Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

This is your SolarWakeup for November 23rd, 2020

Biden Gets Involved. The President-elect is getting involved in the debate for the next round of stimulus. He has set the marker alongside the House’s $2trillion which is more than the Senate and Trump have offered. This remains a long shot for solar to get any policies into it even though a national permitting standard would be ideal to get folks back to work. Watch the spending bill instead as talks heat up once Congress comes back on the 30th.
Aligning Climate With Business Lobby. All roads are leading towards a bigger tent for solar lobbying. Corporates want more renewables and they want the best deal possible. Corporations want solar electricity from solar farms, solar on their rooftops and let their employees working remotely do have that same luxury. So what does it look like when the Chamber of Commerce and SEIA lobby for the same policy? Or when oil companies fight for electricity deregulation?

Power Of Incumbency. The EPA Chief, who is less than 60 days from the end of his tenure, has a couple of international trips planned before leaving his office. They say that power corrupts and whether you’re the administrator of the EPA or the chair of the PUC, there are billions of dollars at play every single day all over this Country. This is more true in energy than anything else given that the monopolies that have served as the market incumbents for decades.

When Will It Build? Here’s the question I have been pondering for a few weeks. If someone signs a contract to put solar on your house, when do you tell them it will be installed? How sure are you that enough product will be available when install time comes? We are entering the most complex 2 quarters residential solar has ever seen, backlogs are at an all-time high and supply chains are very tight. The Buyer’s Group is working through this and would love to talk with you about it. Reach out on the price discovery page. 

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for November 20th, 2020

Let’s Get Into The Weekend. Trump finally gets the green light to remove the 201 exemption for bifacial modules. This comes after a long line of litigation that delayed this. Biden would be well situated to give the market some certainty and announce a review of the 201 with the intention to eliminate the tariff with an announcement to help the solar industry create more domestic manufacturing.

A Word From A Policy Pro. A great friend to many solar pros, Tony Clifford, gives you 5 things to watch in the new Biden era.

PG&E Gets New CEO. The CEO of Michigan’s Consumers Energy is moving to the Golden State. Not to take advantage of the lower San Francisco rents but to become the next CEO of PG&E. Consumers was recently trying to eliminate net metering by cutting the value of solar in half while increasing residential rates by double digits. I hope Ms. Poppe will take the time to understand the benefits of solar and storage in the California grid.

841 Times 2222. FERC has shown its intentions with FERC orders 841 and 2222 which allow storage and other distributed resources to become market participants with both front and behind the meter installations. States are responsible with filing their plans on how this would work in their markets but interconnection rules will have to keep up at the same time. State policy advocates will have to work this in parallel.

Another VPP Headline. Sunrun is running away with virtual power plant offerings to utilities. We are still in very early stages of this market which will become one where all homeowners will be able to participate through aggregators. Owning the individual assets is an easy early adopter strategy but not one for the long run.

Not Just Cars. This week brought headlines on the policy movements in the transportation transition to electric vehicles. The broader point is that fleets, including vans, trucks and buses, are transitioning at a faster pace than consumer cars. One to watch.

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 19th, 2020

Climate Administration. This seems to be the insider track on how Biden will elevate the issue of climate change. Let’s see the execution and then ask if personnel is policy.

Money Coming In. Another SPAC, this time from legendary investor TJ Rodgers, plus some great venture investments. More to come I’m sure.

Partial Or Total. The electric vehicle policy path tends to be centered around whether EV is part of a portfolio or if there is a push to make it the only option for cars. I’d caution folks to put any auto/EV announcement as a versus Tesla framing, there are millions of cars sold every year and the market will not be winner take all.

A Map For Utilities. We have reached the point where energy transition equals the best financial case for consumers. Doing nothing, including staying in stranded fossil assets, will cost consumers more money and that’s the cost shift argument to watch.

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 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