This is your SolarWakeup for March 30th, 2020
When A Market Is A Market. IHS reports that 2021 is going to be a record year with 181GW of solar installed across the world, growing 27% over last year. This is a good thing for the planet and creates a reality that we can’t question where this is going. Our baseline no longer includes a possible fossil first energy market. Driven by cost, demand and policy, the energy transition has entered the full court press which means that any grid planning and market design has to re-evaluate the what the generation portfolio looks like going forward. There is still untapped value in how generation is used, designed or valued by those making those investments but I would bet my career that every energy market is making changes in real time to adjust to the new reality.
What’s In A Name. The car of the people is becoming the car of energy units. Let’s see if the leaked VW press release is real or not…
Not Green Or Alternative. In the upcoming months you’ll see the world of political PR twist roads and bridges into the green new deal, renaming the infrastructure bill as the green stimulus. The counter has to be by the people and for the people and you can have an impact on this. Start building a relationship with your local TV and newspapers to show the jobs that you created in post covid months. Focus on great stories where an employee was trained by you and created a new opportunity for them. There is no need for hyperbole, I know that you have great stories and great team members that are excited to be working in solar having come from a different industry. This can’t just be led by DC groups or large corporations, you need to be changing the hearts and minds of people watching your local news. Just search for your local tv ‘news desk’ and you’ll find a form or phone number.
Free Series for Solar EPCs. I’ve teamed up with EagleView to host their Solar Business PowerSeries. Each month, we’re talking with experts on topics like LEAN and TQM, streamlining the solar permit process, deploying technology in solar, and more. This month, I’m talking with Jake Wachman from SunPower Corporation about how his company uses technology and automation to drive growth. If you’re a small- or mid-sized EPC who’s looking to improve your operations in 2021, sign up to join us live on April 8th. Registered users also gain access to the first two episodes on-demand.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 29th, 2020
Almost Infrastructure Week. On the Sunday shows, the White House revealed that the $3trillion infrastructure bill will separate actual infrastructure from social infrastructure. This means that the more popular roads, bridges, and energy-related topics will likely be packaged in hopes to get bipartisan support. From a behind-the-scenes standpoint, you can feel Manchin’s fingerprints on the split possibly with support for a reconciliation vote in the later package. Much is being made of the 10-year extension for the ITC, possibly back to 30%, the inclusion of stand-alone storage, and a shorter-term direct pay.
The Amazon Of Solar. With Sunpower’s CEO, Tom Werner, retiring after some 18 years at the helm of the company, the board brings in a new face to solar. Peter Faricy is viewed as a direct-to-consumer pro, sits on the board of Blue Apron, and spent over 12 years at Amazon, from 06 to 2018. Sunpower has spent quite a bit of money trying to reach homeowners and get them to view the company as a brand without much success, relying on their dealer network to do the more grassroots approach. With the company pivot in full swing, I’d expect the company to give that another shot. Here’s the interesting thing about the CEO hire, it doesn’t matter that there is no solar experience, the hire shows a pivot to mainstream consumer marketing instead. So I ask you this, is solar mainstream enough that it’s become a marketing-first industry?
Renewables Means Profits. Public companies are leaning in and sometimes relying on renewables to create shareholder value. Look at the tailwinds in the industry, from the first two paragraphs, as well as the ability to start creating a 10-year company plan due to regulatory certainty that the ITC extension will provide. It will show the maturity of an industry that things in real-world time horizons instead of peaks and valleys that we’ve become used to. It also means that the multiples that public companies like Enphase, Array Technologies, Shoals, Solaredge and Generac have are justified given the long-term growth ahead for the markets; in all segments and markets around renewables and grid resilience.
A Global Climate Summit. Biden and Xi are publicly thinking about having a climate summit. Alignment on this issue to sort through the other diplomatic rifts would be good for our industry.
