Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

This is your SolarWakeup for January 15th, 2020

Welcome To The Rundown. McKinsey, a consultant to many status quo corporates, is reporting that renewables will be cheaper than fossil fuels by 2030 with green hydrogen as a big game changer for the energy transition. If you’re looking at peak usage, coal has already passed, oil will be max in 2029 and fracked methane in 2037. I’m not underestimating the importance of this report given the source and which board rooms McKinsey is in around the world.

Year Of Clean. EIA says that wind and solar will make up the majority of capacity addition in 2021, gas only participating at 16% of total capacity.

EVs And Regulators. Regulators and politicians are missing a major variable in the future of electricity. Electrification of transportation isn’t going to be limited to new Tesla owners, quite the opposite if you see General Motors putting a plug into their logo. EVs are going to be in every driveway and fleet with a major change in how much, when and where electricity is needed to fuel this sector. I will not be surprised if Governors all of a sudden call for emergency action by grid operators to ensure resilient access to energy because they failed to plan for this actuality.

The Climate Office. Biden is unveiling his climate office, though I am still waiting to see some of the names from solar I was hoping for.

Big Deal? Quietly, Tesla has launched their own inverter. A 3.8kW and 7.6kW string that looks like a miniature power wall. Have you used one?

Have A Great Weekend!

Market Update Continues. Join me and Phil Shen from Roth Capital next week with our usual panel of industry insiders as we talk about the solar market, now #11 in our series. The hourlong conversation and Q&A will dive into the news of right now and we’re never short of opinions or predictions. Register for the online call and I definitely recommend signing up for Phil’s solar newsletter.

Join The Residential Solar Rocketship. Suntuity Solar is one of the fastest growing solar companies in the Country and we’re looking to hire the best to join us. Our executive team is hiring for VP of Operations, HR Director, Director of Talent and more positions at all levels of experience. If you or someone you know is looking to expand their career, send Suntuity an email!

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for January 14th, 2020

Wakeup Scoop. Tigo Energy, the MLPE manufacturer, has raised a new $20million from UK based Energy Growth Momentum. This is the first solar related investment for the company based on its website’s portfolio. Tigo is well known for the module level power shutoff that powered many of the module OEM smart modules and now has a plug and play option for installers/EPCs the gives them the flexibility to choose safety/monitoring/optimization or a combination. In 2020 the company also bought out previous investor, SMA, which opens the company up to being a more vendor neutral solution. The company isn’t releasing revenue or valuation but was advised by Needham in the transaction. The UK angle is interesting given the strong safety and residential focus in Europe without the SEDG/ENPH duopoly that is well known in the US, Tigo told SolarWakeup that revenue in the US and Europe markets are similar.

Biden’s Central Theme. In one of his first official interviews after being named Director of the National Economic Council, Brian Deese told Reuters that climate is going to be a central theme throughout the policies enacted by the Biden administration. This means that everything that is prioritized will be measured and improved to help fight climate change. Biden appears to be going well beyond rejoining Paris, but also understanding how trade, commerce, tax rules and regulations impact the markets that enable technology and behavior to improve our air and water quality. With executive powers held strong by the resident in the White House, this kind of thinking may be a major upside catalyst for the market we play in.

More Jobs Needed. While the pandemic didn’t crush the industry it definitely caused a large number of our professionals to have their job disrupted. 12% of the prepandemic workforce is still unemployed. Based on the SolarWakeup supporters at EnergeiaWorks and Suntuity, I assure you that looking for jobs in solar has never been better but continuing our market growth will ensure that the jobs reach everywhere in America as well. After the pandemic, I will be taking SolarWakeup on the road into the parts of the Country that may have resisted and fought against solar but now understand that an energy transition is taking place. How is solar received in rural Kentucky? Suburban Arkansas? That’s what I want to find out.

C&I Focus Continues. Another day and another C&I highlight by our friends at Madison Energy Investments. This team may have one of the biggest track records in the space so if this market is of interest to you, read this.

Market Update Continues. Join me and Phil Shen from Roth Capital next week with our usual panel of industry insiders as we talk about the solar market, now #11 in our series. The hourlong conversation and Q&A will dive into the news of right now and we’re never short of opinions or predictions. Register for the online call and I definitely recommend signing up for Phil’s solar newsletter.

SunShot (SETO) Money Deadline.  It will always be SunShot to me but the Solar Energy Technology Office at DOE is open for a $45million funding round.Find out more here

Join The Residential Solar Rocketship. Suntuity Solar is one of the fastest growing solar companies in the Country and we’re looking to hire the best to join us. Our executive team is hiring for VP of Operations, HR Director, Director of Talent and more positions at all levels of experience. If you or someone you know is looking to expand their career, send Suntuity an email!

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for January 13th, 2020

Proterra SPAC. The electric bus manufacturer is going public via SPAC, the Arclight SPAC and taking additional capital from Chamath Palihapitiya. The total deal represents a $1.6B value for Proterra. Proterra has a foundational company, as a manufacturer and system provider for other OEMs. What Proterra hasn’t figured out yet is a lesson learned by the solar industry, it’s not about the hardware but the capital used to deploy it. One of Arclight SPAC’s board members is Audrey Lee, formerly the head of grid services at Sunrun. I’m not saying that Proterra is a non-stationary energy storage company but I’m not saying they couldn’t be either.

Impeachment, Inauguration and Climate Change. The election was early November, electoral college voted on December 11th, Congress passed a omnibus spending bill in late December and on January 6th Congress certified the election. Of course we know what happened next on the day when all things fell apart and in a world where we don’t want bad news, America kept moving forward. Today, the House is preparing to start voting on impeachment which will have a record bipartisan support. That means that the Senate will start a trial on the day Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are sworn into office, a trial to convict then former President Trump. I say all of this because Schumer will be the majority leader on January 21st and Congress has an ambitious agenda ahead including climate change. Schumer says Congress can walk and chew gum at the same time, wait and see.

Will Storage Save C&I? C&I solar has struggled for as long as I can remember with low electricity prices. It’s not that commercial properties pay less on their electric bills, their bill tends to be more skewed to the demand charges that until now were not reachable by distributed generation like solar. The difference today and tomorrow is that energy storage is getting cheaper than ever, a level that makes demand charge reduction possible and desirable. In reality it’s what got Stem the valuation it got in their SPAC. This optimism is voiced in the op-ed from our friends and fellow CALSSA board member at Energy Toolbase.

Cleantech Editors. Sign up to hear what’s driving the solar and clean tech news in 2021. A group of editors is going on a zoom call to answer your questions and talk about what’s ahead. Register for free, happens today at 1pm Eastern

Join The Residential Solar Rocketship. Suntuity Solar is one of the fastest growing solar companies in the Country and we’re looking to hire the best to join us. Our executive team is hiring for VP of Operations, HR Director, Director of Talent and more positions at all levels of experience. If you or someone you know is looking to expand their career, send Suntuity an email!

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for January 12th, 2020

More Tomorrow. No column today, enjoy the top news in solar and make sure to send news my way to round out the rundown.

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Join The Residential Solar Rocketship. Suntuity Solar is one of the fastest growing solar companies in the Country and we’re looking to hire the best to join us. Our executive team is hiring for VP of Operations, HR Director, Director of Talent and more positions at all levels of experience. If you or someone you know is looking to expand their career, send us an email!

Opinion

Best, Yann