Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

This is your SolarWakeup for September 22nd, 2020

The Power Of Markets. There’s a new report from Deloitte that talks about the cost, feasibility and timing of the utility decarbonization goals. I don’t want to judge the conflicts of the report but it’s important to note that Deloitte makes a significant market working with utilities. Deloitte measure the feasibility as doable with significant cost and need for innovation for success. The counterpoint isn’t that it’s not feasible, it’s that the market needs to change and be competitive.

The New Pod. In anticipation of the report, SolarWakeup’s latest podcast looks at the energy market in the Southeast US and what it would look like if it was competitive. I talk with Mike O’Boyle from Energy Innovation who wrote the study. Without spoiling the report, consumers would save billions of dollars and get cleaner electricity while the States would create jobs.

RBG Environmental Opinions. Environmental laws have not had the airtime nor headlines at the Supreme Court until recently. Politico does a nice job of describing RBG’s role in the opinions, especially around the EPA’s jurisdiction over bodies of water and pollution. When the EPA runs into jurisdictional battles with States that aren’t interested in following federal rules, you can thank Ginsburg for the opinion that gave EPA jurisdiction writing, “When Con­gress elected to make EPA’s input a prerequisite to state action under the act, it did so expressly.”

It’s Battery Day. Tesla is holding its annual shareholder meeting and battery day. Watch for big headlines about battery production and the price roadmap ahead.

Corporate (Virtual) PPAs. We’ve seen several gigawatts of solar transacted between solar farm and corporate off taker. Some call them virtual, corporate or remote arrangements. What we need is for those transactions to be open-sourced, so if you are a counsel, financier, developer, owner or customer in one of those transactions it would be great for the market for that to be explained to the market and made less esoteric.

Launch of the SCF Suite 2.0. My friends over at Sustainable Capital Finance continue to innovate in the fast-growing C&I sector. They just launched their newly revamped software, the SCF Suite 2.0. The platform offers solar developers and EPC’s an efficient, centralized dashboard to receive indicative PPA pricing, download proposals, and populate & execute term sheets, EPC agreements & PPAs. The SCF Suite has been retooled with a fresh new look and the addition of many highly requested features. If you’re interested in learning more about how this software can speed up your transaction process, as well as increase your sales conversion rates through automated agreement population and e-signature features, feel free to check out their info page.

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for September 21st, 2020

Florida Looks Ahead. It’s well known that Florida’s net metering policy (which is more than 10 years old) is one of the fairest and straightforward policies in the Country. With the highest energy consumption per capita (residential) in the Country, distributed generation through solar and solar thermal is part of our DNA. The PSC held a workshop to discuss this and got tens of thousands of contacts from consumers asking for things to remain as is. Those that talk cost shift fail to identify many variables of why their statement is incorrect and intellectually dishonest. Florida will continue growing their solar market. 

Big Tech To Share. Watching big tech leaning in on climate change is great. They have the cash and innovative gene to do things differently. It’s also easier to erase your carbon debt when you started in the late 90s. Here is the challenge to big tech. You have to pull the rest of industry and commerce along with you. Your customers and partners should be able to share the same climate values as you without the need for a FERC regulated subsidiary of their own. Teach them, open source your contracts and let them participate in renewable purchasing.

What 2222 Means. Who should SolarWakeup talk to about FERC order 2222? Maybe we don’t know enough until the market rules are established, but a session on what-ifs is intriguing to me. 

Credit Outlook Unreliable. S&P is downgrading their credit outlook to negative for California’s investor owned utilities. This is another market signal that the way forward isn’t through the monopoly system. The CPUC cannot create a reliable grid, manage wildfire risk and decarbonize on the backs of broken business models.

Launch of the SCF Suite 2.0. My friends over at Sustainable Capital Finance continue to innovate in the fast-growing C&I sector. They just launched their newly revamped software, the SCF Suite 2.0. The platform offers solar developers and EPC’s an efficient, centralized dashboard to receive indicative PPA pricing, download proposals, and populate & execute term sheets, EPC agreements & PPAs. The SCF Suite has been retooled with a fresh new look and the addition of many highly requested features. If you’re interested in learning more about how this software can speed up your transaction process, as well as increase your sales conversion rates through automated agreement population and e-signature features, feel free to check out their info page.

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for September 18th, 2020

Happy Weekend. Let me give an end of the week shoutout to the parents and teachers in the SolarWakeup family. Virtual learning has turned me into tech support and hall monitor while the snack pantry has no way of supporting a ten year old sitting through a 7 hour zoom call. Have a great weekend and for those that celebrate, Happy Rosh Hashanah!

