attorney General from Oklahoma. His hearings have been revealing with some old rhetoric (debate on climate change is ongoing) and some new things (it doesn’t matter what the administrator thinks about climate change). He did open up the possibility that EPA will be a watchdog on the States, in particular those that value clean air and go for enhanced fuel efficiency. Pruitt is going to get confirmed (listen to EnergyWakeup next week to see why I think that’s a good thing) and I cant wait for the Jerry Brown/Kevin de Leon versus Pruitt matchups.

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Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for January 19th, 2017

Solar is pro-islanding. Hawaii has been long aiming at 100% renewables and last year stopped the acquisition of HECO by NextEra because they were worried that the goal wouldn’t be met. HECO had some trouble getting the plans to achieve the goal passed the PUC in 2014 when it was rejected and now is laying out its vision on getting it done.
Peachy innovation. Southern Power is getting into the efficiency business and handing out some rebates for residential efficiency technology. If you recall, Southern tried to get into the solar game as well with little success. Surely with $100 off Nest thermostats, there will be a bit more appetite for taking up some efficiency and maybe leave the solar industry to handle what they know best.
A debate about Pruitt. Attorney General Scott Pruitt is going through the committee hearings regarding his EPA administrator nomination. As the Oklahoma AG, he has sued the EPA countless times, put a company’s letter on his letterhead for them and isn’t sure what the effects of lead in water supply could be. During the hearing he also said that there is still debate about climate change. Listen in to the EnergyWakeup episode to hear what Bryan and I think about the hearings.

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Yann