Free Series for Solar EPCs. I’ve teamed up with EagleView to host their Solar Business PowerSeries. Each month, we’re talking with experts on topics like LEAN and TQM, streamlining the solar permit process, deploying technology in solar, and more. This month, I’m talking with Jake Wachman from SunPower Corporation about how his company uses technology and automation to drive growth. If you’re a small- or mid-sized EPC who’s looking to improve your operations in 2021, sign up to join us live on April 8th. Registered users also gain access to the first two episodes on-demand.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 26th, 2020
Have A Great Weekend. We have a SolarWakeup entry in the March Madness bracket that has reached the top 1000 of all ESPN brackets, reveal yourself!
Financing The Plus+. Solar + Storage PPAs continue to gain momentum among commercial energy consumers. My C&I solar friends at Sustainable Capital Finance (SCF) have a great solution for schools, municipalities, non-profits, and commercial & industrial projects. SCF will be hosting a webinar on March 31st, covering industry trends, SCF's new storage pricing & transaction features, as well as challenges and solutions when executing Solar + Storage PPAs. You can sign up here or contact the SCF team at info@scf.com for more information.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 25th, 2020
Build Back Better. Biden’s White House is working the PR on the build back better infrastructure bill. It’s going to have a rather large price tag but in reality, it’s like any project at home. You can either pay for the ongoing maintenance or you’re going to get a lump sum surprise when it breaks. The good thing is that investing in infrastructure, it enables new and more efficient commerce to occur. Build millions of EV stations? Get a whole new auto economy that’s cleaner and more fun to drive. Build new transmission lines? Achieve 100% clean energy in the next 15 years and save the planet. See what I mean? It’s not a cost when the dynamic cost analysis says it is a GDP driver.
Texas Recap. One thing you will learn about energy storage is that the battery is not even half the battle. It’s an entire electrical integration exercise and how you intend to use or trade the asset has to be factored into the design. More importantly, how is the battery controlled after it’s commissioned so that you don’t void the warranties and actually generate electricity requires a complex overlap of hardware controls and robust software that has to be approved by the ISO and compliant with national regulatory requirements. We’ll dig into that more in the future and even host a series of calls to pass along that education. We’ll probably kick it off with a ‘does storage work for me and my project?’ tutorial and how to answer that.
Granholm Speaks. Secretary Granholm is hosting a special online meeting on how DOE’s solar investments will help achieve decarbonization goals. You can register for that here.
Financing The Plus+. Solar + Storage PPAs continue to gain momentum among commercial energy consumers. My C&I solar friends at Sustainable Capital Finance (SCF) have a great solution for schools, municipalities, non-profits, and commercial & industrial projects. SCF will be hosting a webinar on March 31st, covering industry trends, SCF's new storage pricing & transaction features, as well as challenges and solutions when executing Solar + Storage PPAs. You can sign up here or contact the SCF team at info@scf.com for more information.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 24th, 2020
Spring Break. Short columns this week as half the household is in spring break mode.
The Infra Bill. All eyes this week on the infrastructure proposal from President Biden. It is likely to include a kitchen sink of climate proposals providing major tailwinds to the solar industry.
Financing The Plus+. Solar + Storage PPAs continue to gain momentum among commercial energy consumers. My C&I solar friends at Sustainable Capital Finance (SCF) have a great solution for schools, municipalities, non-profits, and commercial & industrial projects. SCF will be hosting a webinar on March 31st, covering industry trends, SCF's new storage pricing & transaction features, as well as challenges and solutions when executing Solar + Storage PPAs. You can sign up here or contact the SCF team at info@scf.com for more information.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 23rd, 2020
Financing The Plus+. Solar + Storage PPAs continue to gain momentum among commercial energy consumers. My C&I solar friends at Sustainable Capital Finance (SCF) have a great solution for schools, municipalities, non-profits, and commercial & industrial projects. SCF will be hosting a webinar on March 31st, covering industry trends, SCF's new storage pricing & transaction features, as well as challenges and solutions when executing Solar + Storage PPAs. You can sign up here or contact the SCF team at info@scf.com for more information.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 22nd, 2020
Busted Brackets. I was going to make fun of all of you that picked Illinois to win it all but then Florida went and watched too many family guy clips about Oral Roberts. My championship game remains intact but I guess we’re all assured of a bad year in picking. That is except for our leader, who must reveal their identity to get mid bracket credit, for being in the top echelon of all brackets including having still every Elite Eight team alive.
