Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

This is your SolarWakeup for November 18th, 2020

All Eyes On Omnibus. Senator Shelby gives you today’s update on what is going on in Congress. Like every year, legislators are juggling several issues with the addition of COVID this year. In 2020, the Government runs out of money on December 11th if Congress doesn’t agree on a spending bill or a continuing resolution. Senator Shelby says that staff is working on the actual spending bill but acknowledges that the White House isn’t involved in that. The omnibus would be the likely bill to carry tax extenders including possible the ITC. I am expecting Congress to punt on the spending bill, here’s why. On December 11th, California certifies its vote and will officially put Biden over 270 electoral votes and December 14th the electoral college will vote in DC to certify the election. Twitter may go crazy during that 3 day period and I don’t see Trump signing anything, including a trillion dollar budget at this point.

Getting Back To Even. Before Biden can start on the plan to decarbonize electricity generation his administration will have to undo 100s of environmental deregulations before being able to save more carbon going forward. On the positive, it seems that people have been keeping track on what that Trump team has done and prepared the counterpunch.

ZETA 94.9. This was the classic rock station when I was growing up and today ZETA is the Zero Emission Transportation Association (zeta2030.org). 28 big companies are the founding members including the EV manufacturers as well as utilities like SCE, ConEdison, PG&E and Southern. Missing is NextEra, Ford, General Motors and any of the oil majors. If anyone knows their membership dues structure, let me know.

The Office Of Clean Energy. Ernest Moniz is being floated as the Secretary of Energy, returning to the post from the Obama era. Progressives are not enthused by this name and I think they could be missing the bigger picture. DOE manages America’s nuclear arsenal, waste, power generation and cleanups so having a nuclear scientist in charge makes sense. On the other hand, I think it buries the lead that Biden is going to create a new department, office or administration in charge of climate change and an obvious spot for Governor Inslee while also being important enough of a position for the recently re-elected Governor.

Policy Priorities. A week after you heard it on SolarWakeup, SEIA’s policy priorities hit the mainstream media outlets. Tax credits and trade will rule the day in the public forum because they require legislative and voter support. Interconnection will be a quiet fight in the administration and FERC but not without big impact.

Spotlight On Community Clinic. This 412 kW-DC solar carport installation at Vista Community Clinic (VCC) will provide long term renewable energy for the sustainability-driven healthcare facility. M Bar C Construction, CollectiveSun, and VCC leadership joined together in bringing this system from funding to design to installation. Solar energy produced from the installation will free up facility resources allowing VCC to continue to serve their patients and the surrounding community while setting a powerful example of their commitment to renewable energy.

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for November 17th, 2020

Big Rundown, Highlights. The news are deep today, so let’s do some quick summaries of what you need to know today. Starting off, not solar related but you’re running a business in the strangest times ever. There are now two vaccines likely to start circulating in the near future. How do you plan on managing your business through the current spike of the virus and do you expect to ask your employees to get the vaccine, if so in what situation? What would you do if your employer asks you to get vaccinated? This isn’t a political statement, I’m going to ask you to give me feedback so that others may learn from your responses. 

It’s Growing, Fast. 2021 and 2022 are likely to grow at greater than 25% while 2020 will end with 15% growth according to the panelists in the last Roth Capital market call. The next call will take place in mid-December.

Utilities Saved By Renewables. EDF and RWE are some of the largest utilities in Europe that are largely calling themselves clean companies and saving their shareholders with growth in renewable energy. Not much different here in the US. This will arrive at the oil majors as well. 

Mainstream Solar Fights. We talk about regulatory fights in the solar industry all the time on SolarWakeup. Last night, the Property Brothers took up the issue with their documentary that ran on PBS. Catch a rerun in the link.

The IPO That Put Solar On Stage. Array Technologies caught the capital markets by surprise, revenue with growth, amazing EBITDA and a pipeline that can be described without non-GAAP addendums to the financials. It also put solar on the stage while creating the first solar billionaire. In a few hours, Flex, the company that acquired NEXTracker, is being interviewed in the RBC investor day. RBC asked the first question at the last Flex earnings call and asked if Flex was considering a spinout of NEXT given their global market share leadership. I have a guess to what the first question is going to be, and maybe what the first headline of the Wakeup will be tomorrow.

The Magnetar Trade. One of the smartest shops on Wall Street has acquired the Lendlease development platform that already has 3GW+ in the pipeline. 

Tesla Joins SP500. In case you’re wondering why Tesla stock is through the roof today. They will join the S&P 500 in late December.

Bezos Look At Solar. I’ve said it before, solar goes farther with policy dollars to solve climate change than any other dollar invested in policy. Bezos could and should put 9 digits into groups like Vote Solar and you’ll cut the half life of natural gas generation in half.

