United States Of Solar: Corruption Surrounds Florida’s Amendment 1 (Podcast)
Vote no on Amendment 1, misleadingly titled “Rights of Electricity Consumers Regarding Solar Energy Choice.” It’s bad policy for Florida. And it was written to trick voters into making that bad policy permanent by adding it to Florida’s Constitution. If passed, the utility-sponsored Amendment would extend no new rights to consumers regarding the installation or use of solar energy equipment, as the ballot language implies. Home- and business owners already have the right to install solar equipment under Florida law. –Florida Today Editorial Board
This is your SolarWakeup for October 25th, 2016
We are getting some public clarification. After SolarWakeup asked the question about the future of Silevo’s technology in the NY factory, Wall Street had some questions. Yesterday, Tesla elaborated on Panasonic’s statements about the solar factory. It will be a blend of the HIT and Silevo technology. Panasonic will now be the operator of the factory and sell the modules under a long term supply agreement to Tesla (SolarCity). There is a danger in doing PR comms when the PR team doesn’t have the business and technical knowledge to understand the point that is missed in the release. Executives get complacent when reading the draft releases and don’t think ahead. Do yourself a favor, either get a comms team that understands your business or really read your releases. This was an unforced error 4 weeks before a crucial shareholder vote.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for October 24th, 2016
It is no secret that Utilities have been fervent supporters of the republican party especially at the State level. One GOP legislator has told me that the scariest part of supporting the utility in his district is that the market is working against the monopoly. The monopoly has long been protected by the responsibility to serve, ability to finance and protect consumers from blackouts and such. The past decade has been a case study on innovation against the slow and steady monopoly business model. Look at the latest development in adaptation. A PJM connected solar farm in North Carolina is now selling its energy through the free markets to offtakers including MIT in Boston. Here’s the punch line, the plant is owned by the utility, Dominion. Expect more of that to come, solar power plus open markets because that is what consumers want.
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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.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for October 21st, 2016
Earlier this week, Tesla announced that they are working on a partnership with Panasonic to manufacturer modules at the new Buffalo gigafactory. It seems by the wording of the release that the intent is to make the HIT modules as opposed to the acquired Silevo technology. Without saying it, it appears that SolarCity is giving up on the technology at this scale in favor of a product that is already in the market. Of course, the reasoning is likely not to become public but the result is the same nonetheless. We are less than a month from the shareholder vote for the acquisition by Tesla so stay tuned.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for October 20th, 2016
Yesterday I spent some time with Frank Andorka on the United States of Solar podcast that so many of you are listening to here on SolarWakeup. As a Florida resident and one of the few people that helped put our net metering policy in place, I find the underhanded behavior regarding Florida’s amendment 1 so abhorrent. The language is misleading and masquerades a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Today at 1pm, join me and many other leaders in solar to push #NoOn1 all over social media. After the audio tape leaked (listen here) that utilities are admitting to lying to Floridians about the intent of the ballot question, the momentum is with the solar industry so we have to work together to push #NoOn1. Please take a moment and spread that hashtag on your social media platform today. Right now. And of course, listen to my podcast!
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Yann
United States Of Solar: Let’s Stop Florida’s Amendment 1 with Yann Brandt
I join our host, Frank Andorka, to discuss the anti-solar amendment being pushed by the Florida utilities. On the heels of devastating reporting by the Miami Herald PROVING that Florida utilities cheated and manipulated the system to get the odious Amendment 1 on the ballot, USOS spoke with Yann Brandt, Conergy executive, editor of Solar Wakeup and a Florida resident himself. Brandt outlines where Amendment 1 came from, where it stands now and what work still has to be done to make sure this amendment is not enshrined in Florida’s Constitution.
Utility consultants Admit to Pushing Their Agenda in Leaked Audio Tape
Utility consultants have been caught admitting to what they call ‘political jiu-jitsu’ in order to pass a constitutional amendment in Florida. To quote from the tape, “To the degree that we can use a little bit of political jiu-jitsu and take what they’re kind of pinning us on and use it to our benefit either in policy, in legislation or in constitutional referendums — if that’s the direction you want to take — use the language of promoting solar, and kind of, kind of put in these protections for consumers that choose not to install rooftop.”
This is your SolarWakeup for October 19th, 2016
Solar still has quite some learning to do when it comes to playing insider baseball. I actually think that we have taken a few steps back in the past year in this regard as we feel the need to ‘grow up’. Solar has won a lot of battles over the past few years primarily because we have been fighting with politicians that care about their image. In Florida things are different. We are in the middle of a nasty ballot fight. The ballot amendment is an anti-solar amendment masqueraded as pro-solar which barely passed the approval of the Supreme Court. However, after $20million+++ spent by the utilities to potentially tie the hands of the regulators. Net metering could well end as we know it after some wrangling at the PSC. But here is the interesting story of the day. One of the participants in the hoodwinking of the public went on a panel and told the insider’s story. A case of political jiu-jitsu as he referred to it and giving the utilities exactly what they want. Learn more about the lessons from Amendment 1 in a special edition #SolarChat this Thursday at 1pm Eastern Time where I will be joined on a panel to discuss these issues and more.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for October 18th, 2016
A fact that I was unaware of and a victory lap for the Obama Administration with an exclamation point courtesy of the US Navy. In 2010, there wasn’t a single utility scale solar plant in the US. Utility scale is defined as over 100MW. In 2011, the loan guarantee program (yes, the Solyndra office) helped launch 5 projects with $4.6billion in loans. Keeping in mind that the loan guarantee program will end up bringing a profit to the taxpayers, today there are over 45 privately financed projects over 100MW and growing. The US Navy this week announced that it was buying through the output from the 150MW Mesquite 3 PV plant for 14 bases across California. Led by Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Dennis McGinn, who was the former President of ACORE.
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Yann