Investors Keep Faith in Solar Post Trump Election – MMA Raises $500mm

If you measure the impact of the election on investor sentiment, take one look at the $500 million that MMA Energy Capital announced at 8am the morning after election day. On November 9th, MMA announced a new joint venture named “Renewable Energy Lending” with TSSP, a TPG platform. TSSP is a dedicated credit and special situations platform with over $18 billion of assets under management. SolarWakeup spoke with MMA Energy Capital’s Bob Hopper about the transaction and to discuss the current state of renewable energy lending. MMA has been operating the lending platform for just under 2 years and has committed … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for November 15th, 2016

My two cents. In a new format for our podcast, Frank and I got to digest the elections a bit. Of course we talked about the Federal implications but mostly we talked about the State initiatives in FL, NV and AZ. Florida in particular has an interesting twist. We should never have been there. The ballot question was defensive in the beginning because a group wanted to put a solar amendment on the ballot. Unless you have $20million in the bank, do me a favor and stop talking about a ballot amendment. Part 2 of the podcast out later today.
The new freedom fries? Nicolas Sarkozy, who is making another run for President in France, said that if the USA were to leave the Paris Agreement, Europe should tax US imports to make up for the carbon cost. Until this moment, there was little economic repercussion obvious for leaving the climate deal but here you go. Follow the money, always.
Coal was just a tool. Don’t take it from me, listen to the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell. Admitting that the vibrant coal sector was lost due to private sector activity, McConnell says we must now focus on helping the communities rebuild in a post-coal economy.
A sunny 2030 goal. Sunshot crushed their 2020 goals well in advance and now it is stepping up to the next level. In line with the manufacturing goals, Sunshot is seeking a 60% drop in utility-scale solar LCOE down to $0.03/kWh. Don’t expect much DOE money to get added to the budget going forward, time for a private Sunshot fund to come out. They’ve done quite well and it’s time it gets replicated.
Environmental consequences. When you get scared about the environmental regulations for the future, drive right past the White House and head to Capitol Hill. The rules that make up the Clean Air and Water Acts, PURPA, ITC and more, it gets done at the Hill. Hope for the best and plan for the worst.

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Yann

News Roundtable: Presidential Election 2016 and State Solar Votes (Podcast)

This is your SolarWakeup for November 14th, 2016

A cabinet pick to get behind? The New York Times put together the inside favorites on President Trump’s cabinet picks. In the transition team you have a climate denier in Myron Ebell for the E.P.A. and Mike McKenna for Energy. For Secretary of the DOE you have a familiar name in James Connaughton, the Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality for President Bush from 01-09. Connaughton has also spoken favorably about some form of Cap and Trade. He is definitely not Governor Jennifer Granholm but he has policies that we can work with.
Speculation is the new sport. What will happen under the next administration? What will the government focus on with one party in power in each chamber? Plenty of material to work with but keeping investors comfortable is starting to happen, just look at the comments from Array Technologies.
Jobs, veterans, and jobs for veterans. In 2020 there will be more veterans in the solar industry than in the entire coal sector, it doesn’t matter what the agencies and President do to change that. As we paused for Veteran’s Day on Friday, let’s recall the great work solar is doing to bring great paying jobs for great Americans. Saving the planet is just another employee benefit.
Both sides of the table. Half of a gigawatt was commissioned by NextEra last week sitting on 6 square miles of public lands. As the project was being built, NextEra was also fighting distributed solar in Florida. The point is that motivation is money. Follow the money, always.
Your solar duty! I am reiterating my request for your company to fill out the survey. We can only win political battles if we have the jobs to prove it. Make sure your CEO and HR managers get this done, Today. CLICK HERE FOR THE SURVEY

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Yann

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

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Yann

Solar Is The Olive Branch President Trump Needs To Unify The Country

 By Yann Brandt; I am a pragmatic person. On Tuesday night before it was called I went to bed knowing I would make up to the news that Donald Trump would become the Country’s next President. I hold the office in high regard and though I differ on many policies, I will respect the office. To my friends that voted for Trump and my friends that did not, let’s discuss the political reality. The GOP holds all three houses and with a nuclear option in the Senate can pass any legislation they want. I don’t know if the option will … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for November 11th, 2016

