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 January 16th, 2015

Boom! Solar grows by another 31,000 jobs to 174,000 total solar workers. Let’s give props to The Solar Foundation led by Andrea Luecke for the continued Solar Jobs Census. Here is the irony, yesterday (while the census was released), oil companies are announcing layoffs to offset the lower oil pricing (due to lower global demand). I know that my company is hiring, and many other solar companies are hiring. Jobs are challenging, located almost everywhere in the world (including Miami!) and are well paying. So join the solar industry and Shout Out for Solar! #GoSolar

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Yann


This is your SolarWakeup for January 15th, 2015

Let’s elaborate on the topic of the ITC. I have a question for all of you. Do you think that the tax equity scale and profit generated to the banks makes it to the CEO level? If so, do you think that they feel that it important enough to lobby for? What about the law firms? What would project finance teams look like at the major law firms if the ITC steps down to 10%? Remember that you can always get in touch by hitting reply on the email so let me know your thoughts.

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Yann


This is your SolarWakeup for January 14th, 2015

It comes up a lot, from solar executives, that the ITC should not be extended. Let’s talk some facts, most courtesy of GTM. A solar project is installed every 2.5 minutes. Which means that about $11k of tax equity is invested EVERY minute. In 2017, that will go down to about $3k if the rates continue. Even more important is to look at what markets will be affected by reduction. Homeowners that BUY solar cash or take a loan get NO tax credit. Utility scale still maintains a huge cost advantage over rooftop. If you want to make the news by being glib about ITC going away, go for it but you are hurting thousands of solar jobs in the process.

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Yann


This is your SolarWakeup for January 13th, 2015

Jam packed with trends that you need to follow in 2015. The first is another home security company (Protection 1) getting into residential solar. This is additive to their cash flow business as the race to own the homeowner continues. Any visitor to CES last week can verify the connected home trend. The second is the CPUC allowing utilities to own electric vehicle charging stations. A big win and one I support. For the first time, utilities take new market share from oil/fuel companies. Losing energy sales to solar is nothing compared to what EV charging will add to demand growth, charging stations are a key part of that infrastructure.

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Yann


This is your SolarWakeup for January 12th, 2015

Being everything for everybody used to be a flaw for solar companies. This stems from the past issues with confusing channel strategies and undercutting along the value chain. Today solar is different, planning includes partnerships, joint ventures and trusted supplier arrangements. This is part of the natural consolidation and growing up process for solar, where every player finds where they add the most value or they lose. Read today’s original story from Haresh Patel about proper forward planning.

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Yann


Top 10 most read solar articles by your peers this week!

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Have a great day!
Yann


This is your SolarWakeup for January 9th, 2015

What does Wall Street think of solar? Just ask any of the banks and they are really looking forward to continued growth in our market. Not just in the US but across the world. Investors see it as an asset class that is definitely investable but all sorts of funds looking for yield. Let’s start a dialogue about solar versus oil (no correlation) and solar versus treasury yield (lots of correlation). We need mainstream to see solar as a finance product and not a fuel.

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Yann


This is your SolarWakeup for January 8th, 2015

The States continue to drive the existence (or not) of solar markets. California continues to lead the Country in what States could (and should) be doing instead of those listening to the dark money groups and corporate interests that want to deliver dirty fuels and frack their ground. Governor Brown announces the plan to get to 50% renewables while Texas suffers through 6 earthquakes in 4 hours. Texas may have cheaper electricity but which path would you prefer?

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Yann


This is your SolarWakeup for January 7th, 2015

Hope from the White House. Reduced tariffs that for solar modules this time around which is welcomes news. Also yesterday, the President issued a veto threat on the Keystone XL pipeline. Not on environmental reasons but nonetheless a bold political statement. As Congress looks to wind back EPA and other regulations, it will be interesting to see how solar with its massive job and capital creation will play in the political football arena.

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Yann