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

News

Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for July 15th, 2016

Over the past month, there have been three major trade shows. In Shanghai, Munich and San Francisco the solar module manufacturers tried to find the bid in the market. The market is having a soft moment and the bid is hit or miss. That being said, our US market is still suffering from a 10-15 cent per watt penalty because of a useless punitive tariff. With Hemlock winning a round in US Courts, the hope is that the negotiations to settle heat up. The negotiations should include the removals of the tariffs in both the US and China on modules and silicon. I am hoping that clearer heads prevail going forward.

News

Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for July 14th, 2016

I am not sure that I agree with Tom Kimbis of SEIA about the association's top priority. The association should at its core focus on protecting and then expanding the market. Especially solar, which is under continuous attack by utilities and the allies, needs to have an association that stands firm on its advocacy. In other words, be unapologetically pro-solar. Let’s see where SEIA goes from here as it searches for its meaning and a new leader. In other news, catch the great podcasts in the Intersolar SolarWakeup Live coverage

News

Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for July 13th, 2016

First full day of Intersolar here in San Francisco. A decent crowd, bigger than I thought would show so great job to the hosts. I have not had the chance to walk the floor yet so wait one more day to get my take on that. The mood is optimistic and upbeat about our sector even with some of the market headwinds we have been discussing. A surprise for you, SolarWakeup special correspondent and media consultant, Frank Andorka interviewed a few folks on the floor. Listen to the Podcasts here and here. They are quick and have a nice perspective.

News

Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for July 12th, 2016

Money flows in and money wants out. There is an interesting aspect of our business when people are trying to figure out the value of the money that went into the company that they invested in. There are some apparent ripples in our sector that could be but hopefully are not canaries in the coal mine. If you are a hedge fund or private equity firm, how are you looking at the value of the investment you made? At Intersolar this week, there will be many announcement about the investments that they were able to draw into their company, solar and storage alike.

News

Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for July 11th, 2016

I am on the flight to San Francisco for Intersolar North America. If you looked in advance, you will see a lot more storage at the show this year than previously. Storage is kicking off its market this year, lots of capital coming in and partnerships being announced. I can only hope that storage will springboard off the solar market position and not make many of the same mistakes we did. If you are a storage CEO, do you have your financing strategy? Your consumer offering? Are you focused? Let’s see how it is presented and I hope to see many of you there. Make sure to tell your friends and colleagues that they should subscribe as well by forward this email to your entire office.

News

Have a great day!
Yann

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

News

Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for July 8th, 2016

If you don’t follow me on Snapchat, you are missing some great conversations and insight. There is not enough space for us to have a dialogue on here, so make sure you follow here. The corporate funding of solar is down, we knew this was coming and we see it happening. Big solar is shrinking its overhead because platforms don’t have a solid way of funding its business. The issue is that projects cannot get put together if platforms don’t get the funding. How do we solve this? See you all on Monday!

News

Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for July 7th, 2016

Eric Wesoff from GTM has a great piece this morning about the financial position of Sungevity prior to announcing the merger with Easterly. The 8-K and corresponding presentation have a load of information and the article explains it quite well. What it comes down to is the lack of flow from lead to customer to aggregator (finance platform) and finally to long term owner. Each level of solar development is showing to have too much friction and cost for what the deals can be developed for. Add together the drive to increase volume (which costs money) with the lack of liquidity and you end up with asset rich and cash poor balance sheets. Margins exist, much like the solar unicorn. We shall find him together at Intersolar next week!

News

Have a great day!
Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for July 6th, 2016

We need to have a chat. There is a lot going on in solar and most likely it is affecting you in some way. I want to hear from you so that we can talk about the most important obstacles that we need to overcome and how we can accomplish that. There is a link on solarwakeup.com that you can use if you want to remain anonymous, you can send an email to me at anytime or you can use Snapchat (add me on this link). Most importantly, let me know if you are at Intersolar next week.

News

Have a great day!
Yann