This is your SolarWakeup for July 27th, 2016
A few notes for you this morning. Hemlock, after winning a summary judgement over SolarWorld, has submitted the financial claims. The losses amount to over $793million which is far more than the cash on the balance sheet of the module manufacturer. The question is, will the brazen CEO fight more, ask for another bailout from Qatar or make a deal to drop the trade cases in US and China. This is a simplified version but a deal should be possible at this point. On another note, please take a moment to read and discuss the NY Times story. I don’t have all of the details yet, but I am fairly sure that the information listed in the story is either wrong or severely misleading. It may be possible that the homeowner was in a specific rate schedule from the start that was changed but the NEM 1.0 policies did not change in CA and the NEM 2.0 policies still offer a significant benefit to CA homeowners, especially in PG&E territory. Someone pitched this to NY Times and we should all be concerned about how they were able to push this story on a great reporter.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for July 26th, 2016
SunEdison is looking to offload its class B shares of Terraform Power. This may not be completely voluntary but due to significant holdings by Appaloosa and Brookfield of the stock. The question I have about this is more nuanced than just selling the shares. Keep in mind that SunEdison probably had to make some deals in order to create the yieldco in the first place. The class B shares had something to do with that including making sure the a knowledgeable asset manager was taking care of the projects. With new ownership trying to take that responsibility over, what leverage will the offtakers and other contractual counterparties have over the transfer which could be construed as a change of control requiring some consents.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for July 25th, 2016
Selling solar based on aesthetics? Elon Musk seems to think that the Silevo modules will give SolarCity a leg up on the competition. All things being equal, especially price, I am sure that aesthetics can play a role in the decisions made in the residential market. That being said, manufacturers like LG, Suniva and Sunpower make their claim to residential market share on efficiency as opposed to price so maybe aesthetics can play a role for a buyer that is deciding between multiple vendors. Musk is reaching out for a different aspect of consumers though. He wants to create something that people want, but they don’t know it yet. Henry Ford once said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
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Yann
These are the top 10 most read solar articles by your peers this week!
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The Top 10 is ranked by the number of SolarWakeup.com readers that clicked on the news article during the previous week. It is the poll of the most relevant solar news of the week as judged by your colleagues and competitors.
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for July 22nd, 2016
Bill Gates is at it again. I love that he talks about energy but for some reason he is equating module technology innovation with the business model and cost innovation that our sector provides. Solar is not always the silver bullet but it often is the gateway to the tool that drives immense change. Gates spoke about energy in Africa recently and while praising ‘micro-solar’ he did not seem to find solar to be the solution to power the continent. To ask Africa to wait for some technology breakthrough is wrong in my opinion, the solutions based on todays technology can go a long way. Just take a look at Facebook’s solar airplane, designed to stay in the air for 3 months and provide internet to disconnected areas. Solar is providing the power that allows that connection to work.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for July 21st, 2016
Late last week, I received an email from SEIA asking what my message was for the group as they begin their search for the new President. I have heard from so many of you on your thoughts and I want to hear more. You can respond to this email or send an anonymous note on the website. Tell me what SEIA should be doing going forward. Be specific and pragmatic. SEIA has annual revenues of about $10million with a diverse membership base. Most of the board is through members that pay about $125,000 to be on the board with a few voted directors. This means that the quantity of members may not have the same impact as the financial size of the members that get on the board. With that in mind, what issue should SEIA advocate for? Is it a national only organization or does it get involved in States? How would SEIA and the new President decide where it stands on the issues? Can a consensus be built between the membership and how would that be done best?
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for July 20th, 2016
More solar for more people. That’s the mission that President Obama is continuing in a way that not many in the solar industry could have expected 7 years ago when he took office. This time it is a wonky policy change that required the DOE, OMB and HUD to work together. While property taxes have been used for centuries to pay for things like fire fees; solar installations that used PACE did so under some grey clouds. Regardless some of the best in the sector deployed hundreds of millions of dollars and securitized them in the private market. Today, the President announced with his team that PACE will be treated like any other property tax. No acceleration and no pre-payment when the property is sold. The President said PACE, a huge boon for homeowners across America. Check out the video
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for July 19th, 2016
After three hours of watching the GOP convention, I had to think about what my vision is for America. (After dozing off a few times) I don’t have to imagine it, I can look at the data from CalISO that shows a peak of 8GW of solar last week, up 2GW from last year. The best part about that is that net metered projects are not calculated in that data. Thousands of homes and business take advantage of the free energy source right above us. Why other States fight this energy source which exemplifies conservatism and conservation is politically astounding to me. Let’s strive for more…
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for July 18th, 2016
I have a problem with the vocal doubters in solar. Those that doubted that the ITC could get passed. The ones that are always fast to say net metering is going away. The ones that sit and complain every time that there is a microphone in front of them. If you aren’t helping promote solar policy, do us all a favor and quit talking. On Friday, a mission as unlikely as any other once again showed that solar policy groups can get it done. NextEra, owners of Florida Power & Light, went to Hawaii in on a private jet field trip and came back empty handed. (Except for a $95million IOU to HECO) You may not like the methods and you may not like to give your money to help your sector but solar knows how to win.
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Yann
These are the top 10 most read solar articles by your peers this week!
News
The Top 10 is ranked by the number of SolarWakeup.com readers that clicked on the news article during the previous week. It is the poll of the most relevant solar news of the week as judged by your colleagues and competitors.
Have a great day!
Yann