Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

This is your SolarWakeup for October 2nd

New Boots on the Ground, now shorter. Abby and I trimmed the format down to make it more listener-friendly. Have you noticed the difference? solarwakeup.com/boots plus the Florida Panthers won their season opener, time to raise the cup!
Permitting Reform. Senate and White House come to a deal, my thoughts in today’s Wakeup Daily Briefing, why haven’t you joined yet?
Don’t Mess With Solar. Tom with help from his friends is going into the general election for the midterms against 7 candidates that voted against solar. The group went 6 for 6 in the primaries, will they get some hits in the midterm?
PJM Mess/Opportunity. PJM has delayed its capacity auction after falling short on their need driven by the data center requests. How many data centers are going to fix their own needs with side deals? Is there enough gas to drive power to on site generation?
RE+. I’ll be at RE+ and assume you will also. What should I see? Who should I meet? Where should Abby and I record podcast episodes? Should we interview anyone interesting?
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Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for September 30th

New Boots on the Ground, now shorter. Abby and I trimmed the format down to make it more listener-friendly. Have you noticed the difference? solarwakeup.com/boots
Speed to power is the real bottleneck. Oracle had every permit in place and still couldn’t build — because there wasn’t enough power to the site. How many other projects are sitting in that same spot right now?
Rack density is about to 10x. Today’s chips run around 130kW per rack; in the 2030s we’re talking one megawatt. What does that do to solid-state transformers, DC architecture, and storage?
>Trump treats permitting like a trade. Stalled solar and wind projects, in his view, are the price Democrats pay for gas and oil permitting wins. What else is actually in that bill and how does it get done? Abby and I discuss on the podcast
Permitting reform won’t happen before the election. After November, expect a budget deal, tax extenders, and maybe the Defense Authorization Act to move in the lame duck.
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Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for September 28th

Who’s Going to Yotta? Should I go? I’m considering heading to Vegas for the expo.
Clearing up my data center stance. Under 1% of voters will decide their ballot on this issue per a New York Times poll, but the pricing flexibility and multiples it’s driving for solar are real. What happens to both if the hype turns into a bubble?
Oracle files force majeure in New Mexico. Fully permitted, ready to build — except they can’t get gas pipeline approval to fuel it. Is power access, not construction, becoming the real bottleneck for AI everyone should be watching?
Module pricing jumps roughly 40%. Modules prices are going up, but how much? With FEOC, the executive order, 232, and domestic inverter costs stacking up, where does that get absorbed if not offtaker pricing?

Texas hits 474GW in requests. ERCOT’s all-time peak is 91 gigawatts. Does that number change how Abbott’s moratorium plays out?
Watching Senate Elections. There are the races that define the Senate but then there are the races that make us wonder where the electorate is more broadly. What happens if TX governor flips or the Senate seat in Kansas that hasn’t voted for a dem in nearly 100 years.
Want the full story on all of this? Subscribe to the SolarWakeup Daily Brief at solarwakeup.com/join — and if you or your company want to sponsor the newsletter or Boots on the Ground, reach out. We’re looking for a few great partners. 

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for September 25th

Boots on the Ground is trying to hit #1. Abby and I are around #3 right now — a follow, review, or LinkedIn post genuinely helps. Are you subscribed on your podcast app and YouTube yet?

Do we actually need 800V DC architecture? As NVIDIA’s Rubin chips push higher power density, the real question is who decides when architecture changes — EPCs, designers, owners, or chip makers? Where does that decision get made?

Permitting reform is in the headlines, but the House isn’t even back until November 9th. Does a lame-duck Republican House prioritize this with everything else on the table right now? Or do they come back?

Power Electronics opened a new Houston plant. Congratulations to a team that I really like for this expansion. 

A cabbage farmer in Uvalde is now a solar landlord. A few hundred thousand dollars a year later, his multi-generational farm gets a second life. What does that kind of story tell us about where solar’s real support is coming from?

Want the full story on all of this? Subscribe to the SolarWakeup Daily Brief at solarwakeup.com/join — and if you or your company want to sponsor the newsletter or Boots on the Ground, reach out. 

Opinion

Best, Yann