Spotlight On Community Clinic. This 412 kW-DC solar carport installation at Vista Community Clinic (VCC) will provide long term renewable energy for the sustainability-driven healthcare facility. M Bar C Construction, CollectiveSun, and VCC leadership joined together in bringing this system from funding to design to installation. Solar energy produced from the installation will free up facility resources allowing VCC to continue to serve their patients and the surrounding community while setting a powerful example of their commitment to renewable energy. 

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for November 16th, 2020

The Leadership Outlook. SunPower’s CEO, Tom Werner, may have the most direct, yet politically correct statement about the Biden victory. When asked about the fact that Biden isn’t a climate denier Werner said,” It helps a lot.” He goes on to add that a stable regulatory environment would be a great benefit to the solar market. This is in line with what I got from my conversation with Abby Hopper, the CEO of SEIA. That is why everyone is working hard on the ITC extension now, businesses have to plan in a way that takes the peak and cliff away from the strategy side.

Buy What You’re Selling. If you were on our resi market call last week you heard me say that solar companies need to start believing in their own growth. The solar market is in one of the tightest supply markets I’ve seen since 2007 mostly because manufacturers were nervous about the COVID effect on market demand and forecasts were cut to 2GW when in reality we will pass 3GW and have Q1 and Q2 reach all-time highs. No matter the size of your solar company, you should be thinking about ordering now for Q1 and Q2 deliveries. Manufacturers should be running their businesses as if the ITC has already been extended, time to buy into our own market.

The Maps In The Oval. Joe Biden is going to look at the energy transition from a big picture perspective, like the smart grid map that he talks about. The map that Madam Vice President Harris will look at is what Axios is reporting on today, local pollution at the neighborhood level. The Environment Defense Fund has been doing methane measurements across the Country that do similar data visualization. The local pollution maps are going to drive the legal strategy for showing that polluters harm minority and low-income communities to a much higher degree than others. For the handful of coal plants that are still without retirement dates and weaker plants sitting in neighborhoods, watch for those to be replaced by energy storage before the end of the first term.

Solar Steel. Nucor, the steel manufacturer, has signed a 250MW PPA with EDF Renewables in Texas. This should be the steel going into all the trackers and C&I racking equipment, good old American made steel with American sunshine. In Texas. Are we mainstream yet?

Will The MOPR Go SWOPR? The MOPR was an attempt by the Trump team to upend local energy markets to prop up coal and gas plants against solar and wind projects. There was hope for a national 100% RPS but that is unlikely in a GOP Senate or even a 51-49 Dem senate. Perhaps the opposite of a MOPR, executive action towards solar and wind is possible if some adjustments to FERC are made. It still would find opposition from State and regional energy markets but likely align with their goals more than that MOPR ever did.

Spotlight On Community Clinic. This 412 kW-DC solar carport installation at Vista Community Clinic (VCC) will provide long term renewable energy for the sustainability-driven healthcare facility. M Bar C Construction, CollectiveSun, and VCC leadership joined together in bringing this system from funding to design to installation. Solar energy produced from the installation will free up facility resources allowing VCC to continue to serve their patients and the surrounding community while setting a powerful example of their commitment to renewable energy. 

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for November 13th, 2020

Market Analysis Conference Call. In a few hours you can join me and other solar pros as we talk about the the current state of the solar market. We’ll talk about the election, ITC, supply chain shortages and more. Call is open to anyone for free, you can register here. 

The Top 3 Policies. I asked Abby Hopper what the top three policy issues were in the next Congress and White House. First was the ITC, getting it extended and hopefully back to 30% with the addition of energy storage. Second was trade, fixing it and improving it to make domestic manufacturing thrive. Third came in two parts but with the same intention of putting more solar under the sun. 3a is the lack of efficiency in the interconnection process for solar farms, we’ve talked about how bad the interconnection queues are right now. 3b is permitting for residential solar, with the goal of making it digital, standardized and instant. Listen to the whole conversation here.

Trillion Dollar Voice. This is a big deal, BlackRock’s Larry Fink is publicly backing mandatory climate reporting by corporations. This is a risk issue, companies that have thousands of employees in a single location for example could be at risk if a natural disaster becomes more common. It also ensures that companies are thinking about future regulatory issues around pollution and explaining to investors what steps they are taking to mitigate this.

Ford And Rivian Week. Rivian is releasing their configurator next week if you put the deposit down and the week after if you haven’t. The 300 mile range SUV and pickup truck definitely has my eye from an appeal standpoint, they definitely should let me get a press ride in. More relevant to many of you, Ford announce an electric version of their popular work van, Transit. Around $50k for the  125 mile range work vehicle could be ideal for solar installers.

Enjoy Your Weekend! Have Friday the 13th! Check out the Buyer’s Group price list if you haven’t 

Opinion

Best, Yann