Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

This is your SolarWakeup for August 17th

Cells And Wafers. 232 has a vision to basically stop the imports of the module ecosystem into the US. At least that’s the policy expectation. The politics of 232 was to increase margins for domestic suppliers which it will certainly do. I’ll be watching how a couple things play out, from the announcements on cell and wafer manufacturing onshoring versus just paying the import tariff and how the higher module prices impact those 2030 projects that are likely Post ITC at this point. In general, projects through 2029 should have enough development done and the 232 advance knowledge that the modules are already figured out, for those projects that haven’t secured the module, that will add another wrinkle to the markets backlog but I would expect that to be minimal. 

In Today’s Premium. I’ll discuss IPPs and data centers, the politics of the 45x and ITC in DC and how FEOC may be impacting your storage pipeline and what you could be looking out for. 

Some News. You can now subscribe to Wakeup Premium and get a deeper briefing into today’s news in both audio and transcript format. By joining premium Wakeup, a small group of you will be able to shape the discussion that the solar industry is hearing. 

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 14th

Capital Needs. The grid and infrastructure needs more capital, the companies that are building the projects need to bolster their balance sheets so that bonding in in place and they can handle the procurement for the scale of the projects they sign up and they need to buy these material well ahead of time. Development platforms need the capital to move projects forward and you know that many of them wish they had bought modules ahead of the 232 announcement. You know what everyone needs to bring more capital to the table? Certainty in the ecosystem working as expected and more years of the rules to be existing or better. What is your capital strategy if you were to focus on scaling your business? From private equity to debt and public markets, you have choices available. 

Some News. You may or may not have seen some career updates from me but you can catch it on my LinkedIn here. You can also now subscribe to Wakeup Premium and get one of the seats in this ecosystem we’ve built over the past 14 years. By joining premium Wakeup, a small group of you will be able to shape the discussion that the solar industry is hearing. In the meantime the first premium content will be a quick hit discussion from my desk to yours, a memo style view of what I am seeing as if I was in your board room. 

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 13th

ERCOT Loading. It wasn’t long ago that a 50GW day in ERCOT was considered a crazy feat. A few weeks ago it went above 90GW and forecasts have a peak of 120GW in a couple of years. The problem is that at those levels everything has to work quite right with the caveat that something is causing the stress on the grid to begin with. Like a zipper, if one thing goes wrong a lot goes wrong. It’s not just ERCOT, every ISO is dealing with the new need for power because as you know, the economy only works if the grid does. 

Both Sides Of The Grid. More on the zipper theory of things going wrong when it comes to the grid. Even without max demand stress, everyone wants their lights, factories and servers to run when they hit the power switch. The entire point is that generation is there when load desires it, with the grid bringing it from one end to another. Forecasters are worried about the demand (load) growing faster than generation (supply). Meanwhile the grid operators want certainty, demand certainty, from both the supply and demand. That is why the headlines and stories from operators and forecasters are focused on things like ride through and backup power. The physics will require overproduction of generation, certainty of demand and A LOT of energy storage. Here’s the wild card though, the grid, inverters, data centers and batteries all run on various levels of software and that software has little to zero oversight and certainly has little value proposition in the solar/storage market. 

All About Timing. Wild card number two, when is the supply generated and when does the demand for the load happen, how overlapping is that Venn diagram. 

Some News. You may or may not have seen some career updates from me but you can catch it on my LinkedIn here. You can also now subscribe to Wakeup Premium and get one of the seats in this ecosystem we’ve built over the past 14 years. By joining premium Wakeup, a small group of you will be able to shape the discussion that the solar industry is hearing. 

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 12th

3 Cents Of Headwind. We live in a funny time, several days after the 232 proclamation, this version of the Sunshot team proclaims a 3 cent per kWh utility solar target by 2030. 

Negotiating Offtaker Agreements? I want to hear from you and see what you’re getting from off takers post 232 and expected Capex increases. 

Some News. You may or may not have seen some career updates from me but you can catch it on my LinkedIn here. 

Opinion

Best, Yann