This is your SolarWakeup for April 16th, 2015
Yesterday was a blast at the GTM Solar Summit. The panel I sat on had some great points of view and with audience input. (You can catch it here) Surprisingly, I found myself on the contrarian part of the questions, shocking I know. What I found most surprising was the the majority of the room thought that an ITC decline would have a marginal impact on the solar industry. Wake up folks! We can’t sit here and ignore public policy or hope that someone else is working on it.
News
1 Bloomberg:
California Turning to Solar Amid Decade-Low Hydropower
2 Vox:
Clean energy is growing fast — but it's not yet winning the race against fossil fuels
3 Greentech Media:
Solar Summit Slide Show - The Evolution of Solar
4 Utility Dive:
Maryland lawmakers send community solar bills to governor
5 PV-Tech:
EIA report - How solar will help the US become a net energy exporter
6 KOB-TV:
AG supports motion to dismiss PNM solar fee
7 Indy Star:
Groups sue House GOP over solar bill secrecy
8 KCET:
Did California Just Break Six Gigawatts of Grid Solar?
Opinions:
9 Forbes:
"Winter Is Coming" -- Preparing For A Possible Reduction Of The Solar Investment Tax Credit
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for April 15th, 2015
Later today, I will be on a panel at the GTM Solar Summit here in Arizona. The panel (at 11:15am) is the crowdsourced panel where the panelists respond to the votes of the attendees in real-time. We are covering topics across many different aspects of the market though my fellow speakers are mostly concentrated on residential. So here is my question to you, what do you want to know? You can catch the conference live online or watch one of the many Periscope broadcasts throughout the day.
News
1 Greentech Media:
NRG Energy Exec Questions Why Solar Is the ‘Bad Boy,’ While Efficiency Is Good
2 Bloomberg:
Musk’s Cousins Battle Utilities to Make Solar Rooftops Cheap
3 CleanTechnica:
Vanderbilt Study Questions Effectiveness Of California Solar Incentive
4 Breaking Energy:
The Utah Solar Boomlet - PURPA Lives!
5 Star Advertiser:
Solar industry questions HECO's count of PV approvals
6 RE World:
Assuring Solar Modules Will Last for Decades
7 PV-Magazine:
Investment dries up for Australia's large-scale RE
8 Utility Dive:
Utilities, solar advocates at odds over Missouri net metering bill
Opinions:
9 Seeking Alpha:
Vivint Solar - Why You Should Buy The Second-Largest U.S. Residential Solar Installer
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for April 14th, 2015
No matter which way you lean politically, it is easy to recognize that most republican candidates for their party’s Presidential nomination is going to cater to non-SolarWakeup readers. Solar is such a simple political calculation, 200k jobs, the only energy tax credit that is getting better over time and way above average income potential. That is why Hillary Clinton’s Chief of Staff, John Podesta, included clean energy in the top issues tweet he sent out. So while at the GTM conference this week, think twice before saying some rhetoric about the 2017 cliff, ITC sunset, etc and tell us what you will do to help pass the extension…
News
1 Think Progress:
This Is The Most Important Tweet About Hillary’s Announcement
2 Energy Collective:
2015 State of Solar Financing, Part I - What is a Yieldco?
3 Solar Power World:
Total corporate funding in solar sector for Q1 is $6.4 billion
4 Bloomberg:
California Utility to Make Gas From Solar for Pipeline Storage
5 Desert Sun:
California solar rebates not effective, study finds
6 Telegraph:
The best time to buy solar panels? Five years ago – or right now
7 Consumerist:
Why Solar Panels Are Suddenly Sprouting On Everyone’s Roofs
8 Utility Dive:
NRDC - Low-income Americans will benefit most from Clean Power Plan
Opinions:
9 Forbes:
Want More Wind And Solar Energy? Invest A Lot More In The Grid
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for April 13th, 2015
More than anything, solar is an industry that revolves around people. Many good people, that work to do well and seek the mission of solar at the same time. Later today, I am heading to the GTM conference in Phoenix, not only to learn but to see some 500 people that work in the sector. A good friend of SolarWakeup, Julie Blunden, made some news last week by heading to SunEdison as the Chief Strategy Officer. Quite the gain for the company and we wish her well. For those of you in Phoenix this week, don’t forget to say hello.
