This is your SolarWakeup for September 15th, 2021
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This is your SolarWakeup for September 14th, 2021
The House Legislation. Draft legislation for the budget reconciliation bill was unveiled showing some details of the clean energy related tax credit. Some highlights include a 10 year extension at 30% for the ITC including stand alone storage as long as prevailing wage levels were paid. There is an adder if local content is used that can increase the tax credit. Projects under 1MW appear to be exempt from the requirements and look at a solid 30% for the next decade. All of this comes under the shadow of the Senate, where Manchin and Synema are taking center stage on what this actually looks like. With the tax increases also included as a pay for for the cost of the bill, expect many things to move if and before this is signed by the President.
Gas Price Rising. Gas prices rose again in August, trending the line up and to the right in the US but also in Europe. With cost competitiveness of gas power plants declining, the argument for the energy transition gets stronger and beyond the climate impact alone.
b>Illinois Gets It Done. The Illinois legislature has passed the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act which is sent to and expected to be signed by the Governor. The legislation is expected to add 4GW of wind, 4GW of utility scale solar and 5.8GW of rooftop and community solar. This comes after years of trying to expand the work done under the previous FEJA legislation that kicked off that local market.
The Auctions Like +Storage. Auctions, often used outside of the US, have been a good indicator of changes in the forward looking landscape. In Germany and the UK, generation plus storage is gaining major traction and adding significant pipeline. It is also expanding the growth of ancillary services for frequency regulation and other revenue stacking opportunities.
Gulf Coast Post Ida Coverage. See some of the post Ida coverage from the Gulf Coast. SPI may already have slipped your mind but remember the local community continues to rebuild. Solar and storage played a major role, where deployed, in keeping access to some utilities for those communities.
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This is your SolarWakeup for September 13th, 2021
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This is your SolarWakeup for September 10th, 2021
Let’s Recap. The big news this week comes from Biden’s plan to get 45% solar by 2050, which means adding an average of 65GW per year over that time. That is going to require many gears to line up in sync with each other including issues like trade and training.
And Aligned Policy. With such a large goal in mind, it would behoove the administration to work with States including California where regulators and legislators are threatening to take a giant leap in the wrong direction by favoring incumbent 20th century generation over a more resilient grid.
The Right Direction. An excellent piece from WSJ at the top today highlights the things that will enable a more resilient grid. I may be biased but Kelcy Pegler, CEO of FlexGen, puts it best, “We’ve exhausted all reasonable excuses for not making our grid more intelligent.” Plus check out FlexGen’s new logo and job opportunities on the Linkedin page.
Tesla’s Vertical Integration. In the past two weeks, Tesla has announced a few different grid related strategies that show signs of complete vertical integration beyond being a hardware supplier. First was the filing to become an energy retailer in Texas, interesting for the fact that non-stationary power (in potential energy form) exists in the driveway of every Tesla car owner. I’ve always been curious as to why Tesla referred to its battery business as stationary power but for the reason that the opposite also exists. Second, Tesla appears to be building an energy trading arm which could either be a monetizing effort for the first fact or even go beyond to building out a fleet of stationary power and building the IPP. I clearly play checkers against Elon’s chess moves but I wouldn’t be shocked to see Tesla customers being a segment of this total integrated effort to monetize the energy transition.
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This is your SolarWakeup for September 9th, 2021
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This is your SolarWakeup for September 8th, 2021
Helping NOLA. It’s a triple bad news sandwich. We were supposed to be able to get SPI back on track this year and almost everyone we spoke to was going to attend. Then the delta variant took a toll on the local community causing a good amount of cancellations of exhibitors and attendees. Show organizers were focused on still creating a safe event for those that wanted to get to and then Hurricane Ida came in. The issue is that everyone loses, the community doesn’t benefit from the economic stimulus a show like SPI brings to town, attendees don’t get to meet with partners and clients and the solar industry loses a vital revenue stream that is much needed for the never ending fight for policy that enables our market. Then there is the destruction of the community at the hands of the hurricane like others before that hurt the most vulnerable.
Laudato Si Continued. The Pope is not giving up his message on climate change. Since writing Laudato Is, Pope Francis has merged the message of climate change with preserving the planet and pushing for action by dominant nations. When the Pope speaks, he does so in many languages but he is also speaking to those that see him as the leader of the the catholic church. It’s the duality of the message, especially when heard by catholics that happen to be politicians as well, that stings the hardest because personal causes are in conflict with the message from the church.
The Nuclear Bailouts. Illinois is preparing a $600million bailouts for two nuclear power plants in the State. Typically these are powerful legislative vehicles that can move climate policy forward alongside the bailout, we’ve seen this in New York and New Jersey to name two.
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This is your SolarWakeup for September 7th, 2021
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This is your SolarWakeup for September 3rd, 2021
Multi Jurisdictional Solar Battles. As many of you have read and seen on the news, solar has to continue to fight to maintain access to markets that allow consumers to make their energy generation choice. In California, as fires burn like never before the fight happens across the board from licensing, regulatory with net metering, grid operators with curtailment and interconnection and even legislatively. None of this comes easy or cheap and participating financially is the hard truth for companies that want to compete in fair and open markets. Please take a moment and help CALSSA shore up for these fights.
Manchin Speaks. Senator Manchin wants a strategic pause for the reconciliation bill, arguing that more stimulus and inflation are reasons to halt the process and not do anything with this kind of price tag. With Senator Synema in a similar camp, it’ll be a showdown on the democratic side to see how to either do both infrastructure bills, just the bipartisan or neither and Pelosi is front and center on this.
Miami Wind Codes. Once again a single hurricane has cause incredible wind damage on the Gulf Coast while dumping a foot of rain on the New York/New Jersey area. Pictures of the flooded subways and floating cars show that the infrastructure isn’t meant to withstand the new reality of storms where they normally never went. Meanwhile transmission in Louisiana is still down and 80% of the oil and gas production is offline.
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This is your SolarWakeup for September 2nd, 2021
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This is your SolarWakeup for September 1st, 2021
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