The Good And Available Jobs. The political pendulum always swings wildly before the pen hits paper and when it comes to infrastructure/climate/
Climate Diplomacy. US and Chinese diplomats met in Alaska for a face to face meeting. Climate was discussed and while there was some hope for a working group to be established, it wasn’t. There were some higher level tensions in the room so climate may actually be a topic where some agreement can be found early on. Let’s see how Blinken and Kerry tag team this effort.
Don’t Call It A Comeback. Some positive movement on PURPA facilities that should make this a viable market going forward, especially in solar plus storage facilities. Look out for the trifecta of tracking solar with storage coming to a neighborhood near you.
Repeal And Replace. Power plants, starting with the ones closest to population centers will be shut down and replaced with cleaner generation and storage in a much more distributed way. I’m saying that the facilities will range from large central solar with grid scale storage, smaller solar farms as you get closer to the demand and then DERs at the demand location. All operated in a systemwide way using smarter and faster pricing signals. We call this the future of ClimateTech.
Financing The Plus+. Solar + Storage PPAs continue to gain momentum among commercial energy consumers. My C&I solar friends at Sustainable Capital Finance (SCF) have a great solution for schools, municipalities, non-profits, and commercial & industrial projects. SCF will be hosting a webinar on March 31st, covering industry trends, SCF's new storage pricing & transaction features, as well as challenges and solutions when executing Solar + Storage PPAs. You can sign up here or contact the SCF team at info@scf.com for more information.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 19th, 2020
Have a great weekend! More coming next week.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 18th, 2020
Last, Call Bracketology. Last Call for entries, you must register and get your bracket in before today’s tipoffs. The most important SolarWakeup day of the year is here, time to join this year’s March Madness bracket. As always, the winning bracket gets to write the column for a day as well as an awesome backpack from our friends at EnergeiaWorks, sponsors of the HotJobs. So head to ESPN Fantasy and look for the ‘SolarWakeup 2021’ group and use password solar to join. Feel free to invite your friends and colleagues to join the fun.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 17th, 2020
A Big Market, Gets Bigger. This is the + decade. Solar+, that is. At the core is that the energy transition is happening, in real-time, in front of our eyes. There are still drivers that determine how big, how fast and how beneficial but now SEIA has a forecast for that. SEIA expects that over 324GW of solar will be installed this decade. That’s a lot and the reality is that we will build all of that and much more. We can be happy with that number but never satisfied and thus we need to continue to push the envelope and against any force that is attempting to slow the growth.
Not All Love. I’ve highlighted some of the early work on NEM 3.0 in California and now the utility joint proposal has been published, let’s just say that not everyone is on board with more solar.
Trust The Process. The filing caused market pressure on solar stocks yesterday. On day 1 of the process, we don’t know how it is going to play out and if we are passive in this then it will not be good for solar. This is not just a DG versus central discussion either, this is about controlling the benefit of the generation away from the market and consumers. But if we recognize that political involvement means more value to solar and clean energy companies, involvement that is both people power and dollars for advocacy, then the process should result in a fair outcome because that is what the people want.
Not For Spectators. A lobbyist told me in my very early years in solar that politics is not a spectator sport and it’s full contact, no light days on the Capitol. Ask yourself this, no matter your company, what are you doing to participate in the process?
Bracketology. The most important SolarWakeup day of the year is here, time to join this year’s March Madness bracket. As always, the winning bracket gets to write the column for a day. So head to ESPN Fantasy and look for the ‘SolarWakeup 2021’ group and use password solar to join. Feel free to invite your friends and colleagues to join the fun.
A Product Showcase. In two weeks, join CALSSA and the dozens of manufacturers in a product showcase. This is a free event if you register in advance, you can do that here. Absent in person events and a desire to stay in front of a computer all day, CALSSA brings you the best way to learn about the latest and greatest.
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Yann