Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

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.

Opinion

Best, 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.

Opinion

Best, 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.

Opinion

Best, 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/renewables/jobs, this time it will be no different. There are many things that can differentiate the value of a job but here is a list of things that happens to be true about jobs in our industry right now. 1. everyone and their competitor is hiring. A few months ago the green light to staff up for the 2021 plan and recapture lost positions from 2020 was given and the job postings are plentiful. 2. Jobs aren’t just checking off the salary box but also the culture, mission and values of those companies is being driven by this competitive market. Recruits are choosing their bosses and companies while determining their best path forward. 3. Jobs in renewables pay incredibly well and have the perks to back them up. Not only do they pay well, they have a positive impact on the world and a bright future for many years to come.

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.

Opinion

Best, Yann