This is your SolarWakeup for March 10th, 2015
The first day at PV America was actually better than expected. As heads of SEPA and SEIA, Julia Hamm and Rhone Resch, made the rounds at the on and offsite events to promote the growth of solar in Massachusetts. While the exhibition hall is small you see the advantage of having the show within a great solar market as the lobby of the hall is bustling with deal making. I will be here again all day tomorrow and will report back any further progress. In the meantime I wish all the best to Katie Fehrenbacher from GigaOm, an often used source of solar news as the site shuts down due to lack of continued funding. Katie, you are welcome to publish here anytime!
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 9th, 2015
On my way to Boston for PV America. A show that is small in scale but for once in a location where deals can get done especially for those that come with a checkbook. I’m interested to see and hear how big of a deal the Northeast markets are for the companies that aren’t getting a share of the California scale. The US marketplace continues to operate like a 50 Country market instead of one market that covers a big geography. If you are in Boston, let me know and say hello.
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Yann
Solar Asset Management: 4 Best Practices From The Experts
By Richard Matsui
By Richard Matsui With the notable exception of Intersolar North America, it’s surprisingly rare for a major solar conference to be held here in San Francisco. So when Solarplaza extended an invitation for us to speak at its 2nd annual Solar Asset Management conference here in the city, we leapt at the opportunity. I joined fellow panelists Kent Williams (VP of Asset Management, Vivint Solar), Jimmy Bergeron (Director of O&M, SolarCity), and Matt Golden (Senior Consultant, IBTS) for a discussion entitled, “Challenges in effective management of small scale portfolios.” 4 Asset Management Best Practices From The Experts Measure twice, cut … Read More
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.
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 6th, 2015
Thank you to Pam Cargill of Chaolysti and Grant Draper from Browning and Associates for buying their Equinox Party Tickets. If you buy 5 tickets ($1,000) you get to write the column for a day. In today’s news you have the incoming tariffs in Canada on Chinese modules. A permanent ruling to come this summer but the preliminary numbers are rather high, Canadian Solar may be the winner here with good capacity in Ontario plus their great day on Wall Street with the pending yieldco announcement coming soon perhaps???
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 5th, 2015
Probably the best night in solar is Vote Solar’s Equinox Party. A star-studded affair every year and this time is no different so it is with pleasure that I ask you, the loyal readers, to do me a favor and buy a ticket to Vote Solar’s Equinox. It is happening on March 19th (in a few weeks) in San Francisco. If you can’t go, take this opportunity to make a donation to the group, they do the work to keep you in business so your salary/profits depend on them being able to do their job. If you use the link below to buy tickets, send me your receipt and I’ll give you a shoutout, if you buy or donate $1,000 or more, you get to write the column for a day. How’s that for a write-off!
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 4th, 2015
Another IPP goes the way of acquisition. With 60MW of assets and another 100MW under development, Main Street isn’t the biggest player on the market but significant enough to get AES’s attention. I reiterate my question from a few weeks ago when Duke took the majority of REC Solar, what is the root of all the majority investment/acquisitions of commercial development paltforms. Of note, AES CEO says the transaction size was $25million which (if accurate) seems very small so something else was part of the deal, let’s see who digs into it.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 3rd, 2015
We often ask if solar has become mainstream and I can confidently say that it has. Wearing my daytime hat at Conergy, we proudly announced one of the best turnarounds in solar’s history this morning. With 300MW installed and nearly $500million in revenues, the team I get to work with every day brought profits back to a Company after many years of losses. The solar markets are flattening out especially for global companies reaching markets where solar is at parity and with investor’s appetite for more solar projects growing, we see a larger 2015 by continuing our partnerships with solar teams around the world.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 2nd, 2015
Now that SRP has essentially killed solar through regulations, let us look at how they did it and what concessions were made. SRP always used the $50/month charge for new solar users to remove incentive for solar savings. How those numbers could make sense (they don’t) is beyond me, no way that a few kW of solar can cost SRP infrastructure $600/year. SRP board did however give a 20 year grandfather instead of 10 on existing customers though there may be a distinction for leased systems and increased the demand charge calculation to 30 minutes from 15, a small but significant change. Not to forget that SolarCity has promised a lawsuit against the new charge, so much more to come.
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Yann
These are the top 10 most read solar articles by your peers this week!
News
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