Delays Not Reductions. This is the part that everyone is getting wrong about their analysis of the solar market as it pertains to Covid. Forecasters are tracking the end of the funnel, not the entire ecosystem. Two things happened during Covid that you won’t find in lower install volume. New sales never stopped and in many cases didn’t slow down but picked up steam. More people were home learning about solar and signing contracts. This caused the installers to grow their biggest backlogs they’ve ever had since installations had slowed down. That is why every month since June, installers, lenders and suppliers have had their best months ever, every single month.

Newsom Has The Opportunity. Newsom always says the right things when it comes to climate change and typically when he talks about solar as well. Here are several things that are in his court right now that cost nothing, help provide solutions for climate change, resiliency and the energy crisis and positive economic growth. First, Newsom can call for a statewide adoption of instant permitting for residential solar by implementing the SolarAPP. Second, he can show leadership by calling on the CPUC and SMUD to strengthen net metering, not try to destroy the policy. Third, direct the CPUC to return local resource adequacy purchasing back to the local utilities and CCAs. Fourth, work with the CPUC, CAISO and market participants to create a more granular and accessible demand response market; not just during energy crisis but at all times which will create a vibrant and resilient microgrid market. Lastly, stand with CALSSA on the Capitol steps and call on all Californians to support the 1 million solar batteries initiative. Call us, we’re available!

FERC Wants DERs. There is a realization happening in the market that distributed resources are a valuable asset to grid resiliency. The South Carolina settlement is wrapped in value placed on the assets. Yesterday, FERC passed order 2222 which tells power market operators to create rules that allow distributed resources to participate in the market. We’ll bring you more detail on this in the coming weeks.

Catch Me. If you didn’t get the chance, I was a guest on the Solar Spotlight podcast.

A New Mark. The SolarWakeup Buyer’s Group now has members doing over 200MW in aggregate. This means more vendors wanting to do more with those members and that means savings for you. If you’re curious, check out the price discovery page.

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for September 17th, 2020

BP Solar Comeback. 20 years ago, BP was the talk of the solar town. Just outside of DC, BP made solar modules because solar was the future. Then came Chevron with tax equity but that too passed. When you look at issues facing oil today, part of it is Covid and hundreds of parked airplanes but the other one is that oil is competing with electricity and losing. BP is in the business of powering your method of transportation, that’s why Vitol is out with an announcement expanding their power trading as well. Electricity is the new oil and that’s where the majors are going. Not too long ago, BP said that they couldn’t invest enough capital in renewables. 5 years from now they will have invested tens of billions and more; with less risk and better returns than they get today. Anyone doubting their return expectations go check out their corporate bond costs and ask your friend at NextEra if they expect 8-10% returns as well. Here’s a prediction, in my lifetime the CEO of BP will come from the renewables division and it will be the core revenue generator.

The Greater Responsibility. Peter Parker was told that with great power comes great responsibility. If you haven’t noticed, solar is being asked to do a lot more than install a few panels. Our industry will lead on creating jobs where other industries have left them behind. Remember the Gaval family in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania living in a home worth less than $115,000? I haven’t stopped thinking about them and how the parents and two sons would surely be an asset to the solar industry and they could each live in their own house. We hold ourselves to a higher standard than just making money. Helping others, making solar inclusive and diverse while creating more jobs than any other sector is part of our DNA. With that internal bar set so high, outsiders will judge us and expect solar to fix it.

EV Charging PubCo. Chargepoint is going public via a reverse merger with a SPAC. This is a great step in the direction to bring charging to retail investors. For me, retail investors create comfort and credibility for the underlying company they are working with. An investor may look at it from a company standpoint and then realize they have 50 chargers in their County and they should get an electric vehicle. It normalizes the concept.

Farewell Spent Rods. I had some long form opinion about the state of nuclear but as much as some utility regulators hold out hope that nuclear is the future, it is merely the past. We will not see another nuclear power plant built in the US and likely other western Countries as well. There are many reasons for this but the biggest one is the lack of capability to actually build one.

SC Rooftop Solar. Vote Solar is calling the agreement with regulators and Duke Energy “the most forward thinking rooftop solar program in the US.” The NEM successor creates a system blended with demand response, storage and other variables in what some would call the biggest step towards performance based compensation. Without modeling out how this actually tracks to homeowners, I have two thoughts on this. First, a deal is a win and certainty beats uncertainty any day. Second, wouldn’t it be fantastic if the monopolies also had performance based compensation and allowed a robust power market in their territory?

Catch Me. If you didn’t get the chance, I was a guest on the Solar Spotlight podcast.

A New Mark. The SolarWakeup Buyer’s Group now has members doing over 200MW in aggregate. This means more vendors wanting to do more with those members and that means savings for you. If you’re curious, check out the price discovery page.

Opinion

Best, Yann