News
1 AZ Central:
APS, solar leasing companies debate growth of solar
2 PV-Magazine:
LDK finally exits insolvency
3 Bloomberg:
Nuclear France’s Sun Power Record Leaves Utilities in the Shade
4 NRDC:
Shared renewables for all, coming soon to New York
5 NY Times:
Engaging With Latin America
6 Greentech Media:
Could the First Major Solar PPA Offering in China Drive Even Faster Market Growth?
7 Solar Love:
The Most Advanced Microgrid In North America
8 PBS:
Gridlocked by the power grid - Why Hawaii’s solar energy industry is at a crossroads
Opinions:
9 Energy Collective:
And the Winner Is - Distributed Generation
Have a great day!
Yann
These are the top 10 most read solar articles by your peers this week!
News
1 SolarWakeup:
Solar Asset Management - 4 Best Practices From The Experts
2 Greentech Media:
The Best and Worst Employee Reviews of America’s Top Solar Companies
3 Motley Fool:
The Biggest Challenge Facing SolarCity and Vivint Solar in 2015
4 CNBC:
No oil needed! This solar stock is on fire
5 Quartz:
Utah man sent to ‘casual’ roundtable meeting gets a shock - Obama is sitting there
6 Daily Caller:
Arizona Solar Customers Complain About Deceptive Marketing Practices
7 Forbes:
Solar Eclipses Are Slowly Disappearing, And There's Nothing We Can Do To Stop It
8 Times-Picayune:
Do solar power costs outweigh benefits? New study reignites old debate
9 Tea Party Tribune:
Nevada’s Latest Import? Energy Corruption
10 Standard Examiner:
Report - Big shift from electricity to solar power
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 April 10th, 2015
We need to talk about water more often. A few years ago, while talking about the ratepayer impact of solar, I thought that water reduction (on a per kWh basis) should be included in the financial value of solar investments. Every gallon of water saved in energy, is an extra gallon available to farmers, ranchers and the environment which is an obvious economic and societal benefit. If we continue with the status quo, you can see a future where utilities have to scale back central power due to lack of water resource, it’s happening more and more…
News
1 Tea Party Tribune:
Nevada’s Latest Import? Energy Corruption
2 Quartz:
The electric grid’s latest threat? Rooftop solar cells
3 PV-Magazine:
US poised to hit 1994-levels of CO2 emissions this year, says BNEF
4 Scientific American:
Gas-Happy Texas Goes Solar
5 CNBC:
No oil needed! This solar stock is on fire
6 Utility Dive:
How Wellinghoff, Rabago, and other grid reformers would design their own electricity markets
7 Grist:
The bright side of California’s drought- More solar power
8 EDF:
"Australia (and possibly Texas) Undoes Best Strategy for Water Conservation - Clean Energy"
Opinions:
9 NRDC:
Going solar should be no more difficult than getting cable TV
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for April 9th, 2015
It’s been about a year since I put solar on my house and there has been some discussion recently about the value of residential solar O&M. I work in solar so I look at my production almost daily (through my awesome iPhone app) but I was shocked to see how bad the dirt, dust and salt had covered my panels. So my next step is to figure out a way to clean my panels (and troubleshoot the two underperforming panels). Solar is my entire career, so this should be easy for me but imagine how this impacts the everyday homeowner. O&M is crucial and is surely more than 20 years of repairs…
News
1 SolarWakeup:
Solar Asset Management - 4 Best Practices From The Experts
2 PV-Magazine:
Abdul Latif Jameel completes FRV acquisition
3 Inside Climate:
Bloomberg Pours $30 Million More Into Fighting Coal
4 Business Spectator:
Solar and wind 'now cheapest in UAE'
5 Standard Examiner:
Report - Big shift from electricity to solar power
6 Fox:
Utah man sent to ‘casual’ roundtable meeting gets a shock - Obama is sitting there
7 Utility Dive:
Developer scraps Maryland wind project due to local political opposition
8 NY Times:
If We Dig Out All Our Fossil Fuels, Here’s How Hot We Can Expect It to Get
Opinions:
9 RE World:
Making Residual Value Real - Where is Solar's Emilio Estevez?
