This is your SolarWakeup for September 24th, 2015
A MUST READ! This is the most obscene story you will read today, this week and maybe this month. The politician that was supposed to help all 200,000 in the solar industry is Senator Ron Wyden but he is now showing his true colors. According to his interview in today’s story, the only thing that matter is SolarWorld’s factory in Oregon. Everyone else in solar is cheating. It appears that at this point, SolarWorld is willing to sacrifice the ITC in addition to the harm that the company has already done. Senator Wyden has clearly chosen to do the work of the Qatari owned company and is willing to do anything for them. You should be upset and make your opinion heard. This isn’t about jobs anymore, this is dirty politics and the people to blame are clearly labeled.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for September 23rd, 2015
Some big news items for your day. Hillary Clinton did the right thing that may actually hurt in some swing states by coming out against the Keystone pipeline. Still the right move so good for her, clearly another donor/Podesta influenced decision. REC Silicon, the poly manufacturer in Washington State, may close the plant after already stopping an expansion. Why? Because China has a tariff on poly imports because we have a tariff on module imports. This directly counters the jobs saved in Oregon by Qatari owned SolarWorld.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for September 22nd, 2015
Start your Tuesday with some inside baseball, definitely with some intended pun. There is some hometown drama in San Francisco between PG&E and Sunrun, with the Giants in the middle. The question is similar to that raised by Vice President Biden and is about the nature of incumbent participants. If you have extraordinary power awarded to you, it comes with great responsibility and in this case PG&E does not appear to be living up to the task. Should the Giants keep taking their money to allow them the publicity that comes with being a sponsor of a World Series caliber team?
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for September 21th, 2015
It has been widely publicized that the Chinese President is coming to Washington D.C.to meet with President Obama. The delegation is sure to discuss many topics and my presumption is that solar energy is one of them. The ITC is a benefit for the industry that almost directly offsets the cost of the trade tariff. The tariff artificially inflates the true cost of solar modules that could be used here. The politics here are inherently conservative and should be appealing to Republicans. Open trade can lower costs. Conserving energy through competitive markets lowers costs. So when the debate stage is in front of Reagan’s Air Force One, the question that should be asked is; Isn’t solar energy a great Republican Agenda item?
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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 September 18th, 2015
Another successful year for SPI, a huge crowd which hopefully won’t be the peak of the event as we go into an execution year. Acquiring developments across the Country is the focus for many of us but we have to keep looking ahead as well. Storage is now being looked at as having the potential cost declines similar to that of solar with the electrification of the transportation sector gaining momentum and scale driving up volumes. Enjoy your weekend and get some rest for your feet!
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for September 17th, 2015
Yesterday the Vice President addressed a packed room at SPI in Anaheim. He came with a preface to the sure fire refutes that would come hours later at the GOP debates. His best comments came when he directly spoke about the tax credits and how crazy it is that an industry like oil and gas still relies on tax credits but a thriving job creating industry like solar is asked to do without. In comparison, my US Senator Marco Rubio, is educating us all on how the United States is not a planet. Imagine if we were talking about another issue, Senator Rubio would be saying how the U.S. Is failing to be a global leader. Time to step up Senator!
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for September 16th, 2015
A cloudy first day of SPI 2015 today and I am not just talking about the weather. SEIA, through Rhone Resch, is rightfully pressing the panic button in its communication to the solar industry. There are some 200k solar professionals working in the space and if we had been proactive and actually calling our Senators, solar ITC could be much farther along. If you are a small contractor selling cash deals to residential and small commercial customers, solar without the ITC is painful for your business. Run a financial model without the ITC and tell me what it says, in the meantime you can pick up the phone and ask your Senators to help.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for September 15th, 2015
Money talks! That’s what you are getting across the Country as the companies interested in making sure solar doesn’t disrupt energy markets, especially their long time monopolies. Those money interests are right here in the solar industry and you are most likely helping fund anti-solar ITC efforts by attending SPI. A year ago, I asked if SPI will have to split up. The reason? The event is put on by SEIA and SEPA, and those interests are no longer aligned in growth of solar. SEPA’s members are mostly utilities and they have spurned SEIA’s request to push for an ITC extension. Don’t buy Julia Hamm’s response about tax status, it is very bad PR on her end. Let’s see how it plays out this year, but there is a rift and SEPA needs to step up and push for an ITC extension or pull out of SPI 2016 and perhaps choose to sponsor EEI’s annual conference.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for September 14th, 2015
Planes across the Country are full of solar people flying to Anaheim for SPI (me included). On Friday, California showed again why the majority of total and annual solar growth is in their State. The legislature passed a 50% renewable energy by 2030 bill, clearly putting them into a leadership position on a macro level. Don’t let the details be missed, utilities want to gut the policies that will make solar a portion of the 50% which would put California behind South Carolina in comparison. So as you see the headlines, stay aware of what the other (incumbent and monopolistic) market participants want to do to solar.
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Yann