Jobs census needs you NOW! It’s that time of the year once again and this year it is more important than ever before. When solar goes to the Hill or a State Capitol, it touts first and foremost the number of jobs our industry has created. Fill out the census, pass it on to your friends. Click here and click the link to get the survey done!
Time for time of use. Xcel in Colorado got its settlement approval from the utility regulators. The solar grid charge is out, another victory for solar. A test of a time of use structure will be piloted in its place with some demand charges. Another 400MW of solar in various segments is also approved moving Colorado forward once again.
Tag, you’re it. A few weeks ago D.E. Shaw made the offer to take over the sponsor position for SunEdison in the Terraform projects. Now, Brookfield which owns about 12% of the company is offering to do the same but also offering to buy the shares from all the other owners for cash; i.e. Brookfield is making an offer to buy Terraform.
Regulators go distributed. The most exciting ballroom in the Country next week will be in California. NARUC, the national regulators association, is having their meeting and top of their agenda is distributed energy resources. If you go, bring your redbull and espresso.
RUN don’t walk. All the main solar players have put their earnings for the 3^rd quarter out. Sunrun went yesterday and had a better than forecasted quarter. Their sales and marketing costs are higher than the competition but that is likely due to their high end customer focus. New interconnect requests in California are trending lower so keep watching that.

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Yann

The Solar Jobs Census Needs Your Help

 I need your help! Please get this information to your executives and HR departments. we need everyone around the Country to fill out the jobs survey. The importance cannot be understated especially now. Solar is a unifying issue in politics but we need more information to ensure the politicians are aware of the magnitude that this is reality. Follow this link to the Survey: http://bwresearch.com/pl/useer2 The Solar Foundation is working with the U.S. Department of Energy and BW Research Partnership on the United States Energy and Employment Report and our annual National Solar Jobs Census reports. This year, the U.S.  … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for November 10th, 2016

My two cents. The pity party won’t be covered here much beyond today. The politics of energy are such that the President has great powers especially with a Senate and House from the same party. That being said, don’t expect solar to advance from a policy standpoint in the future. You can expect that the predictable cuts in policies will be put into effect, namely Clean Power Plan, Paris agreement and Keystone XL. Tax reform could render the tax equity markets non-existent, assuming the economy holds. But note this. Trump voters agree with Clinton voters that more solar is good. Mining jobs in Ohio won’t be coming back because Trump is in the White House because they weren’t lost because Obama was. Solar jobs aren’t growing in Ohio because Kasich did anything positive, quite the opposite, he froze the RPS. Andrew Winston said it right, follow the money. The administration will be coal and oil heavy but as long as their CEOs are billionaires, our government will always be influenced by the sector. Focus on the States, focus on your business and your people.
Buying votes and influence. While FP&L and other Florida utilities were not able to pass horrible anti-solar policy with $26 million. In Arizona the result was different for an entry fee of $3.5 million spent by APS, their picks for the regulatory body won. Imagine that, a corporation that is supposed to work for the welfare of their customers, entrusted with a monopoly, is able to spend unlimited money to campaign for the people that will regulate them.
Free markets should be free. In Nevada, voters were asked if they wanted to end the electric utility monopoly. Dubbed question 3, backed by Switch and Las Vegas Sands, voters agreed to start the process to open the market to other suppliers. The next step is another vote in 2018 to fully implement the policy. I wonder if more of this is coming, just last week the Florida Speaker of the House said, “Free markets are either free or they are not.”
A (carbon) tax too small? I-732 in Washington was a true carbon tax of $25/ton. A tax that would go to the State and used to offset other State costs. We’ve already discussed that this policy was not supported by all environmental groups which put some groups like the Environmental Council and Sierra Club on the same side as the fossil fuel interests. It failed, so there will be no carbon tax, however small and uninspiring some felt this one was.
Earnings and market coverage. SolarCity and SunPower both had earnings yesterday after market close. With all solar companies on edge from the election, the public company struggle is real. More detailed coverage to come but expect that the SolarCity quarter was good enough to get a positive vote from the shareholders on the 17^th of November and become part of Tesla.

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Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for November 9th, 2016

No Commentary. Energy is going to be on the agenda in the next White House and the next Congress. Energy is where the money is at. Folks like Forrest Lucas from Lucas Oil and Harold Hamm from Continental Resources are high on the list for cabinet positions. The White House is covered in each corner by the Senate and House of Representatives. Tax reform, FERC, PURPA, it's all on the table over the next legislative session. Stay tuned for more.
Solar beats utilities in Florida. Amendment 1 was backed by $26million from the utilities. Solar advocates were able to push back the amendment and defeat the attempt from the utilities to eliminate net metering. The amendment came about from an ill advised attempt by the environmentalists to fundraise on their own amendment, this was a self inflicted wound that could and should have been avoided. Solar should learn its lesson next time and not let itself get hijacked into an issue. More on this to come….

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Have a great day!
Yann