Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

This is your SolarWakeup for September 19th, 2022

Safe Travels. I hope everyone shares the excitement about SPI that I have right now. Here are some things I’m thinking about as I board the plane for Anaheim.

Supply, Supply, Supply. We’re entering a time of haves and have nots for development pipeline. With tricky supply chains and demand exceed manufacturing capacity, not every purchaser will be able to get what they need at the price they want. Keep in mind that the entire world is electrifying and adding renewable energy, plus the auto industry is interested in batteries as well.

Pipeline To Execution. Shortages aren’t just in hardware, while capital is plenty, the ability to do everything everywhere isn’t possible. That means investment teams, lawyers, engineers and especially EPCs are choosing their long term partners more than ever before.

Make Those Connections. Take time to walk the show when not in your scheduled meetings, you’ll be surprised who you meet and when you’ll see them again.

An SPI To Learn. We’re coming back together at SPI for the first time in 3 years and for the first time, many of us will have the benefit of learning about new things. Energy storage is part of this market in a big way but not everything is well understood. Not everyone manufacturers and not all manufacturers commission the batteries and almost none of the manufacturers make the software that makes the batteries run. Learn more about the storage ecosystem and the industry’s leading EMS service provider, FlexGen (#2792).

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for September 16th, 2022

See You Next Week. For those of you coming to SPI next week, I look forward to seeing you. If you’re so inclined, come say hello at the FlexGen booth at #2792. 

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for September 15th, 2022

Market Dynamics. Unrepresented in market forecasts and the dynamics of the supply chain is the impact that a stand alone energy storage tax credit would have on the solar market. If you own a solar farm, there was little thought to adding storage to it due to the technical limitation of dc-coupling and having to make it work with the existing interconnect so you could charge the batteries with the solar generation without screwing up your PPA. With a stand alone storage ITC, it’s very likely that many if not all asset owners will think about adding batteries to their site either to augment their PPA or to just trade that asset merchant until someone wants to acquire that capacity. Likewise, solar developments in the pipeline had a 1x per day cycle in the storage forecast, less perhaps. The PPA you had for that as available plus PPA becomes a preforma that thinks about running it 2-3 cycles per day in addition to shifting the solar generation.

Where The Money Is Going. Pipeline are through the roof, forecast are already underestimating installations and now capital is pushing hard into recycling. The WSJ ran this reporting just days ago and some more firms are working on repurposing and repowering end of life battery cells. My point is that money is going into both ends of the project life, installing it and decommissioning the asset. Now the question to answer at SPI is what are you doing with the project while its running so that it makes you more money than you expect?

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for September 14th, 2022

Opinion

Best, Yann