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for April 8th, 2015
Thank you to the smart folks down under. Apparently Australians enjoy the benefits of cheap solar energy and don’t mind if the Chinese are willing to sell modules at the best price possible. So while the findings showed there was dumping of solar modules it found little injury to the Australian PV industry. If only the US commissions had used similar reasoning, maybe we would have realized that the solar industry would have been better off.
News
1 PV-Magazine:
Australia - Module dumping causes negligible injury
2 Hartford Courant:
Report - Solar Plus Batteries Means Tough Future For Utilities
3 Think Progress:
White House Announces Plan To Tackle The Health Threats Of Climate Change
4 Utility Dive:
PPL, Peco join list of utilities seeking big fixed fee hikes
5 Breaking Energy:
In New Survey, Even Republicans Love Solar
6 Solar Server:
PV in the U.K. - No large-scale solar for next financial year
7 Seeking Alpha:
China's And India's Increasing Impact On The Solar Industry
8 Daily Caller:
Arizona Solar Customers Complain About Deceptive Marketing Practices
Opinions:
9 Network World:
A better way to store solar power for data centers
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for April 7th, 2015
The yield-co game of chess is upon us. My favorite part about it is that nobody really knows what it means. Everyone is talking about yield-cos buying everything which in some part is true but can most people explain it? We know the buzzword, feeding the beast, but do we know who is getting the better bargain? What does it mean when one potential yield-co sells to another potential yield-co? And what is the value of a yield-co without a development platform, will it be able to stay competitive on pricing?
News
1 Motley Fool:
It's Official - Solar Is Taking Over in California
2 Climate News Network:
Water crisis pushes Brazil towards solar power at last
3 Forbes:
Solar Eclipses Are Slowly Disappearing, And There's Nothing We Can Do To Stop It
4 Greentech Media:
The Best and Worst Employee Reviews of America’s Top Solar Companies
5 Solar Love:
Integrated Utility Services Proposal In Colarado
6 RE World:
Rethinking the Grid - Personal Power Stations in Your Garage
7 Utility Dive:
Duke Energy Florida proposes 500 MW of utility-scale solar
8 CleanTechnica:
Another Big Blow For Big Coal- Solar PPAs Coming To China
Opinions:
9 Energy Collective:
Has Renewable Energy Finally Ended the Great Clean Energy Stagnation?
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for April 6th, 2015
It’s a great thing when a good plan comes together. President Obama visited his 49th State (Utah) last week to announce the mission to train 75,000 veterans through the SITN (Solar Instructor Training Network) managed by our dear friends at IREC. As Gallup shows in recent polling, support by all Americans for solar remains at the top with 76% saying we should do more. With the training and the support, it gives Congress another reason to expand the growth of solar going forward and not shrink it.
News
1 Washington Post:
Obama wants to train 75,000 new solar workers by 2020
2 Solar Love:
Gallup Energy Poll Says Most Favor Solar
3 AZ Central:
Solar water-heating industry cools off
4 Motley Fool:
The Biggest Challenge Facing SolarCity and Vivint Solar in 2015
5 Times-Picayune:
Do solar power costs outweigh benefits? New study reignites old debate
6 RE World:
Questionable Cost Concerns Slow Net Metering
7 Treehugger:
It's a solar powered electric bicycle. Now we're talking. Again.
8 CleanTechnica:
Big Money Bets On Utility-Scale Solar — But We Still Heart Distributed Solar
Opinions:
9 EDF:
Clean Energy Legislation in the Heartland Promises Jobs
Have a great day!
Yann
